Obamacare: Where is the hope and change we were promised?

Eight years ago, the American people were promised “hope and change” for a different kind of America.

These promises centered around the concept that a nation dependent on government for “free” healthcare would be a nation that was more healthy.

But the faith the American people once placed in these shallow promises has been replaced with the realization that a government that once promised so much has in actuality accomplished very little.

Hope and change has been replaced with disappointment and brokenness.

Eight years later, Obamacare is an unmitigated disaster. Over 50 percent of the exchanges set up to sell Obamacare plans to Americans have failed.

Aetna, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, recently illuminated the failures of this broken system with the announcement of its transition away from Obamacare business.

But Aetna isn’t the first major insurer to distance itself from this disastrous policy. United Healthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Humana have also started on similar trajectories.

At its very core, Obamacare is bad for business and bad for the American people.

Unlike the government, insurance companies must be able to charge a price for insurance that covers the cost to pay those who need care.

As certain carriers continue to experience the effects of a system in which costs exceed profit, it is wholly unlikely insurers will stop abandoning the Obamacare system.

But the insurers aren’t the only entities feeling the heat. Young people are facing more expensive health insurance than was promised.

As we all know, the government has no magical ability to make anything “free,” let alone healthcare.

Obamacare proponents never told the American people it would create a laundry list of new taxes.

And the rich aren’t the only ones paying them. Even the poorest Americans pay many of the 18 taxes it created.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data show that total per capita health insurance spending will rise 50 percent between 2016 and 2024.

Looking at the future of employer-based health insurance costs, the Congressional Budget Office projects that job-based premiums are poised to increase by almost 60 percent between now and 2025.

Businesses are being painted into a corner by requirements under the law.

Obamacare created severe penalties — and incentives for business to avoid paying them.

Consider the threat of a speeding ticket. Drivers slow down to avoid paying a fine for speeding. They can still speed, but they risk paying for it.

Similarly, businesses are faced with a more dire choice: cut back the hours of their hardworking employees or suffer the damages of a policy riddled with excessive regulation and penalties.

When the government picks which type of insurance you are legally allowed to buy and the price you must pay for it, the average citizen loses.

For the betterment of our nation, we need to retire this law soon.

Alternatively, we should be unraveling the thousands of healthcare regulations that have made private healthcare so expensive in the first place and empower the states, their legislators and their people to come up with solutions that best fit their own needs.

It should come as no surprise that a “one-size-fits-all” model imposed by Washington, D.C. doesn’t live up to the many promises made to Americans.

This story was originally published September 8, 2016 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Obamacare: Where is the hope and change we were promised?."