How the ACA Is Really Performing

How the ACA Is Really Performing | Economics21:
In March of this year the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) released a presentation on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) six years in. 
The document portrays the ACA in a very favorable light, as one would expect for one of the Obama administration’s signature pieces of legislation. 
A fuller and more objective understanding of the ACA, however, requires examination of facts beyond those which its advocates, or its detractors, may wish to emphasize.

The CEA presentation is notable in reflecting the core components of ACA advocates’ case for the law.
 It is fourteen slides long, and I find that its points break down into five main themes (in my own words):

1. The ACA represents a historic expansion of health insurance coverage (slides 2, 3 and 4).
2. The ACA is achieving policy goals such as reducing patient harm and hospital readmissions (slides 5, 12 and 13).
3. The ACA is helping to slow the growth of health care costs (slides 6, 7, 8 and 11).
4. The ACA has been good for job creation (slide 14).
5. The ACA is improving the federal fiscal outlook (slides 9 and 10).

The first two of these are reasonable, defensible claims, though they also involve subjective value judgments. 

The last three are more problematic; there is little evidence for #3, whereas the totality of the evidence points in the opposite direction from assertions #4 and #5. 
Dissecting the five themes in order:
Read on!