Via Think Progress:
For the first time in a decade, the number of people struggling to pay their medical bills has started to decline, according to a new survey released on Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund. …
Between 2012 and 2014 — as Obamacare’s main coverage expansion took effect — the Commonwealth researchers found that the number of people who had issues paying for health treatment dropped from 41 percent to 35 percent. Over the same time period, the people who skipped out on health services because they couldn’t afford them declined from 43 percent to 36 percent
Both of those numbers, in ideal societies, should be zero, but I’ll take a significant improvement and a massive break in negative trend to positive trend as a win. This type of data is why I have very little patience for people who wanted to kill the bill in 2009/2010 in order to heighten contradictions for something better. The people who wanted to kill the bill as they are either sociopaths, empathy stunted assholes or people figuring that they’ll come out on top so using scarcity and fear as a means of social coercian and control are who they are, but the heighten the contradictions folks wanted to inflict more pain when pain alleviation was achievable.