Key Takeaways:
- Healthcare costs are too expensive because of the federal government.
- Obamacare passed both houses of Congress in 2010 without a single Republican vote – in fact, 34 House Democrats voted against it.
- Obamacare killed competition and put large health insurance companies in charge of your healthcare – not your doctor.
- With no competition in the healthcare market, insurance companies have no incentive to reduce premiums or to increase benefits.
- Health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies don’t care about improving your health; they only care about maximizing their profits.
- Government subsidies are not your friend; they guarantee your health insurance premiums will continue to rise and your coverage will shrink.
- Government subsidies are paid to the insurance companies using your tax dollars.
- Real healthcare reform – lower costs, new innovations and better benefits – is possible, but only if the federal government stops regulating and controlling the healthcare system.
Why is the healthcare system in America so broken?
Why is it so unaffordable?
Why? Because of Lies…
Distortions…
Deliberate deceptions.
It’s called The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.
It’s such a nice-sounding title to healthcare reform legislation.
But it was never intended to protect patients or to be affordable.
It was designed to put insurance companies in charge of your healthcare – not your doctor.
It was designed to fail unless you accepted government mandates and massive government subsidies.
It was designed to make you more dependent on government than ever.
And the “Affordable Care Act” (ACA) – known as Obamacare – succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of the Democrats who concocted the potion.
Here are 5 Realities you probably don’t know about Obamacare:
Reality #1: Selling disastrous healthcare using false advertising.
The Democrats are experts at marketing bad ideas to the American public.
Just spread a few false promises – actually lies – with a smile on your face… and leave out the important negative side effects.
Here are a few of the promises we were given:
· If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor under the ACA.
· If you like your existing health insurance, you can keep it.
· Your current health insurance premiums and deductibles will fall.
· If you don’t currently have health insurance and you don’t like the insurance plans offered on your state’s health insurance exchange marketplace, you can choose a government-sponsored “public option” with lower premiums and deductibles.
All of these were false.
The realities:
· The health insurance industry collaborated with House and Senate Democrats to create a health insurance system that increased their profits.
· They spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress to influence the ACA and to eliminate the “public option.” 1
· Many people with existing health insurance through their employers found their plans canceled, forcing them to accept new plans their companies offered from the exchange markets – with higher premiums and lower benefits.
Reality #2: Killing competition and putting insurance companies in charge of your healthcare.
There’s a dirty little secret about healthcare in America that health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies don’t want you to know…
They don’t care about improving your health.
They only care about maximizing their profits.
They make more money when you’re sick – and when you stay sick.
And they make more money when they have no competition.
America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) – the health insurance industry’s main trade group – lobbied hard to eliminate the “public option” from the original Affordable Care Act bill.
The public option – a government-sponsored universal Medicare-type health insurance – would have provided a competitive alternative to the private health insurance companies.
Competition always increases quality and reduces consumer costs in any industry.
The AHIP killed their competition and instead pushed for an ACA mandate requiring everyone to buy private health insurance.
This effectively put a monopoly-like consortium of a few health insurance companies in charge of your healthcare – with the blessing of a Democrat-controlled Congress and White House.
Reality #3: Socialized healthcare on steroids: the dream of Democrats.
Democrats always push for more government benefits for low-income earners at the expense of middle-class and wealthy taxpayers.
This is their strategy for staying in power – exacerbate all economic inequalities and offer government solutions to “even the playing field.”
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed both the House and the Senate without a single Republican vote.
In the heavily Democrat-controlled House, 34 Democrats were honest enough about what was in the legislation to oppose it – making the final vote 219-212.2
Obamacare expanded health insurance coverage to the 14% to 16% of Americans who were uninsured3 by:
· Expanding Medicaid to individuals with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty level4
· Creating new health insurance exchange markets through which uninsured individuals could purchase coverage and receive financial help with premiums
· Creating separate exchange markets for small businesses to purchase coverage for their employees
· Prohibiting health insurance companies from denying coverage or charging higher premiums to people with pre-existing health conditions
· Prohibiting insurance companies from setting annual and lifetime healthcare benefit limits, and restricting out-of-pocket healthcare costs for individuals and families
All of these health insurance benefits cost money.
To offset the additional costs to health insurance companies of charging everyone the same premium regardless of their medical condition, and of paying unlimited benefits to all patients, Obamacare was created with built-in government subsidies.
The details of Obamacare are complex, but there are two types of government subsidies you should know about:
Original Subsidies. From the very beginning, the difference between the premiums set by insurance companies on the exchange markets and the premiums individuals and families had to pay was subsidized by the federal government.
Premiums charged on the exchange markets varied by individual or household income.
Subsidies were available for incomes ranging from 100% to 400% of the federal poverty level.
