Before Obamacare, there was an estimated 46 million people uninsured. Of that 46 million, approximately approximately 15 million qualified for Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP), leaving about 31 million actually uninsured. The Obamacare administration used the 15 million “uninsured” as an initial success number for Obamacare.
Depending on the sources used, the numbers may vary. For example, The Commonwealth Fund, in a September 2016 report, showed the uninsured numbers at 41.3 million for 2013, 32.3 million for 2014, and 28.5 million for 2015.
In 2010, the Weekly Standard, in an article titled, “The Real Number of Uninsured Americans,” reported a Kaiser Foundation estimate of uninsured as 50 million. The author of the Weekly Standard article, Jeffrey H. Anderson, reported that the date included significant errors. For example, a response error included in the Current Population Survey (CPS) showed that 16.9 % of people with a Medicaid Statistical Information Survey (MSIS) indicating Medicaid coverage reported they were uninsured. Eight million of the 50 million were actually insured by Medicaid.
This leaves 42 million uninsured. But according to a Census Bureau correction of its own data, 10 million were not citizens. This correction leaves us with 32 million uninsured citizens. Which is fairly close to my 31 million estimate in the first paragraph.
The uninsured number today is estimated between 30 and 32 million. The question must be asked: if the original goal of Obamacare was to eliminate the uninsured rolls, why has there been little or no change in the uninsured numbers after seven years of Obamacare after spending a CBO estimate of $1.76 trillion over ten years?
Before Obamacare, there were approximately 921,823 medical physicians, of which 320,795 were primary care (excluding OB/GYN). The U.S. population was approximately 306 million. Subtracting 30 million uninsured leaves 276 million “net insured” population.
There are 116 primary care physicians per 100,000 insured population.
Adding the uninsured population to the mix under Obamacare, there are 105 primary care physicians per 100,000 population, or almost a 10 percent decrease in available primary care physicians. This is defacto health care rationing by Obamacare. The Obama administration did nothing to increase the number of doctors, nurse practitioners or physician assistants.
According to eHealth, average individual health insurance premiums have increased 99 percent since 2013, the year prior to Obamacare. Family premiums increased 140% during that same period. Why have healthcare premiums soared in Obamacare?
- First, Obamacare mandated that health plans had to have a minimum set of benefits. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the benefit mandates will increase premiums by up to 30 percent.
- Second, Obamacare demanded no cost-sharing for preventive services, which are more likely to increase costs than reduce costs. By requiring more preventive service, cost naturally increase.
- Third, Obamacare placed limits on cost-sharing and limits on deductibles. Individuals with little or no cost sharing have less incentive to use of health care services wisely.
- Fourth, Obamacare skewed the pricing of healthcare premiums by requiring health plans to charge no more than three times the lowest rate, yet a sixty year-old consumes six times as much health care as a twenty year old.
- Fifth, Obamacare banned normal underwriting practices, which would lead to healthy people having less risk, therefore lower premiums. As a result, premiums of healthy people were much higher.
- Sixth, Obamacare required health insurers to cover high-risk people. Health insurers can no longer employ pre-existing conditions and insurers cannot charge higher rates based on health status or gender. As a result, healthcare premiums increased.
Obamacare made health insurance more expensive while simultaneously rationing health care. People can no longer afford Obamacare. Even the deductibles have become prohibitive to the average family. For example, the average deductible for a bronze policy (the cheapest Obamacare policy) is $12,000. For a family making $50,000 annually, $12,000 represents 24 percent of the gross income.
Further, the Obama administration manipulated the number of people covered by Obamacare. The Daily Signal reported that, “The Obama administration claims 20 million more Americans today have health care due to Obamacare. But that is based on six years of survey data, not actual sign-ups. The reality is that when you look at the actual net gains over the past two years since the program was fully implemented, the number is 14 million, and of that, 11.8 million (84 percent) were people given the “gift” of Medicaid.
And new research shows that even fewer people will be left without insurance after the repeal of Obamacare. Numbers are still being crunched, but between statistics released by the Congressional Budget Office and one of the infamous architects of Obamacare, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Jonathan Gruber, it’s estimated that anywhere from 2 to 7 million people now on Medicaid would have qualified for the program even without Obamacare.
That further discredits the administration’s claim of 20 million more Americans having health insurance because of Obamacare.”
Obamacare tried to take over the individual market with a government enforced healthcare plan. Obamacare was inflexible, overly expensive and too bureaucratic. The government did not provide what the people wanted; it provided what the government thought the people needed.
These are the reasons why Obamacare was destined to fail miserably.