With one of the largest uninsured populations in the country, North Carolina is home to far too many people who lack the regular health care access and financial security that comprehensive health care coverage provides. In an economic landscape in which employers consider health outcomes in their location and expansion decisions, North Carolina’s 10.7 percent uninsured rate—the 10th highest in the nation—makes us less competitive.

For most North Carolinians, the planned “marriage” between two of their state’s largest hospital systems, UNC Health Care and Charlotte-based Atrium Health (until recently known as Carolinas Healthcare) probably seems like a distant and incomprehensible arrangement involving giant conglomerates and corporate bigwigs.

Republicans in Congress are rushing to advance a tax reform bill that balloons the federal deficit so that they can give corporations permanent tax breaks. And now Senate Republicans have decided to turn their already awful tax bill into a secret Trumpcare bill by including a repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.

President Trump is rarely right about much, but he was correct earlier this year when he observed that health care is complicated and that fixing it is hard. Sadly and ironically, however, these difficult truths are now conspiring to confuse some observers as they try to report on Trump’s recent efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act and the rate hikes they have spurred for consumers.

It’s not easy to have a nuanced conversation about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) the week before a national election. So it’s no wonder that the recent announcement of average premium increases for plans sold on the health insurance Marketplaces was met with media hysteria and partisan posturing about the so-called demise of the ACA.