The percentage of income that was required to be paid before subsidies could be claimed ranged from 2% to 10%.5
Subsidies could be claimed monthly to reduce premiums, or could be claimed as tax credits if the full premium was paid during the calendar year.
Enhanced Subsidies. In 2021, when the economy was still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration created higher subsidies:
· The 400% of the federal poverty level was eliminated as the upper income level for receiving subsidies.
· The percentage of income that was required to be used for healthcare premiums was reduced to 0% for low incomes to 8.5% for incomes of 400% or more of the federal poverty level6
The results of these enhanced subsidies – or tax credits – are significant:
· Since 2021, those earning 150% of the federal poverty level or less have been eligible for free healthcare. (150% of the FPL is currently $23,475 for individuals and $48,225 for a family of 4.)
· There is no upper income limit for subsidy eligibility. If exchange market premium for the most expensive health insurance plan exceeds 8.5% of annual income, the individual can claim a tax credit.
The enhanced subsidies expired on December 31, 2025. This was the date set by the Biden administration in 2021 when the additional subsidies were created.
The Democrats now want the enhanced subsidies extended indefinitely.
They know the entire Obamacare house of cards will collapse without more government intervention.
This is what caused the 43-day government shutdown from October 1st to November 12th last year.
Reality #4: The unintended and inevitable side effects of government-subsidized healthcare.
When government subsidizes the cost consumers pay for any product, there are two inevitable consequences:
1. The true cost of the product is hidden from the consumer.
2. The providers of the product are incentivized to increase the actual cost of the product without increasing its quality or value.
These consequences create a vicious cycle:
· the consumer stops shopping for higher quality to avoid paying a higher premium, and
· the product providers hike their price and lower their quality because they know they will be paid by the government no matter what they do.
Michael F. Cannon of the Cato Institute describes the result of this vicious cycle: “Obamacare offers junk insurance at outrageous premiums.”7
Obamacare was created to expand healthcare coverage rather than improve quality or control costs.
It was designed with “structural flaws that guaranteed it would buckle under its own weight.”8
It was never truly affordable.
Obamacare created three government “mandates” or requirements to prop up the precarious system they created:
The individual mandate. This provision required most Americans to purchase health insurance whether they wanted to or not – or else pay a penalty tax on their federal income tax return.
This mandate was challenged in court.
It was withheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012, but reversed by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.9
The employer mandate. This rule requires most companies with 50 or more full-time employees to provide basic affordable health insurance to their employees or else pay an additional business tax.
Increasing taxes on small businesses have negative economic consequences:
· companies can’t expand their businesses and add new jobs
· existing employees may have their hours cut, or may even lose their jobs altogether
· economic growth stagnates – perhaps even declines
Expansion of Medicaid. The states were required to expand their Medicaid coverage to all households with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty level beginning in 2014.
This was challenged in 2012, with the Supreme Court making Medicare expansion optional for states.
Forty states have expanded their Medicaid eligibility; ten states have chosen not to do so.
All of the Obamacare subsidies and mandates are ultimately paid for by you – the American taxpayer.
William McBride, writing for the Tax Foundation, says that “healthcare spending has grown to almost one-third of the federal budget and, combined with tax preferences, now exceeds $2 trillion or 8 percent of GDP.”10
Reality #5: Real healthcare reform that benefits consumers is possible – here’s how.
Federal government intrusions into healthcare are the main reason why healthcare costs are rising so fast.
Michael F. Cannon of the Cato Institute points out that government regulations designed to protect patients with preexisting conditions encourage insurance companies to engage in “backdoor discrimination” that makes it more difficult for some people to get care.11
So the Step One of real healthcare reform is to make regulated health coverage optional.
StepTwo is to allow competition in the healthcare industry.
Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center has some recommendations for increasing competition:
· Expand access to more affordable healthcare options such as association health plans and short-term renewable health insurance policies.
· Reduce scope-of-practice rules so that healthcare providers that have Physicians’ Assistants (PAs) can provide services currently reserved to physicians.
Another strategy to create healthcare completion – which would improve quality and reduce costs – would be to allow Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines and carry it with them wherever they go.
Curtis Dubay of the Heritage Foundation wrote over a decade ago, “Small businesses, individual membership associations, religious groups, and
fraternal organizations should be able to sell health insurance policies through new group purchasing arrangements.”12
On December 16th, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) introduced a new healthcare reform proposal, the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act.
Here are some of the provisions of this Republican proposal:
· Expand access to association health plans. These will allow small businesses or groups to band together to purchase group health insurance at lower rates than they could get on their own.
· Increase choice in the health insurance market by increasing tax-free employer contributions to health savings accounts (HSAs) – and by making HSAs permanent and portable from one employer to another.
