How Does the Affordable Care Act Work?

Because of socialism and death panels.

EDIT: Posting this makes me reflect on how sad the total disappearance of meaningful policy input from the right really is—an accurate caricature would be a stubborn kid with fingers in both ears shouting la-la’s. Once upon a time, the Affordable Care Act was the archetypal conservative response to socialized health care. Now, with the Republican party fleeing its former self at a terrific pace, it’s the center-left party’s only playable hand.

Kevin Drum and Matt Yglesias have been highlighting the importance of asking “compared to what?” when discussing things such as this. Discounting that there were/are alternative reform options which more effectively control costs or lead to better care, it’s important to ask ourselves that question before we can say objectively whether a policy is “good’ or “bad”. Compared to the grim realities, and more importantly the projected realities of the future, the Affordable Care Act was/is much better than the untenable status quo. That’s an important observation. We shouldn’t separate the outcome from the context that brought us there.