OPINION:
The shutdown is over, but the debate isn’t. To persuade Democrats to lift their blockade of the federal government, Senate Republicans promised a vote next month on extending Obamacare subsidies. Republican lawmakers will have to do a better job if they intend to repeal the Affordable Care Act once and for all.
Everything is “affordable” when the government picks up the tab. All Uncle Sam has to do is cut a massive check, and champagne and caviar could be on the dollar menu at McDonald’s. This is the puerile reasoning underlying President Obama’s signature legislative effort.
Taxpayers cover a whopping 91% of the premium for the lowest-cost Obamacare option, up from 85% in 2020, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Democrats threw their 40-day tantrum to try to raise 91% to 100%.
Obamacare was a bait-and-switch gambit from the start. The 44th president vowed, “If you like your current [health care] plan, you will be able to keep it. Let me repeat that: If you like your plan, you’ll be able to keep it.” Democrats repeated this lie as they rammed the bill through Congress without any Republican support.
Nothing about Obamacare has been affordable, unless you’re an illegal alien, fraudster or big corporate interest. Far from sticking it to greedy insurance companies, Obamacare is the best thing that has ever happened to them.
“Up to 40% of Obamacare enrollees never file a claim. That’s billions in taxpayer dollars flowing to insurance companies for people who don’t even use the system. Republicans are committed to ending the fraud and making health care truly affordable,” Sen. Roger Marshall, Kansas Republican and physician, said Sunday.
Just look at what happened to stock prices after Obamacare’s adoption. UnitedHealth Group rose 1,177%, Cigna is up 822% and Aetna jumped 595%. Despite the substantial profits, coverage mandates and payments to ineligible recipients continue to drive insurance premiums skyward.
Earlier this year, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act tried to curb abuse by eliminating reimbursements for hospitals that provide “emergency” services to illegal aliens. This clogs the system with noncitizens who rush to the emergency room with the sniffles, knowing they will receive free treatment.
Democrats insist on a full restoration of freebies for foreign intruders as they oppose reform of any kind.
President Trump has the right idea, saying the money is better left in the hands of the people who earned it. “In other words,” he wrote on Truth Social, “take from the big, bad Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare.”
If Republicans cave to Democratic demands by continuing ACA giveaways for an extra year, it would be a policy mistake. Politically, it might take the issue off the table for the midterm elections, allowing Republicans to address health care more comprehensively later — if they retain the majority.
That’s wishful thinking. Republicans aren’t interested in touching anything controversial, let alone doing the hard work needed to propose a viable replacement. Media propaganda has filled the policy vacuum and shifted public opinion in favor of subsidies. It’s now the only talking point that Democrats have that doesn’t prominently feature the word “Trump.”
The president and his congressional allies need to come up with a free market alternative and sell it to voters. Otherwise, a Democratic Party dominated by socialists will finish the government health care takeover that Mr. Obama started.
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