Obamacare’s Five Broken Promises That Made Health Care Even Worse

Broken Promise #1 – You Can Keep Your Plan

  • Up to 9.3 million people lost their coverage during the first open enrollment period.
  • President Obama personally apologized for Americans losing health coverage.
  • Politifact named “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” the Lie of the Year for 2013.

Broken Promise #2 – You Can Keep Your Doctor

  • As many as 214,000 doctors opted out of participating in Obamacare exchange plans.
  • CNN declared President Obama’s claim that “You can keep your own doctor” false.
  • Obamacare’s website revised and then dropped the section entitled, “Can I keep my own doctor?”

Broken Promise #3 – Your Premiums Will Go Down by $2,500

  • Premiums increased by about 60% in the first four years.
  • Insurance premium amounts varied in increase from $2,524 for an individual between the ages of 31 and 40 to $12,040 for a family headed by someone over age 60.

Broken Promise #4 – You’ll Have More Access to Care

  • Hundreds of thousands of health care providers opted-out of Obamacare exchange plans.
  • Studies show that instead of going to a doctor’s office for care, people continued to use emergency rooms for non-emergencies.
  • Over half of the of the uninsured in 2018 were eligible for financial assistance through Medicaid or marketplace subsidies but chose not to be covered.
  • Access to insurance does not equate to having access to care.

Broken Promise #5 – Those With Pre-Existing Conditions Will Be Protected

  • Obamacare did not protect patients from bankruptcy. Research from a left-leaning organization found no evidence Obamacare reduced the proportion of bankruptcies driven by medical debt.
  • Obamacare did not protect patients from dying. A 2019 study found there was no reduction in mortality for those that participated in Obamacare, meaning that enrollment in Obamacare had the same impact as having other forms of coverage or no coverage at all.

For TPPF’s proposed solutions to the issues facing our healthcare systems, visit: Right on Healthcare.