Write Again: Ask Your Elected Officials to Preserve the ACA

Complete or partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act is among the first items on the agenda for Congress after inauguration. Please write to your elected officials and ask them to defend it. Since its key provisions went into effect, it has expanded medical coverage to millions of Americans, and despite what its opposition says, it has in fact saved both the Federal Government, and the average American, money.

Dear ______________,

I am writing again to ask you to please vote against a partial or complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Since the central provisions of the ACA went into effect, the uninsured rate in the United States has fallen from more than 16% to under 10%, and for low income Americans the difference has been even greater. For hospitals in states that have taken advantage of the ACA’s Medicaid expansion provisions, uncompensated care as a share of operating costs has fallen from more than 4% to under 2%. And the increase in cost of medical care for individuals with private insurance has dropped from an average of 5% per year before the ACA to just 1.5% since.

There are problems with the Affordable Care Act. Choice is thin is many markets and the cost of insurance on the exchanges is higher than many can afford. But the solution is not to abandon the law. It is to fix it. Incentivize insurance companies to stay in exchanges, and adjust subsidies so that more Americans, not fewer, can afford basic medical care.

Best,

____________________