On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed The Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare. It was the largest regulatory overhaul and medical coverage expansion since Medicaid and Medicare were passed in 1965. The ACA has been unpopular since its creation. With that being said, here are some of the biggest problems with the ACA, and some broken promises by the President who signed it into law.
Ironically, the ACA is unaffordable. The federal government currently has a debt totaling around $20 trillion. During Obama’s 2009 State of the Union, he said that he wouldn’t sign anything that would add to the deficit. Presently, Obamacare could actually contribute an enormous amount to the federal debt. The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency, has stated that the debt could rise to $30 trillion by 2030, and that Obamacare is one of the largest factors behind the expected increase.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has said that the average employer-based family policy that cost $13,770 in 2010, then cost $16,834 in 2014. A $3,000 increase is the opposite of what Obama stated when promoting the ACA. Obama said premiums would be reduced by up to $2,500 per family, but the opposite happened, and premiums continue to increase.
American families are burdened by related ACA taxes. In 2008, Obama said no family making less than $25,000 a year would see a tax increase. However, according to Americans for Tax Reform, there are multiple Obamacare taxes that harm middle class families. These include a cap on Flexible Spending Accounts, the individual mandate, a rule preventing Americans from using money in FSAs or Health Savings Accounts towards over-the-counter medicines, increasing tax deductible thresholds for medical costs from 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income to 10 percent of adjusted gross income.
Obama said, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” Supposedly, insurance companies could keep people’s current plans if they complied with the new Obamacare regulations through a “grandfathering in” process. However, the regulations are vast and uncompromising. Therefore, insurance companies have been required to provide benefits that many people don’t want or need. Thus, premiums have increased, many people have been pushed off of their insurance plans, and some people have been forced onto Medicaid.
There’s a lot of speculation about what an ACA replacement would look like. People opposed to the repeal have told us that 20 million people will lose coverage if Obamacare is repealed. But according to The Hill, 16 of the 20 million people who’ve gained coverage gained it through the Medicaid expansion. Republicans may work to restructure Medicaid, but they will not get rid of it. The people not covered by Medicaid still have to deal with the continually rising premiums and lack of insurer competition in the Obamacare exchanges.
ACA defenders claim people with pre-existing conditions will not be able to access medical coverage. But many people with pre-existing conditions could gain medical coverage before the ACA was passed. According to Legal Insurrection, there were 35 states that offered high-risk insurance pools for people with pre-existing conditions, and the majority of states did not have the pre-existing conditions mandate that is required under the ACA.
We have the ability to call our congressmen and women, along with our senators, and tell them to work on and pass repeal. If this law continues to be in place, it is likely that insurers will continue to leave the exchanges, premiums and deductibles will keep increasing, and the typical American family will pay the price while the federal government’s debt keeps growing. It's time that this Republican controlled government repeal the ACA and its legacy of broken promises.