The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, with the full implementation to go into effect in 2016.
The bill promised reasonable healthcare rates and accessibility for all Americans.
What has actually been accomplished in the six years since the passage of this bill into law?
It seems that there are 10 broken promises of the commonly called Obamacare.
Here a three of the most displeasing:
1) “If you like your healthcare plan, you’ll be able to keep your healthcare plan, period.”
The reality is that millions of Americans have lost or will lose their healthcare plans.
For those with employer sponsored insurance in the group market, the Congressional Budget Office projects that 7 million fewer people will have employment based insurance by 2018.
2) “That means that no matter how we reform healthcare, we will keep this promise to the American people: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period.”
Many plans offered on the Obamacare exchanges have very limited provider networks, decreasing the chances that consumers will be able to keep their current physician without paying more money.
In small towns and rural areas, this is more prevalent. There is less competition and doctors are able to choose or refuse what kinds of healthcare plans they will accept. The doctors are generally unwilling to take lesser coverages with smaller payouts.
3) “In an Obama administration, we’ll lower premiums by up to $ 2,500 for a typical family per year.”
The reality is that premiums have significantly increased and will continue to do so.
Another reality is that many healthcare companies will close their doors or change/merge their businesses as the new guidelines in the law make them lack confidence in their ability to make profit and continue in business.
Health care costs are experiencing slower growth than in year’s past, but are still growing faster than the economy. Growth in health spending is expected to outpace the Gross National Product by an average of 2.1 percent a year, consuming 4.1 trillion or 19.6% of total projected spending in the economy in 2016, according to a report published in the journal Health Affairs. Health spending accounted for 16 percent of the economy in 2006.
Consumer out of pocket spending has increased from $250 billion in 2006 to more than $ 440 billion in the last ten years.
Employers have also felt the squeeze in their costs for employee healthcare, and may have to change the way they do business in order to comply with the law.
There was a funny quote on Facebook that read as follows:
“I was told in 2008 there would be racial harmony and affordable healthcare.” The caption is under a picture of a man who looks really shocked.
This is understandable. As of today, July 11, 2016, we have neither.
We have exponentially rising costs for health insurance.
We have 5 cops dead in Dallas, TX. One dead shooter who desired to kill, and allegedly had more killings planned for the future.
We have two African-American men dead under confusing circumstances.
We have a racial divide as big as the Grand Canyon, the likes of which has not been seen since the Sixty’s Civil Rights Movement.
We have the BLM protesters filling the streets, trying to get their point across.
We have people hurting, literally bleeding, of any and all races.
We have an income divide of monumental proportions, and a lack of viable, living wage employment, regardless of the glitter and pomp the media would like to have believed.
Good job, it looks like the last eight years, and the administration thereof, is capable of fouling up an involuntary orgasm brought on while sleeping.
If chaos was the goal of the current administration, (as it may appear to any and all reasonable onlookers,) it looks like mission accomplished!
Image: shutterstock_129463487
