By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com
It’s officially been fifteen years since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed and signed into law by former President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The statute aimed to reform health care coverage by expanding Medicaid eligibility, prohibiting insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and creating health insurance marketplaces.
Today, nearly 45 million Americans have health insurance coverage as a result of the ACA. Since its passing, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has found that the uninsured rate has dropped from 16 percent to 7.7 percent.
Though the act has remained largely intact over the years, the ACA has been the center of legal scrutiny before and after implementation. With an administration who previously sought to abolish the ACA in the White House, some health advocates are uncertain about the act’s future.
“When Donald Trump was elected in 2016, he made repealing the Affordable Care Act the top priority. It actually passed the House and almost passed the Senate. That would have been an untold disaster,” said Vincent DeMarco, president of Maryland Health Care for All. “But that did not happen, and I guarantee they won’t try it again. The Affordable Care Act is an integral part of the American health, economic and political system.”
DeMarco’s organization comprises a coalition of labor, faith, business and community groups striving to ensure access to quality, affordable health care for all Maryland residents. Though he doesn’t think there will be attempts to revoke the ACA, he does believe there will be efforts to weaken it.
“However, they unfortunately will try to undermine it by reducing the funds, changing the proportion of federal contribution on Medicaid and things like that,” said DeMarco. “We don’t know what exactly they’re going to do.”
If cuts to Medicaid related to the ACA are made, DeMarco asserted that the financial fallout will be borne by the public. He explained that when a person who is not insured goes to the emergency room it creates uncompensated care costs for hospitals. This can then be passed on to insured patients through higher premiums as hospitals try to recoup the costs.
In Maryland, the ACA helped to bring the uninsured rate down from 14 to 6 percent, according to DeMarco.
“When we went from 14 percent uninsured to 6 percent, that saved $460 million in uncompensated care in Maryland. Had that not happened, our premiums would have been higher,” said DeMarco. “We all benefit from everybody having health care coverage.”
Baltimore City resident Melanie Townsend Diggs has long been an advocate of the ACA since having to temporarily enroll in Medicaid herself. The library professional is a mother of four.
Back in 2006, she was preparing to have her third child and decided to quit her job to stay home with the kids. Her husband had a job that provided health insurance for the family at the time and OK’d her choice.
But, soon after Diggs left her job, her husband lost his job. She said she was devastated.
“Fear sets in because you start thinking you’re not going to be able to do the things you thought you were going to be able to do,” said Diggs. “It was like: ‘What do we do now? What’s our next step? Where can we go? Who can help us?’”
The husband and wife’s top concern was getting coverage for their children, and they did through the Children’s Health Insurance Program. This became crucial after her new baby began to experience severe eczema, which caused many sleepless nights. She said her baby would scratch until she was bleeding at times.
The coverage enabled her to see a family doctor and eventually a dermatologist who provided her with a regimen to manage the skin condition.
“Her skin started clearing up. We could sleep at night. Her hair began to grow,” said Diggs. “It affected everything, and it was such a relief for me.”
In 2008, in the midst of the Great Recession, Diggs became pregnant again. Her family was still struggling to make ends meet.
“We were having another baby being born in a time of famine. We were just making it. We were trying to keep our home out of foreclosure,” said Diggs. “Like so many other people during that time, we were trying to deal with the banks and everything going on with our finances.”
Diggs utilized Medicaid to receive prenatal care. Her doctor not only provided physical care, she also supported Diggs emotionally during the challenging time.
“She looked at me as a person, not as the insurance I had. She looked at the things that were going on with me as a mom. She listened to me,” said Diggs. “I was able to feel like it wasn’t the end of the world and that we would get through it, and we did. That baby came healthy because we were able to get that prenatal care.”
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