The Affordable Care Act turned six years old last week. How is it doing? As Brittany La Couture notes, so far the law has not “bent the cost curve,” failed to meet enrollment targets, forced people into pricier health insurance than they otherwise would have chosen, and reduced competition in health insurance. Also, it has raised taxes.
Since its implementation, the Affordable Care Act has left a trail of failures in its wake: failure in mission, failure in implementation, failures to help society, consumers, patients, providers, and insurers through bad programs, lack of enforcement, and constitutionally questionable cost-shifting to states.
New programs often have an implementation lag while bugs are worked out–this is to be expected. But six years into a program that has faced stiff congressional opposition, that economists and health policy experts have warned would be financially unworkable, we are still seeing problems. Unfortunately, these are not ‘bugs’ but rather features of a law that was not well drafted, supported, or, apparently, implemented. The law is continuously failing to provide the promised benefits while increasing insurance risk pools and premiums and forcing up national health spending without actually improving national health.
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