Unhappy 6th birthday for Obamacare

Time flies. Six years ago last week, Senate Democrats used a process called reconciliation, which was created to apply only to budget bills (because it eliminates the filibuster) to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) without a single Republican vote. The House passed the Senate bill with a 219–212 vote on March 21, 2010, with 34 Democrats and all 178 Republicans voting against it. Two days later the president signed the bill into law.

In its first five years, Obamacare has experienced some serious problems:

•A website, Healthcare.gov, that didn’t work (first day technical problems were so severe that only six people could sign up).

•Consumer anger over the fact many could not keep their healthcare as promised by the president.

•Some big insurance companies (United Healthcare and Aetna) are threatening to leave the plan because they are losing too much money.

•Many of the healthcare exchanges created to sell the Obamacare-compliant insurance plans have gone bankrupt.

•Before Obamacare was passed, the Democrats had huge majorities in the House and Senate. Since its passage, the Republicans took over both houses.

As if to celebrate the program’s birthday other problems with Obamacare sprang up last week. A report by Freedom Partners shows that Obamacare is not doing what it was passed to do, stop healthcare costs from rising — but rates are rising and the increases are expected to accelerate.

Consulting firm Avalere Health found that the lowest cost “silver” plan (the most popular option in the law’s insurance marketplaces) increased 13 percent in 2016. Those who can’t afford the premiums may be eligible for federal subsidies to help them with the costs. According to one report, “more than 80 percent of exchange customers qualify for subsidies, so they don’t bear the full cost of the premium increases.” They might not bear the full cost, but the rest of America does, as the cash for the subsidies come from the pockets of the taxpayers.