A five-year review of the Affordable Care Act shows many success for which Americans should feel pride and which spur them on to “strengthen efforts until all individuals in the USA have affordable, equitable, health insurance,” says an editorial in the current issue of the medical journal The Lancet.
The editorial lists a number of successes the ACA has accomplished:
- Nearly 90 percent of Americans have health coverage.
- “Disenfranchised populations,” specially Latino people, have seen the most gains.
- More than 95 percent of children under the age of 17 are insured.
- The use of preventive services has increased, which will show long-term benefits.
The editorial concludes:
[The success of the ACA] should surely arouse pride for what has been accomplished and strengthen efforts until all individuals in the USA have affordable, equitable, health insurance. The November elections will test the country's resolve to do this and will determine whether access to good health care is part of the American dream or the American fantasy.
