Republican members of Congress planning to repeal and replace Obamacare have been hosting town hall meetings with constituents and have been greeted by largely hostile crowds. These protesters seem to have forgotten about Obamacare's glaring failures. For those in need of a reminder, here are four of the program's biggest problems:
Costs: President Barack Obama promised that his health-care reform proposal would cut typical family costs by $2,500 annually. That never materialized. The typical family today puts about 35 percent of their income toward health care. An eHealth report concluded that from 2013 to 2017, individual market premium increases were on average 99 percent for individuals and 140 percent for families.
Costs have also increased for those with employer-sponsored insurance. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, from 2010 to 2016 average family premiums for employer-sponsored plans increased nearly 32 percent.
Out-of-pocket costs in the Obamacare exchanges have been stunning. HealthPocket found that for the lowest tier bronze plans in 2017, the average deductible for an individual is $6,092 and $12,383 for a family.
Competition and choice: Obama told America his proposal would increase competition in the health insurance markets. That hasn't happened.
News recently broke that Humana will be leaving the Obamacare exchange markets next year--the latest in a growing list of insurers who are jumping ship. The downward slide in competition means that in 2017 consumers in 70 percent of U.S. counties are left with one or two insurer options on the exchanges.
Keeping your plan: Perhaps the most famous health care promise of all was Obama's pledge: "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan." In 2014, the first year that Obamacare was fully implemented, the Associated Press reported that there were at least 4.7 million canceled policies across 30 states. The law's insurance rules and mandates forced many insurers to cancel plans that people liked and wanted.
The disruption only continued from there. For example, hundreds of thousands of people signed up for plans offered by insurers under Obamacare's co-op program.
But 18 out of 23 of these federally funded insurers have already collapsed, meaning taxpayers are highly unlikely to be repaid the more than $1.9 billion in loans they received.
Keeping your doctor: Obama promised patients that they would be able to keep their doctors. For many patients, that also turned out to be untrue.
Obamacare's rising costs and limited flexibility in federally fixed benefit designs resulted in plans resorting to narrow provider networks that limit access to doctors and other medical professionals as a way to contain costs.
For seven years, Obamacare has proved to be one giant bundle of broken promises and policy failures. Congress needs to get serious and repeal Obamacare.
Editorial on 02/25/2017