In welcome news for the Obama administration, two surveys released Wednesday suggests that a provision in the Affordable Care Act drove down the number of uninsured young adults by about 1 million (to about 9 million). Both the National Center for Health Statistics and Gallup found that the number of uninsured adults aged 25 or younger dropped sharply early this year, as families rushed to take advantage of President Obama's health care law, which requires insurers to let young Americans remain on their parents' employer-provided plans until age 26. Does this prove that the reform package is working?
Yes. And this puts Republicans on the defensive: Republicans have dismissed the health care law as a disaster, says Janet Adamy in The Wall Street Journal, even though most of its "sweeping policy changes" won't be felt until 2014. Now, one provision is apparently already working, which puts the Republicans in a pickle. If they try to repeal the law, they'll have to answer to voters whose "post-college kids, struggling to find work in a weak economy, get booted from their health plan."
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