NBC News reports that Sen. Bernie Sanders has the following response to House Democrats' PAYGO rules:
"At a time when climate change threatens our planet, when our infrastructure is crumbling, when 30 million people have no health insurance, when millions of Americans are struggling with outrageous levels of student debt, I am concerned that the concept of PAYGO will make it harder for Congress to address the many crises facing our working families," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said in a statement on Wednesday.
During the debates over passage of the Affordable Care Act, President Obama and the Democrats claimed that around 20 million people (2008 numbers) were uninsured. According to the media and various researchers, the ACA was indeed successful at adding uninsured Americans to the insurance rolls. Given this, how can Congressional Democrats and those aligned with the Democrats argue that 30 million people are still uninsured? (I realize Sanders is officially independent, but consider him a Democrat for the purposes of this question, as he caucuses with the Senate Democrats and ran for the Democratic presidential nomination.)
I see three possibilities:
- Sanders and other Democrats making these claims are fabricating the numbers of uninsured for political or other reasons;
- The Affordable Care Act has not increased the numbers of insured people as is often claimed; or
- The Trump Administration has made regulatory or other changes that have completely reversed the numbers of insured Americans.
What's the truth? How many uninsured Americans are there?