On NPR's “Morning Edition” Thursday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) responded to a question about whether subsidies for the Affordable Care Act should continue to increase because it has not reduced costs, saying that costs have increased under the ACA: The problem is that Congress continues to siphon off funding that was designed to help lower those costs over time, so we haven't been able to do the work we need to do on delivery system reform to make the system work better.”
Co-host Steve Inskeep asked: “First, you point out that the rest of us are paying for health care for people who don't have insurance, who can't pay for insurance. You also mentioned the high cost of health care. Do you accept the Republican argument here that Obamacare hasn't fundamentally changed the curve as was once said, it hasn't lowered health care costs overall, and that's why you have to keep raising subsidies?”
Shaheen responded, “We see health care costs continue to rise. But the most important thing about Obamacare and the marketplace is that we've reached more people, twice as many people, 24 million people who are covered by the marketplace. And in New Hampshire, which I represent, for the last four years in a row we've seen the number of uninsured go down and the cost of premiums go down. So, I think we need to look at how we provide health care for everyone. Now one of the problems is that Congress continues to take away funding that was designed to help reduce those costs over time, so we haven't been able to do the work we need to do on delivery system reform to make the system work better.”
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