September 29, 2020
written by Net Advisor™
WASHINGTON, DC. There has been years of praise and criticisms of the “Affordable Care Act” (“Obamacare”). We have reviewed key metrics to see how the healthcare plan has actually worked to date.
[1] About ACA.
The “Affordable Care Act of 2010” (ACA) is a federally subsidized insurance program available to U.S. citizens and qualified non citizens (supposedly) living in the United States.
We say “supposedly” living in the United States, because I have witnessed in the past (during a study) where hundreds of school-aged children living in Mexico, cross the U.S. border to go to American schools every day.
All they need is one person residing in the U.S. (legally or not), and claim that the child lives in the school district. Then bingo! Free education [see Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982)], free food, and many with free or subsided healthcare.
Of course we don’t want people to go hungry in America, but also keep in mind that CNN reported that a record $26 Billion in cash was exported from the U.S. to Mexico in 2017 alone.
It seems that few (if any) in the media want to discuss my school findings. (Contact us for more info).
[2] The Obamacare Legislation Literally Forced on Americans.
In our 2013 Report, Point [2], we discussed how Obamacare got passed under highly controversial rule changes by the Democrat-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate.
The Senate lost their majority when the Democrat-state of Massachusetts elected a Republican (Scott Brown), in order to block Obamacare from passing in the Senate.
Senator Reid (D-NV) changed Senate rules before Scott Brown took office so his vote could not block passage of Obamacare.
In 2010, Republican Senator from Indiana, Mike Pence, blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) when Pelosi blocked the Senate from even voting on the healthcare bill, and just ‘deemed the bill passed by the Senate.’
After barely having enough Democrat (only) votes (219-212) to pass the legislation, Democrats lost the greatest number of House seats since 1928, losing the House to a Republican majority.
Senator Mike Pence became Vice President under Donald J. Trump six years later.
[3] Pres. Obama: ‘No One is Going to Change What You Already Have?’
Politifact quoted statements showing that the premise of Obamacare was built on repeated (37) lies just by President Obama alone. Video examples posted by CNN (turn up volume).
Oct. 13, 2013 Web search results. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was also deceptive on the Obamacare (ACA) bill that she, like most in Congress never read:
[4] Pelosi: “We have to pass the bill, so that you can find out what is in it.“
Then Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), deemed principle author of Obamacare, admitted in 2010 that he never read his own bill. In 2013, Senator Baucus called his own Obamacare bill – ‘a train wreck coming.’
By March 2013, Obamacare grew – mostly in new regulations.
Since the 900+ page bill was passed, an additional 20,000 printed pages of regulations were added in just three years. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that ACA (Obamacare) would also add $6.2 Trillion to the U.S. deficit. Wasn’t this healthcare plan supposed to be “affordable?”
[5] Not Exactly, “Affordable Care.”
There were many fantasy ideas about Obamacare. They all sounded good: Affordable, keep your doctor, lower the deficit, keep what you already have if you don’t want ACA, etc.
The Obama-Biden Admin couldn’t even build a website. (See more and more). How did they think they could manage care for up to 300+ million people in America?
As we discussed earlier, Obamacare was forced onto the public. Obamacare raised insurance and healthcare costs for most everyone. The U.S. government spent $10.6 Trillion (total) on healthcare during the first four years of Obamacare.
The government ran ads saying Obamacare was “affordable.” We’ll maybe it was, as long as you never needed to use it (report). Several videos surfaced in 2014, where the architect of Obamacare said that the new healthcare law was intentionally written to be non-transparent, to deceive the government (CBO) and Americans (Report).
Democrats denied knowing anything about this deception on America. Video:
You’re probably getting the idea now that Obamacare was a total disaster. Still need more evidence?
[6] Obamacare Will Insure Everyone! (We’ll not exactly.)
The idea of Obamacare was to insure everyone. This never happened. In fact, the Obama Administration knew in the beginning (2010), that the healthcare law (ACA/ Obamacare) would still leave 23 Million Americans uninsured by 2019. Our 2016 report, based on Obama Admin’s own U.S. Census & CBO data found, after four years of Obamacare, more Americans were uninsured because of Obamacare.
We also discussed in a 2013 report where Obama-Biden’s own HHS said 5% (five percent) of the uninsured account for 67.3% of all healthcare costs. Separately, we also found that specialty drug costs were up under the Obama-Biden Admin by about 46% in 2014 alone.
[7] Obamacare Job Losses.
Next, we cited the CBO in 2014 that said Obamacare (ACA) would result in 2 million fewer U.S. jobs. More companies were choosing to opt out of hiring and cutting work hours because of Obamacare costs. Even the Washington Post said that Obamacare would downsize the U.S. work force.
Why would anyone create a program that forces people to buy something that offers terrible coverage, and risks puts them out of work at the same time?
[8] Sex That Didn’t Sell.
The Obama-Biden Admin ran ads like the one below in 2013 that if one just gets covered with Obamacare, you’re going to have lots of sex.
[9] Obamacare Mandate EXEMPTED Illegal Aliens From Paying the Tax.