· This program is called CHOICE – Custom Health Option and Individual Care Expense plan.
· Reduce regulations on stop-loss insurance. Self-insured companies use their own funds to pay health insurance claims for employees. Stop-loss insurance is a tool used by self-insured companies to protect themselves from major losses. This legislation would clarify that stop-loss coverage is not health insurance, so individual states can’t regulate it. This will make it easier for companies to design and fund their own health insurance plans.
Final Thought:
There is one other healthcare issue that will prevent any proposed healthcare reform legislation from receiving bipartisan support in Congress:
Abortion.
Democrats insisted that Obamacare cover abortion.
Republicans want abortion excluded from any health insurance that is supported with taxpayer dollars.
This controversy will be addressed in a separate article in an upcoming Huey Alert. What do you think? Email me at [email protected].
Action Steps:
1. Write to your House representative and to the two Senators from your state. Ask them to make regulated healthcare coverage optional, and to support the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act that was introduced on December 16th by House Speaker Mike Johnson. Go to www.house.govannd to www.senate.gov to get addresses and contact information.
2. Share this article with family and friends – especially those who are purchasing health insurance on a state exchange market, either as individuals or as a small business.
FAQs:
Q. What is Obamacare exactly? A. Officially it is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 – usually called the Affordable Care Act or the ACA.
Q. What was the purpose of the Affordable Care Act? A. The stated purpose was to make health insurance available and affordable to the 14% to 16% of Americans who were uninsured in 2009 and 2010.
Q. Why were government subsidies required to make the system work? A. Insurance companies were required to charge the same premiums for all applicants whether they had no prior illnesses or had serious pre-existing medical conditions. This meant that the premiums for everyone would be unaffordable without government intervention.
Q. What are the “enhanced” subsidies? A. The subsidies were based on the insurance premium as a percentage of annual income. In 2021, the subsidies were increased or enhanced to cover the entire premium for income up to 150% of the poverty level, and to cover all premium exceeding 8.5% of income with no upper income limit. The original subsidies did not apply if income exceeded 400% of the poverty level.
Q. Why are the Democrats so adamant about extending the enhanced subsidies indefinitely? A. They know that without the incentive of the enhanced subsidies, people
will drop their health insurance due to increasing premium costs, and the entire Obamacare system will collapse.
Q. What is the solution to the U.S. healthcare crisis? A. The solution is for the federal and state governments to stop trying to control it. Costs are spiraling out of control because there is no competition in the health insurance market, so insurance companies have no incentive to reduce premiums or to offer varying plans depending on what coverage people want.
About Craig Huey:
Craig Huey is the founder of Huey Alert and a nationally recognized conservative Christian strategist, author, and speaker who helps Americans understand—and act at—the intersection of faith, politics, and freedom. Key credentials and experience:
· Founder of a marketing and political consulting agency that’s won 124 marketing awards active since Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign
· Advertising agency for small and large corporations.
· Political consultant to winning candidates nationwide using geofencing and advance AI and digital marketing.
· Interviewed in 148 TV, radio, and podcast appearances during the 2024 election cycle
· Speaker for hundreds of organizations, including over 100 churches
· Publisher of The Huey Alert newsletter
· Co-host of The Huey Alert Podcast with his wife, Shelly
Author of multiple books, including:
· The Deep State: 15 Surprising Dangers You Should Know
· The Great Deception: 10 Shocking Dangers and the Blueprint for Rescuing the American Dream
· The Christian Voter: 7 Non-Negotiables for Voting For, Not Against, Your Values
· The New Multichannel, Integrated Marketing: 28 Trends for Creating a Multichannel, Integrated Campaign to Boost Your Profits Now
· Craig has been regularly on national media multiple times such as FOX, FOX Business, OAN and Newsmax.
He doesn’t always analyze politics from the sidelines. He helps win battles that shape the future.
1 Joe Eaton and M.P. Bell, https://publicintegrity.org/health/lobbyists-swarm-capitol-to-influence-health-reform/ 2 https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/111-2010/h165 3 https://www.kff.org 4 Ibid. 5 Ryan Denison, https://www.denisonforum.org/daily-article/why-are-the-enhanced-obamacare-subsidies-so-controversial/ 6 Ibid. 7 J.D. Tuccille, https://reason.com/2025/10/22/dont-extend-obamacare-subsidies-to-end-the-government-shutdown/ 8 Jenny Beth Martin, https://www.westernjournal.com/jenny-beth-martin-conservatives-right-obamacare-along/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=top-news-alert&utm_campaign=news-alert&utm_content=2025-11-16 9 https://usafacts.org 10 J.D. Tuccille, op. cit. 11 J.D. Tuccille, op. cit. 12 J.D. Tuccille, op. cit.