Stable costs but more uninsured as Affordable Care Act sign-ups open

WASHINGTON — More Americans are going without health insurance, and stable premiums plus greater choice next year under the Obama health law aren’t likely to reverse that.

As sign-up season starts on Friday, the Affordable Care Act has shown remarkable resiliency, but it has also fallen short of expectations. Even many Democrats want to move on.

President Trump doesn’t conceal his disdain for “Obamacare” and keeps trying to dismantle the program.

During President Barack Obama’s tenure, open enrollment involved a national campaign to get people signed up. The program’s complexity was always a problem, and many lower-income people didn’t understand they could get financial help with premiums.

For example, the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation has estimated that some 4 million uninsured people may be eligible for coverage at no monthly cost to them, after taking subsidies into account. Zero-premium plans are skimpy, but experts say it beats going uninsured.

But the Trump administration says it’s not specifically advertising that. Early on, it slashed the Obamacare ad budget.

Democrats who once touted the health overhaul as a generational achievement now see it as a stepping stone, not the final word.

Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren would bring the 20 million people covered under the law into a new government-run system for all Americans.

“It’s time for the next step,” says Warren.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who asserts “Obamacare is working,” is proposing a major expansion of current ACA subsidies and a whole new “public option” insurance program.

With the economy strong, it’s unusual for progress to falter on America’s uninsured rate. Yet the Census Bureau reported that 27.5 million people were...