As disclosed earlier, Obamacare permitted non-U.S. citizens in the healthcare program. If non-U.S. citizens didn’t want Obamacare or other insurance, there was no penalty. Thus, illegal aliens were EXEMPT from the Obamacare tax (penalty), (see 2011 CRS, P4, Parr. 1). So this tax (penalty) applied to U.S. citizens. Thanks Obama-Biden.
[10] SCOTUS Helps Obama Admin in Court Battle.
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court did something we, and many others think was not their legal function.
The High Court helped the Obama Admin lawyers by legally advising them how to argue their case. If the Obama Admin lawyers just tell the High Court that this is a “tax,” and not a “penalty or fee,” then a tax would not be unconstitutional, but a fee or penalty would be unconstitutional.
Of course this was a penalty! The Obama Gov sought to penalize anyone who did not comply to buy their crappy healthcare program.
After getting direct legal advice from the Supreme Court, Obama Admin lawyers effectively said, ‘Oh, no, it’s really a tax.’
Then the Supreme Court upheld an Obamacare “tax” in a 5-4 ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court, or ANY court is not supposed to help one side or the other making their case.
[11] ObamaCare Enrolled Persons.
The Obama-Biden Admin came up with a lot of fantasy math which I wrote over 15 reports on this topic during that time.
For example, Obamacare (HHS) claimed in 2016 that 20 million people gained health insurance from 2010-2016. That may or may not be true. HHS never said 16-20 million signed up for Obamacare.
Here is what was left out of the HHS equation.
In 2013, Kaiser estimated that seven million Americans would lose their healthcare coverage because of Obamacare. This was double the losses they previously estimated.
In our 2014 report, we quoted the CBO that said six to seven million people would lose their employer-based healthcare coverage every year from 2014-2024. Based on these projections, if Obamacare was kept in place, by 2024, some 48-56 million Americas would lose their employer-based healthcare because of Obamacare.
So if you want healthcare, you’re going to have to be forced into paying a lot more money when the employer coverage is gone.
This is how government forced people into Obamacare. Make it so expensive that employers have to cut back on employee work hours, fire people to stay under exemptions, or get rid of their employer-based healthcare all-together.
So the millions of people who lost their employer and individual coverage, and still wanted health insurance had to go out and buy Obamacare or on another market place.
So for HHS to say ’20 million gained health insurance’ is a farce, when 24-28 million people (2014-2017 CBO estimate) were losing their existing insurance because of Obamacare.
[12] Lowest Participation Rate of Any Healthcare Program.
Compared to the number of participants in all government and private healthcare programs, Obamacare has the lowest participation rate of any healthcare program in America.
Yet, some people have a total conniption about keeping and expanding it.
- 2.5% – Is the percent of U.S. population enrolled in Obamacare in 2020. The actual number of people currently enrolled in Obamacare is 8.3 Million.
[Math: We calculated the above percent by dividing 8.3 million (enrolled in Obamacare) into the U.S. population rounded to 331.5 Million as of 09/29/2020.]
Misleading Obama-Biden Math.
The number of people under Obamacare (ACA) was “reported” at 23 Million in 2019. That’s not entirely correct. This number actually includes those under expanded Medicaid program and the Obamacare program; not Obamacare by itself.
These Medicaid expansion numbers should be counted as part of the total Medicaid program which is a separate program from Obamacare. True, Obamacare expanded Medicaid, but the federal gov didn’t have to create Obamacare to do that. They could have just have expanded Medicaid which is free to low income anyway.
“Early results from 2020 open enrollment show about 8.3 million covered via healthcare.gov (the federal marketplace). That is down from 8.4 million in 2019, 8.7 million in 2018, 9.2 million in 2017, and 9.6 million in 2016 (prior to 2016 enrollments were up each year).”
Please note, we have not verified all the data on Obamacarefacts.com website, just noting the enrollment data.
[13] ACA Claim: More People in Gov Healthcare Reduces the Deficit?
In 2015, the Obama Administration attempted to get people to believe that the U.S. deficit was decreasing. This was false. By the end of 2016, eight years of Obama-Biden left more Americans with lower income and record debt.
[14] Legal Challenge: Gov Forcing Americans to Purchase a Product or Service?
In December 2019, in re: Texas v. Azar, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (PDF, 98pps) that the mandate forcing people to buy (government) or any healthcare was “unconstitutional.”
[15] New Administration Cuts Regulations, Including in Obamacare.
We have not checked the size of regulations for Obamacare from 2014 to current. We do know that the Trump Admin massively cut government red tape, and removed 25,000 pages of government regulations.
President Trump however, cannot unilaterally undue any of the Congressional laws in ACA. Trump can only strip out Executive Orders and added regulations that were not Congressionally authorized.
In 2017, President Trump cut 22 regulations for every one added.
The Trump Admin did add new regulations, however the intent was to make it easier for Americans to prosper. This effort worked up through the Covid-19 state shutdowns.
[16] Trump Admin Tries to Fix Obamacare.
The New York Post identified 11 (eleven) things that the Trump Administration has done to try and improve Obamacare.
