Worse Health, Higher Costs, Endless Repeal: The ACA Is Working—For Health Insurers and Republicans, But Not So Much For You

I started writing my blog in 2009, largely in response to America electing an anti-American president.  During those first few years I talked a lot about Obamacare.  The thing was a disaster from day one, indeed, in an omen of things to come, Obama’s team spent 4X more building a website that didn’t work than Apple did developing the iPhone.

The worst part about Obamacare?  The fact that it was a solution to a problem that didn’t exist.

In 2013 I wrote the following:  

“Obamacare was passed in 2009 (sic) in reaction to anecdotal examples of Americans who couldn’t get healthcare. According to Gallop, in 2009 there were 50 million Americans who did not have health insurance. That represented approximately 16% of the population. Gallop also reported that of those without health insurance, fully 50% were satisfied with their healthcare. That means that fully 92% of the American population either had health insurance – 80% of whom were satisfied with that insurance – or were satisfied enough with their healthcare not to have insurance.

To give those numbers a bit of perspective, compare them the rest of the developed world. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development publishes the Better Life Index which ranks developed nations by a wide variety of criteria, one of which is health. According to the 2011 Better Life Index survey, in 2009 88% of Americans were satisfied with their health. Of the 34 countries covered in the data, in only two – New Zealand (89.7%) and Canada (88.1%) did citizens report a higher level of satisfaction with their health. Not the United Kingdom (76%). Not France (72.4%). Not Sweden (79.1%). Now, of course health is not healthcare, but the goal of healthcare is to improve or sustain a person’s health.

So, in 2009, when 92% of Americans had health insurance or were satisfied enough with their healthcare not to have it, and 88% of Americans were satisfied with their health, we got Obamacare, a 2,000 page bill that needed to be passed before it could be read..”

Of course, the only reason we actually have this is because that treacherous snake leading the Supreme Court deemed it a tax and therefore allowed it to go into force.  Since then, healthcare has become more expensive and satisfaction has plummeted. 

Today, Americans recognize Obamacare for the utter disaster that it is. We hear horror stories regularly of people who pay thousands of dollars a month in insurance only to be told they can’t have a procedure or the procedure is going to cost an arm and a leg. Often, if they simply choose not to get Obamacare insurance and pay the fine, they actually pay less for their treatments!   But not only have prices for care exceeded inflation virtually every year since then – something it’s done for decades as utilization rates increased – but satisfaction has plummeted.  In every aspect of healthcare other than nurses, American’s satisfaction has declined by double digits. Health insurance companies’ satisfaction rates are down 11% since 2010, while hospitals, doctors and pharmaceutical companies are down by 14%, 15% and 21% respectively. 

So what we’ve seen since Obamacare was implemented is that healthcare costs have increased dramatically and satisfaction has declined.  But hey, sometimes you have to break some eggs in order to make an omelet, and that’s the price we pay to live longer and healthier… Except, we’re not. 

According to the American Journal of Public Health, American life expectancy, after having increased almost every single year between 1950 and 2010, flatlined after Obamacare and actually began to decline around 2014. Plus, Americans’ life expectancy has fallen even further behind that of our European peers under Obamacare.  And the icing on the cake? Our health, the basic issue upon all of this is supposed to be based… has gotten worse! 

So Obamacare has been a complete disaster on every single front.  At least for the average American. For health insurance companies however, it’s been a boon. Since Obamacare was implemented, their stocks have grown on average 708% while the general market, which has been pumped up by trillion dollar superstars like Amazon, Tesla and Facebook, has increased by only 525%.  And their CEOs do pretty well too… . 

But it’s not just been insurance company stockholders and CEOs who have been benefiting from Obamacare.  There is one group for which it has been a godsend: Republicans. 

Perhaps no one has taken advantage of Obamacare as much as the Republicans. It’s an issue that is red meat to GOP voters and they know it.  They have been campaigning against it from before it was even passed.  Every two years we here the drumbeat of “We’re going to repeal Obamacare”.  But a funny thing happens on the way to the repeal, every time… it never happens.  Of course they did get close once, but with TDS addled John McCain’s help, no cigar. But we’re not in power they say… but Republicans held both houses of Congress from 2015 – 2019, with two of those years with a GOP president. Repeal?  Nope.  Nor have they done it this year, despite President Trump saying he was going to replace it if re-elected and the Republicans controlling both chambers on Capitol Hill. 

Democrats are trying to maintain the travesty with a band aid made of money, and thus far the GOP has stymied them. But we all know that the GOP is full of grifters, so who knows what the future holds. Indeed, one wonders if the Republicans will take this opportunity to look at actually doing something for their constituents, now that they’ve created another perk for lining their own pockets.  Having watched them lie to us for the last 15 years, I’m not holding my breath…