Today, supporters are celebrating the 16th anniversary of President Barack Obama signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 into law. Subsequent revisions by the executive and judicial branches have turned that law into “Obamacare.”
The celebrations typically ignore that Obamacare has doubled premiums for most consumers and continues to erode the quality of health insurance. Estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the Kaiser Family Foundation indicate that Obamacare doubles or triples premiums for many, if not most, consumers in the individual market. Obamacare’s supposed consumer protections immediately caused individual-market provider networks to shrink. Research by former Biden economic advisor Michael Geruso shows that Obamacare continues to erode the quality of health insurance for all patients.
This milestone is less of a celebration for victims of the law, like the family of Colette Briggs.
Fortunately, those same Congressional Budget Office and Kaiser Family Foundation studies show that insurance companies could immediately provide consumers broader provider networks and lower deductibles at lower premiums—if policymakers would just get Obamacare out of the way.
“Wait!” Obamacare supporters warn. “Letting consumers choose their own health insurance would make Obamacare less available to the sick.” It’s a good theory. But the arguments against Obamacare relief do not comport with the available evidence. When President Trump, from 2018 to 2024, freed consumers to purchase, with the assent of multiple federal courts, long-term Obamacare-exempt plans, the opposite happened. Obamacare premiums stabilized while enrollment grew.
Both Presidents Obama and Trump provided consumers relief when Obamacare threatened their access to care. Legislators should make both versions of Obamacare relief universal and permanent.