Although it is admirable to continually try and revive a dead horse, it is best to end the bleeding on consumers and taxpayers by laying it to rest.
Congress did try to repeal Obamacare legislatively in 2017; but one Senator at the last minute voted to block the repeal. This of course was then Senator John McCain (R-AZ) (dec’d 2018).
President Trump reportedly said in March 2019, that one of his grievances was that McCain had long campaigned to repeal Obamacare. But when it actually came time to do that, Republican McCain, sided with the Democrats.
Politico reported in September 2017 that, “McCain had long railed against the (Obamacare/ACA) law…”
NBC News reported in August 2018, that “McCain hated Obamacare. He also saved it.”
[17] GOP Congress Removed the Obamacare Tax Under the Trump Admin.
A GOP-controlled Congress voted and removed the tax penalty on those who didn’t buy a minimum level of health-insurance as mandated by Obamacare.
This allowed those who wanted different levels of coverage of healthcare to get it and at more affordable premiums.
It also allowed those (generally young, very healthy people) who didn’t want to pay for health insurance, not to be forced to buy it. Thus, no one would have to pay the annual “tax” (penalty) of $695 or 2.5% of one’s taxable income as an individual; or three times that for a family.
The Obamacare tax penalty affected most EVERYONE who earned an income. Thus, young working people and middle-class Americans were most affected by this extra tax.
[18] How to Replace Obamacare.
Everyone (mostly the media and politicians) have said if we get rid of Obamacare, then we need to replace it with something.
Really?
Those in Obamacare are not the poor and very low income. If they are, they generally can qualify for Medicaid either on the state or federal level. Most every state has a healthcare program for those with little to no money.
Low income families with children may qualify for free healthcare until they are 18. The rest of the country is paying for Medicare already [$597.4 Billion in 2018. Funded by state and federal taxpayers). So we don’t need to create another program.
Let the states manage their own healthcare. The health needs in Alaska is probably different than the health needs in Florida.
[19] Pre-Existing Conditions.
The only good thing we found in Obamacare is protecting pre-existing conditions.
We would add a one page bill that protects pre-existing conditions for all U.S. citizens and lawful permanent aliens [came to the U.S. legally]; and here is why.
Insurance companies have what are called risk pools. These are the massive number of people in an insurance program.
Some will make a insurance claim maybe a couple times a year for a physical/well check, or for the flu. Others will use insurance more often. Some will use it a lot costing more than the insurance company could ever receive from the policy holder.
Insurance companies attempt to forward calculate risk and costs in the risk pools. We can’t just insure healthy people and set aside the sick people. Those who burden the system the most, increases the costs for everyone.
In the event the costs burden the overall risk pool significantly, perhaps those few million people at high health risks can be placed on an existing state or federal program based on their income. If they don’t have much income, we cited that Medicaid is subsidized by most states and the federal government.
What we don’t need to do is kill 200 million+ existing private health insurance policies, and start a new complicated ideological program, thinking it will solve most or all our healthcare problems. It won’t.
[20] 3 Simple Solutions for Better Healthcare.
In 2009, I provided a simple solution to reduce higher healthcare costs. It will take less than 10 seconds to read.
[21] Congress: Here Are Ideas on Making Healthcare Affordable.
In 2014, I wrote, 10 Things Congress Can Do to Reduce Health Care Costs Now.
I do have a Congressional following on both sides of the isle, and I advised various Senators and Congresspersons of both parties of these ideas in the past.
So far, Congress has done one (1) of these ideas (Idea #10). There were some improvements to HSA‘s, but not anywhere near what I suggested. It’s not to say they started with my idea, many probably already had a couple of these ideas.
If government really wants to make healthcare more affordable without having to raise taxes, or create another mega billion-or trillion-dollar bureaucracy, give me a ring (email, whatever); use some (or all) of these ideas as a guide for reform.
[23] Poll: Obamacare More Popular Than Ever?
A 2020 poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a big supporter, and directly profits from Obamacare, claimed that Obamacare was more popular than ever?
“The February KFF Health Tracking Poll finds attitudes towards the ACA has hit its highest favorability since KFF began tracking opinions nearly ten years ago.”
— KFF Poll, Feb. 21, 2020
We know this sounds funny. One thing is clear: Memories of some people are skewed. Here’s the proof:
Most of America hated Obamacare during its time.
Today, during an election year; during when the Supreme Court may rule with the lower 5th Circuit court calling Obamacare mandate unconstitutional, Obamacare is suddenly popular?
With whom?
If this healthcare plan is suddenly ‘more popular than ever,’ how come only 2.5% of the U.S. population are current enrolled in it? Thus 97.5% of America are not in Obamacare.
Many in the politically-driven media, and Obamacare defenders are trying to scare people into thinking of losing something they never wanted.
About the Author:
Net Advisor™ studied as a research-based major, and graduated from the University of Southern California (USC). He previously worked in the insurance and financial services industry and maintained nine (9) licenses, (three insurance licenses, and six securities licenses). His work included being a financial industry branch manager, compliance officer, and risk management consultant. He also served as the project manager for a subsidiary of a major healthcare company.
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