Is Obamacare working ?

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Agreed.

Obamacare could be a complete train-wreck and it would still be better than the system it replaced.

There is near universal agreement among experts that the US health care system is inferior to single-payer health systems, as it delivers:

(1) Mediocre quality of services
(2) Exorbitant health care costs
(3) Low coverage

... compared to many other highly developed countries.

However, given that the introduction of a single-payer system is so far (a) a failure in Vermont, (b) an economic pipe dream in Bernie Sanders' policy platform and (c) probably unconstitutional in the US if implemented at the Federal level, Obamacare is currently the best realistic option for fixing the US health care system.

Obamacare/PPACA has - very effectively - addressed (3) above by increasing coverage, but it remains to be seen if it can deliver wrt. (1) and (2).

Concerning (1), however: As I have previously mentioned here, the incentives for avoiding medical error under PPACA may already have saved up to 80,000 lives,

Furthermore, multiple scientific studies have shown that mortality can be reduced by lowering the uninsured rate:

Here are two studies that specifically investigate the impact of the PPACA and its Massachusetts predecessor (both all-cause mortality):

https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/hand ... sequence=1
http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1867050

And here are a few studies showing how uninsured status increased mortality for a range of serious illnesses(all recent from 2015 and onwards):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4427212/ (Traumatic Injury)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4644028/ (Traumatic Injury)
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ri ... 64a9ec.pdf (Traumatic Brain Injury)
http://www.strokejournal.org/article/S1 ... 9/abstract (Stroke)
http://www.goldjournal.net/article/S009 ... 2/abstract (Testicular Cancer)
http://www.bloodjournal.org/content/126 ... ecked=true (Leukemia)
http://bmccancer.biomedcentral.com/arti ... 015-1228-7 (Breast Cancer)
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ta ... 4c45fa.pdf (Lung cancer)
http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/ ... 4.abstract (Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 3515003011 (Cancer/chronic disease)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... edMessage= (Cancer)

The improvements in health care gains from the PPACA would likely have been even larger, however, if The Supreme Court hadn't ruled in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012) that individual States could opt out of the Medicaid Expansion.

We should remember that the insurance industry wrote Obamacare with the assistance of the medical industry; so, guess who captures the windfall of profits. No, really, go ahead and figure it out. This is part of the reason that the medical industry is experiencing an economic bubble right now.

As Paul Ryan stated at the time of the adoption of Obamacare, the federal government would have saved trillions of dollars by GIVING every citizen an 80/20 "major-medical" healthcare plan requiring only that the recipient pay 20 percent of the recipient's healthcare costs up to an annual limit; and, Medicaid and Medicare would still be available. Major-medical plans worked extremely well in the 20th century (almost all workers were given one by their employers for pennies on the dollar). These plans can still be found, but, because enrollment is low, the premium prices are pricy.

So, knowing these facts, I would have to say that Obamacare is a failure.

It is a failure if you compare it against what should have been done.
Is is a success if you factor in the political forces that made that impossible.

No president, of either party, can get us a single payer system without the support of Congress.

Which "political forces"? The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was adopted with Democratic majorities in both house of the Congress as well as the Office of the President. Sure, some Democrats were hold outs for whatever reasons (Dennis Kucinich), but their votes were hardly in doubt if they wished to have any traction within their day jobs. Not one Republican member of the Congress voted for the legislation, and yet, the legislation was adopted with room to spare. This hardly describes an accurate picture of the influence of the legislation's oppositional "political forces".

XFile Geek has had success with it.

I wish many more people had success with it.

Medicaid expansion isn't that sexy or exciting, it gets a big meh out of me considering how low quality it was to begin with and now it is worse with the system completely overwhelmed. Mental health is in an absolute crisis right now, they can't even keep these clinics open because these medical people quit and find new jobs the first chance they get or when it's really special all resign at the same time. I've been told at places to literally come back in 6 months when they hired new people. If that is the great accomplishment of Obamacare then it sucks and most of it can be dismantled, most definitely the mandate and insurance bailout. Most of the mental health care available to those here on Medicaid is medication and group therapy(they do not do individual) with a bunch of parolees, drug addicts, probationers, and others forced to be there.

The Oregon medicaid study which found that it made minimal impact on health outcomes was from before the expansion of medicaid and it's worse now being so overwhelmed.

I have to disagree,I'm receiving better mental health care now than before.It may vary from state to state.I get an hour of private counseling and an hour with a social worker every month.Every three months I do telemed with the shrink and get my scripts refilled.I was offered group but declined,I don't do group therapy.Ten years ago it was very different,there was a high turn over and they couldn't even keep a pyschatrist.They were even flying them in from other states to do scripts.You saw a different one every time.
If I can't get to the doc on my own I can use Medicaid transport,I've only used it when my car was broke down.But they will drive you to and from the doc for free.The social worker will take people to the store or other necessary things for those that can't drive.One of the things I like the most is you can bring your dog with you if you want.They are also taking clients to the humane society to adopt companion animals.
I pay nothing and my medication costs me $1.50 a month.So for me,it's working very well.I wish it was for others.

For the people who get the subsidies definitely.

What about those that don't get the subsidies, do you make the same claim?

This is what I see locally ...

“People earning 139 percent of the federal poverty line, or about $35,000-36,000, they’re going to have a hard time” affording coverage on the exchanges.
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/06/1 ... fford-Care

Last edited by LoveNotHate on 25 Mar 2016, 11:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/28/politics/ ... -timeline/
Here is a timeline of what it took to make it the law of the land.

Around here there are TV ads against state taxes on hospitals.

Last edited by BTDT on 25 Mar 2016, 11:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

I suppose it is different in every state, my theory is that I think Medicaid in rural areas(if you can find care) is probably much preferable to medicaid in the middle metropolis of millions. This seems to be true in general for all government services, much better to go to a DMV out in the country for example. Less people means less people to overwhelm the system, its not distributed evenly.

That may very well be true,when I go to the DMV no one is in line ahead of me.Sometimes it's hard to find a specialist in your area that takes Medicaid.I had a four hour round trip drive to see an ear,nose and throat specialist.

It has helped the people most in need. Of course, when most people rate it they only care whether it benefits themselves instead of thinking of people less fortunate than them. We are a selfish country.

^^^QFT. seems everybody kisses the @$$es of the ones above themselves while simultaneously crapping on those below.

I'm in favor of Obamacare even though I don't need it--each year my employer hires a consultant to work with the CFO to find the best deal they can get.

^^^