Obamacare (And Its Post-Election Fate) Matters To More People Than You Think

A new government report shows that the number of Americans with a direct stake in the Affordable Care Act ― and what happens to it after November’s election ― is bigger than you might think.

Nearly 50 million people have gotten private health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces in the decade since they first began operating, according to calculations the U.S. Treasury Department released Tuesday morning. That’s roughly 1 in 7 Americans.

That’s also about 2½ times the number of people getting coverage through the marketplaces today. The reason the 10-year total is so much higher is that over an extended period of time, people will get insurance from different sources as their circumstances change.

They might, for example, leave a job that provides health benefits to work for themselves and then start buying individual coverage through one of the marketplaces, such as HealthCare.gov , where they would be eligible for the financial assistance that the health care law makes available.

The number is important because the future of the 2010 law likely depends on what happens in the election.

Republican nominee Donald Trump is a longtime critic of the program, which has come to be known as Obamacare because it was the signature legislative accomplishment of former President Barack Obama.

Trump spent years attacking the program and then, upon entering the Oval Office in 2017, tried desperately to repealit. He failed, but last year he suggestedon social media that he remained interested in repeal, saying the law “sucks” and that Republicans should “never give up” on trying to “terminate” it.

When those posts provoked criticism from the law’s defenders, he said he merely wanted to replace it with “MUCH