Fifteen years ago, then President Obama promised that his healthcare plan would reduce family insurance premiums by $2,500. Today, Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) premiums are set to rise 26% in 2025, affecting 24 million enrollees. The response from Washington? Spend another $488 billion in taxpayer subsidies to mask the failure.
This is not just policy failure. This is fiscal madness disguised as compassion.
When Obama championed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, he pointed to Anthem Blue Cross raising premiums by 25% as evidence that government intervention was urgently needed. His Health and Human Services secretary called such increases “devastating” and proof of the need for “real health insurance reform.” They got their reform. The result? Affordable Care Act regulations immediately drove premiums up 55% to 85% in states like Ohio. Premiums have since climbed at three times the rate of inflation, with the Congressional Budget Office confirming that the Affordable Care Act doubled costs for most enrollees.
Rather than acknowledge this failure, supporters chose to hide it. They created a complex web of subsidies that now extends to families earning up to $600,000 annually. Yes, you read that correctly. Households making half a million dollars receive up to $7,000 in premium subsidies because the Affordable Care Act made insurance so expensive that even wealthy families need government help. These enhanced subsidies expire at the end of 2025, just as premiums spike again. The proposed solution reveals the fundamental flaws of this approach: make the subsidies permanent at a cost of $488 billion over ten years, bringing total subsidy spending to $1.8 trillion.
Consider the math of this disaster impacting millions. Congress has already spent $694 billion chasing the Affordable Care Act’s rising premiums. Current law projects another $1.3 trillion in subsidies over the next decade. If $1.3 trillion will not make healthcare affordable, how exactly will $1.8 trillion succeed?
This is not sustainable economics. It is not even rational policy. It is political theater funded by taxpayers and future generations.
The United States already operates the most expensive healthcare system in the world. Throwing additional hundreds of billions at a fundamentally flawed structure will not fix what is broken with American healthcare. It will simply make the eventual crash more painful and expensive. Real reform requires acknowledging that government controlled healthcare markets do not work. When regulations restrict competition, limit choice, and mandate coverage that families neither want nor need, prices rise. When subsidies flow to cover those artificial price increases, costs spiral further upward. This is not complex economic theory. This is basic cause and effect.
Market based alternatives exist. Allow insurance sales across state lines to increase competition. Expand Health Savings Accounts to give consumers more control and price sensitivity. Remove regulatory barriers that prevent innovative care models from emerging. Create transparent pricing in healthcare markets so consumers can make informed choices. These are not radical concepts. They are proven approaches that work in every other sector of the economy.
Republicans have spent years promising to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The coming premium increases and subsidy debate present a critical opportunity to offer concrete alternatives rather than mere opposition. Voters understand that the current system is broken. They are waiting for leaders who will propose solutions that actually address costs rather than simply shifting them to taxpayers. The choice before Congress is stark: continue borrowing nearly two trillion dollars to subsidize a failed system, or embrace reforms that harness market forces to drive down costs and expand access.
Fifteen years of evidence shows that government control of healthcare markets produces exactly the opposite of what was promised. How much more proof do we need that it is time to try something different?
Lance Haynie is a public affairs professional with over two decades of experience in government relations, risk management, policy development, and strategic leadership. He has worked with local, state, and federal partners to advance practical, results-driven solutions that strengthen communities and improve how government serves the people it represents.
A Republican who believes government should remain limited, focused, and accountable, Lance draws on experience in both the public and private sectors to advocate for policies that promote freedom, responsibility, and individual opportunity. His writing explores the intersection of policy, leadership, and community success with a focus on responsible governance, local control, and solutions that empower people rather than institutions.
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