The Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, was implemented by Obama, Biden and Pelosi with the promise of reforming the American healthcare system. One of its central arguments was the reduction of emergency room (ER) visits by providing affordable insurance to the uninsured, thereby shifting the burden of care from costly emergency services to more preventive and primary care.

However, in the years since its implementation, it has become increasingly clear that Obamacare has failed to achieve this goal, and in some cases, has exacerbated the problem it sought to solve with countless more uninsured people flooding the emergency rooms.

The Initial Promise: Reducing ER Visits

Obamacare's architects argued that by expanding insurance coverage to millions of previously uninsured Americans, the law would reduce the reliance on emergency rooms for non-emergency care.

The idea was that with more people having access to insurance, they would seek care through primary care physicians and avoid the high costs associated with emergency care. This shift was expected to reduce overall healthcare costs and improve the efficiency of the healthcare system.

However, this expectation was based on the assumption that newly insured individuals would be able to afford Obamacare and automatically seek preventive care and that the expansion of Medicaid would make it easier for low-income individuals to access regular medical services. The reality of Obamacare’s dreams, however, have been debunked as a total and complete failure.

The Reality: Overpriced Insurance

One of the critical flaws of Obamacare is its pricing structure. The law mandated that insurance plans cover a wide range of services, many of which are unnecessary for healthy individuals, especially those under 50 while charging healthy people much more to cover those with health problems.

This broad coverage requirement led to higher premiums, making insurance unaffordable for many healthy people and especially hitting the younger generation. Consequently, many young and healthy individuals have chosen to forgo insurance altogether, opting instead to pay the penalty for not having coverage, which is often less expensive than the premiums for an insurance plan they rarely use.

This decision by millions of healthy individuals to remain uninsured has had a significant impact on the healthcare system. Rather than decreasing, ER visits have actually increased since the implementation of Obamacare.

Many uninsured individuals continue to rely on emergency rooms for care because they cannot afford the insurance premiums or because they find it more convenient than navigating the complexities of the healthcare system.

Moreover, the increased demand for ER services has placed additional strain on hospitals, leading to longer wait times and higher costs for emergency care. This outcome directly contradicts the primary objective of Obamacare: to reduce the reliance on emergency rooms and lower overall healthcare costs.

Furthermore, the government leaders in the democrat party have allowed another 10-20 million new migrants into the country straining all emergency rooms, which has put black, brown, and ethnic Americans in the back of the line for emergency room health care.

The Debunking of Obamacare's Core Argument

The data and evidence over the years have debunked Obamacare's central premise. Instead of reducing ER visits, the law and unchecked immigration has inadvertently driven more people to use emergency services. This failure is largely due to the overpriced insurance plans for healthy people that have made coverage unattractive to healthy individuals, leading to a higher number of uninsured people who rely on emergency rooms as their primary source of care.

In contrast, companies like Walmart have implemented low cost catastrophic health plans which seem cost effective for all young working folks.

In essence, Obamacare's attempt to reform the healthcare system has resulted in a vicious cycle: the law's mandates have made insurance too expensive for the vast majority, leading to a higher number of uninsured individuals who either die too young or turn to emergency rooms for care, further increasing healthcare costs and placing additional pressure on the system. Moreover, those who die create further government costs to support their orphans and widows.

Further, Obamacare has devolved into another failed HMO bureaucracy, characterized by inefficiency, high costs, overpaid government regulators, and limited patient choice. Instead of delivering on its promise to streamline healthcare and make it more accessible, the system has become a complex web of regulations, mandates, and paperwork that mirrors the inefficiencies of the very health maintenance organizations (HMOs) it aimed to improve upon.

The rigid structure of Obamacare forces individuals into limited networks with fewer options for care, often at higher costs, while administrative bloat consumes resources that could be better spent on patient care. As a result, instead of empowering consumers, Obamacare has entrenched a bureaucratic system that prioritizes compliance and cost-cutting over the quality and accessibility of healthcare.

In the midst of all of this, many doctors are not taking any Medicaid or Medicare patients as the reimbursements from the government don’t cover the actual costs of employees and inflation.

In the end, the only people that get quality emergent care are government workers with juicy-discounted healthcare policies and those who show up to the emergency room without insurance who are financially broke and can’t pay the costs of nurses, diagnostics, medical assistants or doctors. Further, these uninsured folks can’t afford the medicine or treatments.

A 2022 Gallup poll found that nearly 40% of Americans skipped or delayed medical care due to cost concerns, which can result in more severe health issues requiring emergency care. Other data suggests that an extra 40-100,000 people from working families in the USA die each year because they can’t afford preventative doctor visits and health care premiums are too high.

With another 45,000 dying each year due to Obamacare costs, that would total 675,000 extra deaths of working age Americans due to Obamacare failures, frauds, costs, premiums, regulations, and uncovered preventative care. While Obamacare increased the number of covered persons by providing free healthcare for the most impoverished, it lowered the number of covered people under 50 who have real jobs.

Approximately four out of five people who purchase their insurance through HealthCare.gov are able to find plans that cost $10 or less per month after applying subsidies. This, this data implies that only those who don’t work or contribute to the productivity of America are getting cheap healthcare insurance indicating a disparate impact on the vast majority of Americans who work and pay taxes.

Conclusion

The failure of the socialist’s and democrat’s unaffordable healthcare schemes to provide coverage for all and reduce emergency room visits is a clear failed example of how well-intentioned policies can have unintended and counterproductive consequences.

By making insurance unaffordable for healthy individuals while giving free health care to 80% of the people who do not appear to be paying federal taxes, the law has driven many away from Obama’s scheme for healthcare coverage, leading to an increase in ER visits, more premature deaths of working age folks, unaffordable premiums for taxpayers, and a continuation of the very problem it sought to solve.

This failure highlights the need for a more nuanced and flexible approach to catastrophic coverage and healthcare reform, one that takes into account the diverse needs of the population and avoids one-size-fits-all solutions for the inner city that end up causing more harm than good.

The failures and problems of democrat healthcare schemes, Obamacare and Medicaid have gotten so bad that Doctors and Nurses are having to form labor unions to negotiate with the government for fair pay, fair reimbursements, and fair benefits.

________________

Commissioner George Mentz JD MBA CILS CWM® is the first in the USA to rank as a Top 50 Influencer & Thought Leader in: Management, PM, HR, FinTech, Wealth Management, and B2B according to Onalytica.com and Thinkers360.com. George Mentz JD MBA CILS is a CWM Chartered Wealth Manager ®, global speaker - educator, tax-economist, international lawyer and CEO of the GAFM Global Academy of Finance & Management ®. The GAFM is a EU accredited graduate body that trains and certifies professionals in 150+ nations under standards of the: US Dept of Education, ACBSP, ISO 21001, ISO 991, ISO 29993, QAHE, ECLBS, and ISO 29990 standards. Mentz is also an award winning author and award winning graduate law professor of wealth management of one of the top 30 ranked law schools in the USA.