It’s a big couple of weeks for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The federal health reform law turns 2 on Friday, days before the U.S. Supreme Court begins hearing oral arguments on a challenge to the act.
You can expect supporters to point to people who have already benefited from the law, like Fritzi Lainoff, a St. Louis woman who was among the 5.1 million Medicare recipients who saved an average of $632 on prescription drugs, according to a press release the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued Monday morning.
Opponents, meanwhile, will point to projections about what the law could mean to people when it’s fully implemented, including a report released last week by the Congressional Budget Office. The report projected that 3 million to 5 million fewer people could have health insurance through their employers as the law takes effect. But that figure could be as high as 20 million, according to the CBO.
In light of that, Politico’s David Nather offers what he calls “four hard truths of health care reform” — including that, despite President Obama’s pledge that people who like their health plans will be able to keep them, some people won’t be able to.