HEADLINES:
On March 23, 2010, former President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, promising better quality and more affordable health care.
Seven years later, this is not reality.
Rising costs and poor health care coverage are results of a broken promise. Obamacare must be swiftly repealed and replaced.
President Donald Trump has admitted repealing the ACA would take time and probably happen in 2018. There is no doubt that removal of this huge system will take time and effort, but it should be done sooner than 2018 to avoid further sloping into disaster.
The broken promises of the Affordable Care Act start with healthcare insurance providers.
The law requires states to form insurance market places where people can shop around to look for the insurance plan that fits them. For those that must buy their insurance through these market places, their options are limited.
The New York Times wrote last year that the three largest insurance providers — Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealth Group — have all dropped out of many state market places because they were losing hundreds of millions of dollars. With these companies dropping out, the result has been insurance premium increases and less insurance plan options.
In a town hall on CNN, Sen. Ted Cruz correctly noted that 70 percent of counties in America have access to only one or two choices in health care providers.
The few providers left in the market have had to raise their rates to offset their losses. This skews the cost to purchase insurance.
The Department of Health & Human Services released its report stating premium rates will rise by an average of 25 percent nationally.
There are 19 states where the rates will increase by more than 25 percent. Arizona, for example, will see an out of control 116 percent increase.
The costs don’t stop there.
In addition to the massive costs, the ACA has also burdened millions of Americans and small business owners with numerous taxes.
The website of the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means has listed 21 tax increases since the law came into effect. Twelve of them fall onto the shoulders of those making less than $250,000 a year.
As Forbes points out, 155 million American households make less than $250,000 a year. These taxes have added to the massive tax burden on the middle class and poor. They are only stifling growth and the economic well-being of these millions of people.
The burden doesn’t stop there either.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce conducted a survey of small businesses and 72 percent said the ACA made it harder for them to hire more employees. It would cost too much to employ them.
The law has created far too many burdens and have only made Americans pay more.
The massive tax increases, the burdens on the middle and lower classes, the stifling of small businesses, the premium costs increases and the few choices given to people buying insurance are all symptoms of a failing system and a failed promise.
President Trump said it best: “People might not think that, but the Republicans have all of the cards. And this is the time to get rid of Obamacare.”
