Posted on 11/29/2025 7:53:21 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), health insurance premiums have steadily increased, as has healthcare’s proportion of the gross domestic product (GDP). In employer-sponsored insurance, escalating premiums are the primary driver for stagnant take-home wages.
The structure of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and employer-sponsored insurance conceal the true cost of healthcare. The recent government shutdown exposed this underlying flaw to public scrutiny.
Should the premium tax credits lapse as expected, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) projects that premiums for Americans will increase by more than 75 percent. This stark price increase will now confront consumers, leaving patients worried and dissatisfied.
Employees often remain unaware of true healthcare costs, as their contributions are partially offset by tax-advantaged employer benefits. However, these costs indirectly suppress wage growth. Meanwhile, healthcare inflation consistently outpaces general wage increases.
Conversely, insurance companies are thriving.
Since the ACA’s passage, the top five health insurers’ annual profits have soared by 230 percent. In 2024, UnitedHealth’s CEO earned $26.3 million, Cigna’s CEO $23.2 million, and others followed suit.
This dynamic does not reflect true capitalism or free-market principles but rather crony capitalism bolstered by government subsidies.
Moral hazard drives daily orders, even for breakfast pizza, escalating demand. Pizzerias, aware of this price ignorance, promote lavish new combinations. An ACA-style “PizzaCare” program caps costs at a fraction of income, encouraging excessive consumption without consideration. Prices skyrocket, benefiting pizza companies.
Government subsidies intensify this distortion, further inflating costs. Employees relish their pizza; it becomes part of their daily or weekly routine. They are unaware of its true cost, but may notice and object if their pizza price component rises from $2 to $2.50 or $3.
This is Hayek’s cautionary narrative. The critical issue lies in the vulnerability of ordinary individuals, distracted by whether Notre Dame will secure a College Football Playoff berth, the Islanders will win the Stanley Cup, or their seven-year-old will score in Saturday’s soccer game. These individuals face significant financial strain, having grown reliant on subsidies to afford healthcare. The broader healthcare system similarly depends on government support, embodying Hayek’s warning of diminishing personal autonomy and deepening entanglement with state intervention.
In “The Road to Serfdom,” Friedrich Hayek vividly depicts government overreach as a frog slowly boiling in a pot, lulled by promises of security. The ACA’s subsidies, like a siren call, have enticed 24.2 million enrollees with affordable premiums, obscuring the escalating true cost of healthcare. Once established, these subsidies become indispensable, with millions now dependent on them, as evidenced by projected premium spikes.
Should the enhanced subsidies, originally temporary, expire as planned in 2025, the resulting premium surge reveals the trap: dependence on state generosity. As Hayek cautioned, this reliance, cloaked in equity and justice, erodes freedom, empowering a bureaucracy to dictate government-directed winners and losers.
Once entrenched, dismantling programs initially deemed temporary becomes politically toxic. Individuals adapt to a subsidized reality, viewing affordable premiums as essential, mirroring Hayek’s portrayal of populations bound to state largesse. The ACA’s framework, with 24.2 million enrollees dependent on credits, fosters a cycle of deepening reliance. Any rollback, such as the looming 2025 expiration, risks economic disruption, entrenching a system where insurers profit from inflated costs while patients, shielded from true price signals, remain tethered to subsidies.
This validates Hayek’s thesis: centralized interventions breed dependency, eroding choice and fueling a gradual descent into serfdom.
OBodyMortgage, from the beginning. Tariff money forbidden ✖️, and they’re all in on it.
NO!
Imagine government setting the cost of a slice of pizza at $10 for companies, individual buyers, and the middle-class overall, so they can grow a massive and bloated FREE pizza program for freeloaders, the Democrat base - and migrants.
THAT'S Obamacare.
Insurance companies are middlemen who exist for no other reason than to skim profit from the relationship between doctor and patient, they shouldn't even exist. They're parasitical and by nature they're going to take as much profit as they can while delivering as little as they can by taking advantage of the fact that you basically can't interact with a healthcare provider in the U.S. without insurance being involved. Illegal aliens mooching off the system with emergency room visits are a problem but they're small potatoes in the scheme of things, they're not what's causing the crisis. The problem is middlemen (insurance companies and big healthcare conglomerates) are sucking up all the money people are spending while providing nothing of value in return. Follow the money and see who's getting rich, it's these guys. Dumping more money into ACA "subsidies" is just lining the pockets of more insurance CEO's and board members. President Trump understands this which is why he's making noise about bypassing them.
Always follow the money. The sinkhole where our money is being dumped is the insurance industry. The main function of our healthcare industry today is making insurance companies incredibly rich, not providing health care.
Even with the subsidies, ACA is very expensive and provides pretty crappy coverage.
Obamacare was originally Hillarycare. She and a bunch of control freaks designed this mess. When it was presented to the dims in the senate and house, they didn’t want any part of it. Later, when it was rolled out as Obamcare, all the dims were in favor of it. What did they get in return?
No repubs voted for this abortion.
Nice analysis and summary. Our healthcare system has been hijacked by the greedy. Obamacare was a failed attempt at walking America into a government run, single payer system. Repeal O-Care and tell Obama, "you failed".
There was a collaboration of doctors, insurers and other healthcare experts who put together a plan (circa 1991) to overhaul the healthcare system. By all accounts it was a good plan. HRC came along, took the plan and gutted it with a bunch of BS and vague notions. Hillery-care was a "toe-hold" of big government getting into healthcare. It was/is a long-standing desire of the Lefties to get ahold of the healthcare system.
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