Obamacare: An Unhealthy Diagnosis

Obamacare, the president's signature health initiative, still has a pulse but its vital signs are unstable. The patient suffers from hemorrhaging costs, feverish premium increases and chilling enrollment numbers. Despite the critical condition, the media and the president claim the scheme is healthy.

Every enrollment period, President Obama and his media sycophants cheer the rising numbers. They flog data showing the percentage of the population with no insurance is declining.  They boast about the plethora of choices consumers have for insurance.

Long ago buried are the promises the president made before Obamacare was signed into law in 2010. Remember, he guaranteed consumers could keep their doctor.  A steely-eyed Mr. Obama assured Americans they would experience a $2,500 drop in their insurance premiums.

And, not least of all, the president pounded his bully pulpit and wagged his finger, committing to a price tag of less than $1 trillion for a decade of improved care that would forever change America, leaving no one without health insurance.

As usual, the facts on the ground have a way of unraveling the narrative ginned up by Mr. Obama and his willing accomplices in the media. Things are so bad that even Democrats are not running around bragging about how good Obamacare has been for Americans.

Here is a report on the annual physical for Obamacare:

The number of enrollees has failed to meet projections.  At the beginning of 2015, there were 11.7 million Americans enrolled in Obamacare. After the enrollment period was completed, the number of insured started shrinking. Nearly two million people stopped paying premiums or lost their coverage. By June of last year, only 9.9 million people had insurance under the government plan, according to figures on the Obamacare website. When the enrollment period ended for 2016, there were 11.3 million people signed up, reported Health and Human Services (HHS).  Each month more people drop out.  You never see news coverage of that figure.  In addition, Obamacare enrollment has never met the goals.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted there would be 24 million enrollees by 2016, which means the government failed to even reach half that number.

The cost of insurance is rising. Premiums for the three levels of insurance coverage under Obamacare have increased every year. The nationwide average hike last year was 2 percent, a misleading figure.  In many cities, the costs spiked by double-digits.  In Portland, rates for the silver plan (the mid-range coverage) skyrocketed 16.2 percent.  In Albuquerque, the price tag leaped 11 percent.  In Virginia, costs zoomed up 10.8 percent.  Things are not looking any better for the future. Rates are projected to soar 17 percent in 2017 in California, according to the Los Angeles Times.  The CBO figured the costs of Obamacare insurance premiums will climb six percent every year over the next decade.

The numbers of uninsured remain high.  The Obama Administration likes to champion the idea that the number of uninsured are only 9.1 percent of the population under the age of 65.  However, there are a number of independent sources with contradictory data. For example, Gallup polling organization found 11.9 percent of the population under 65 had no insurance. In 2008, the percentage of uninsured was 14.6 percent of the population.  That means the number of uninsured has dropped by 3.5 percentage points in five years.  Tax returns for the year 2014 show that 7.5 million Americans paid fines to the Internal Revenue Service rather than purchase insurance.

Consumers' health insurance choices are dwindling.  Three of the largest insurance companies--Aetna, Humana and United Healthcare--have announced plans to exit the business in 2017. A number of insurance cooperatives have also pulled the plug on Obamacare plans. Avalere, a health care consulting firm, projects that more than one-third of the exchange market regions in the country will be stuck with just one health carrier next year.  About 55 percent of the regions will have two. Unsustainable financial losses are driving health insurance providers to dump Obamacare. Industry experts maintain the dreary finances are a toxic mix of lower than expected enrollment and higher than anticipated claims.

Obamacare's costs have far exceeded estimates.  The CBO's latest figure pegs the cost of Obamacare over the next decade at $1.34 trillion.  This is an increase of $136 billion over the budget agency's predictions issued in 2015.  In 2016, the total cost of Obamacare is estimated at $110 billion. One reason for the escalating costs is that 87 percent of those enrolled in one of the three Obamacare plans received some form of financial assistance from the federal government to help pay for coverage.  As the cost of coverage climbs, so does the subsidy needed to help people buy insurance. Last year the government paid $38 billion in subsidies, a $23 billion increase from 2014.

By any measurement, Obamacare is sick.  Americans were sold a bill of goods by Democrats, the president and the apparatchik media. Obamacare deserves an early death.  However, don't expect it to succumb, despite all its ills.

President Ronald Reagan once famously said that a government program "is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth."  As usual, Mr. Reagan was right.  Obamacare will have a lasting existence, no matter what you read and hear from do-nothing Republicans.