On Sept. 9, 2009, during a joint session of Congress, Barack Obama exclaimed that his signature healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), would not add one dime to the national deficit. Simultaneously, the former 44th President, in the same speech, promised the American people improvement in the quality and affordability of their healthcare. Unfortunately, much of Obama’s rhetoric regarding Obamacare (the common epithet for the ACA) yielded misleading and fallacious information.
Within months of the ACA’s premier, Obama’s no-debt healthcare pledge was promptly exposed as false by the US Senate Budget Committee that reported that billions of dollars would be added to the deficit as a result of Obamacare spending. Additionally, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced in March of 2016 that “the projected net cost of the [Obamacare] provisions” for the next decade was $1.4 trillion. The CBO also acknowledged in the same report that the cost for these provisions increased by $136 billion from the 2015 report, which leaves open the possibility for significant monetary increases to occur every year. The national debt, according to the Treasury Department, is now surmounting to $19.9 trillion, making it clear that our federal government cannot continue to pay for over a trillion dollars in increased spending.
In addition to the federal government not being able to afford Obamacare, much of the American population is seeing significant inflation to their monthly premiums.
For example, USA TODAY reported in October of 2016 that “unsubsidized health care premiums” were expected to increase nationally by 25 percent, with some states’ average outlay increasing by over 50 percent. These skyrocketing costs paired with the fact that national wages, according to Pew Research Center, have flat lined for decades presents the most significant problem with the Affordable Care Act—it is simply costing the American people too much money.
Recently, Obamacare aficionados have attempted to persuade the American people that an ACA repeal would result in millions of Americans losing health insurance. However, this would not be the case if a suitable replacement program was enacted directly proceeding the repeal. In a Town Hall with CNN, the current Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, clearly laid out his plan for dealing with Obamacare. First, he said that he will repeal the ACA, while simultaneously passing the healthcare replacement measure. He assured the American people that he is moving expeditiously and carefully on an alternative healthcare bill that will bring relief to struggling Americans. Ryan also added that those who directly received healthcare assistance from Obamacare plans and those with pre-existing conditions will not lose insurance under the replacement law.
Now, with the Washington Post predicting that healthcare spending will “climb 5.6 percent each year,” if we allow the current healthcare disaster to continue without amend, out of control premium costs and uncontrollable government spending will become the new normal for many Americans.
As the famous proverb goes, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” and if the Affordable Care Act is not repealed, Americans better count on that routine “apple” to keep them away from any medical care—because they likely will not be able afford it.
