It's been a
rocky few years of ACA implementation, and things certainly didn't get easier when the administration launched the official enrollment period with a nonfunctioning website.
However, amidst the spin wars of the last few months, one person cut through the clutter to deliver fact-based updates on the implementation of the law—Charles Gaba aka Brainwrap. As Paul Krugman noted:
[Gaba] really fills a need: when you read news reports on Obamacare, you can tell right away which reporters have been reading Gaba and know what’s happening and which reporters are relying solely on official announcements — or, worse, dueling political spin.
But doing this was more than a full-time job, and he already had one of those to try and maintain. So we're currently raising money to 1) thank Gaba for the work that he has done, and 2) encourage him to keep at it. As Krugman says, there is a need for this, and only Gaba stepped forward to meet it.
Note that 100 percent of what we raise will go to Gaba. We keep nothing.
I was literally the first person to chip in out of appreciation for his great work. Since then I've been joined by (holy shit!) over 3,500 of you. If one of the problems of our movement is the lack of support for people doing this kind of work, we're proving that we can start changing that a little.
Incidentally, here's his latest tally:
Qualified health plans (via exchanges): 7.1 million
Medicaid expansion: 4.7 million
Medicaid "woodworkers": 1.8 million (always eligible but didn't know it until ACA)
Sub-26ers: 2.5-3.1 million
That's at least 16 million right there who wouldn't have affordable health insurance if it was up to Republicans (even the woodworkers, since Republicans want to slash Medicaid, too). And that number will keep on growing, as there is no deadline for new Medicaid recipients. Not to mention we'll have a new enrollment period opening up in just six months or so.