Obamacare Continues to Be Working Fine

Earlier this week, final 2019 enrollment numbers for Obamacare were released. This is for states on the federal exchange only:

This means that 2019 ended up about 4 percent lower than 2018. However, there are several state exchanges, including big ones like California, that haven’t closed enrollment yet. When you account for this, and also for some Medicaid expansions that probably cannibalized some customers from the exchanges, it’s likely that net enrollment this year will end up down by 1-2 percent or so.

Over at Vox, Dylan Scott summarizes a few theories about why enrollment declined, but to me this looks like just a random fluctuation, especially since 2018 was a year of strong economic growth—which means more people got jobs that offer health insurance and therefore left Obamacare.

Overall, then, Obamacare is doing fine. So far, the loss of the individual mandate doesn’t seem to have had much effect, though it’s a little early to say that with any assurance.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate