By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press
January 25, 2012
OBAMA: “Our health care law relies on a reformed private market, not
a government program.”
THE FACTS: That’s only half true. About half of the more than 30 million
uninsured Americans expected to gain coverage through the health care law
will be enrolled in a government program. Medicaid, the federal-state program
for low-income people, will be expanded starting in 2014 to cover childless
adults living near the poverty line.
The other half will be enrolled in private health plans through new state-based
insurance markets. But many of them will be receiving federal subsidies to make
their premiums more affordable. And that’s a government program, too.
Starting in 2014 most Americans will be required to carry health coverage,
either through an employer, by buying their own plan, or through a government
program.