No, Obamacare Has Not “Saved” Thousands of Lives

With Congressional Republicans rolling out their plan to “replace” Obamacare, the usual fear-mongering will emerge from the Left.

“Make America Sick Again” is their rally cry, with some hysterically claiming that Obamacare’s repeal would cause the deaths of up to 43,000 Americans every year.

Such claims, of course, are absurd. As Manhattan Institute senior fellow Oren Cass points out in this article, “the best statistical estimate of the number of lives saved each year by the ACA is zero.”

Cass explains the flaws in the studies being used for the “repeal Obamacare and people will die” claims:

Some studies do suggest that health insurance can saves lives. But these focus either on individuals with private coverage or on the Massachusetts health-care reform law of 2006, which primarily expanded private coverage within the Bay State. The ACA, by contrast, is primarily an expansion of Medicaid; in recent years ….the ACA has increased insurance coverage by expanding Medicaid. In 2007, 18.1 percent of non-elderly Americans had public insurance. By 2010, that share was 22 percent, and rather than declining as the economy recovered, it continued to climb all the way to 25.3 percent in 2015.

This distinction is important because research shows health outcomes for Medicaid enrollees is worse than those with private coverage, and in some cases worse than the uninsured.

There will be time to debate the merits and flaws of the Republican plan, but it is crucial to first expose the lies of the “repealing Obamacare will kill people” crowd.