Most Americans want to believe that their elected officials in Washington, D.C. are working in their best interest. They simply want to live their lives without needing to dissect every bill or policy that comes along. So when a law like the Affordable Care Act was introduced, they trusted what they were told. They believed the polished speeches, the smiling sound bites, and the endless reassurance from the mainstream media that this was progress. Most people never question what they think is being done for their good, and few have the time or patience to sift through hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pages of legislative fine print.
When the Affordable Care Act was introduced, it was sold as a lifeline, a promise that every American would finally have access to affordable health coverage. It was presented as a compassionate reform meant to help the struggling middle class and protect those with preexisting conditions. The title itself sounded like the answer to a national prayer. But as time has revealed, “affordable” was little more than a carefully chosen word designed to sell an illusion within those countless pages.
But what happens when someone actually understands what’s inside those pages? What happens when, like me, you’re a licensed health insurance agent who knows how the system truly works and what the numbers really mean? What happens is that you stop buying the sales pitch, and you start telling the truth.
The truth is that the ACA has done the exact opposite of what it claimed.
The Numbers Tell the Real Story
In 2010, the year before the ACA took effect, the average family health insurance policy cost $13,770 a year, a little more than $1,000.00 a month. By 2024, that same type of coverage had jumped to $25,572, an 85.7 percent increase. During that same period, the cost of medical care itself rose by only about 55 percent. That means health insurance premiums grew roughly 30 percent faster than the medical costs they were supposed to cover.
If this law was truly designed to make healthcare affordable, then the numbers prove it has failed miserably. In fact, the law’s full name, The Affordable Care Act, has become one of the most misleading titles ever attached to legislation. It would be more accurate to call it The Corporate Care Guarantee, because it ensured one thing and one thing only…corporate profits.
The Hidden Cost Shift
So why did premiums rise faster than medical costs? The answer is simple: the Affordable Care Act did not reduce the cost of care nor did it intend to. It simply shifted who paid for it. Rather than lowering prices, it buried them. Instead of Americans feeling the full weight of premium increases directly in the form of a monthly bill, the cost was rerouted through subsidies, government spending, and higher taxes. The illusion of “affordability” was created by spreading the same, or even higher, costs across the entire tax base.
This clever accounting trick allowed politicians to claim success while hiding the reality. Americans who thought they were saving money on their monthly insurance bills were actually paying those same costs indirectly, through reduced take-home pay, higher taxes, and inflation caused by massive government spending. It was like taking money out of one pocket, putting it in another, and calling it free.
The ACA’s architects knew exactly what they were doing. By funneling payments through the government, they could manipulate public perception. Premiums appeared stable to many, but the underlying expenses ballooned. Health insurers, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies all benefited from this system because it guaranteed payment regardless of performance or efficiency. Make no mistake, this is exactly what was planned and intended when this law was enacted.
The law lulled Americans into believing their healthcare costs were being reduced when, in reality, those costs were rising all along. All while the actual level of care was slowly decreasing. Even more deceptive was that the very lawmakers who championed the ACA built in a timeline for its subsidies to eventually expire. Now, those same Democrats are exploiting the weaknesses of the law they created, using its built-in flaws as bargaining chips in their ongoing political games.
The Decline in Health
There is another, less discussed consequence of the ACA, a psychological and cultural one. When preexisting conditions were guaranteed to be covered regardless of personal responsibility, it sent a subtle but destructive message: it no longer mattered if you took care of yourself. The safety net had become a hammock.
Over the past decade, America’s overall health has declined dramatically. Obesity among young adults aged 20 to 39 is now around 40 percent. Childhood obesity has reached about 22 percent for ages 12 to 19 and 20 percent for ages 6 to 11. Early-onset cancers, especially colorectal cancer, are increasing among adults under 50. Youth diabetes diagnoses continue to rise year after year.
These are not coincidences. When people believe there is no personal consequence for unhealthy behavior, motivation disappears. The ACA’s promise of unconditional coverage removed a powerful incentive for individuals to maintain their own health. It transformed healthcare from a personal responsibility into a collective burden, and the results are plain to see. America has become one of the most unhealthy developed nations on the planet.
The Profits Behind the Promise
It is important to follow the money. Since the implementation of the ACA, the profit margins of major health insurance companies have soared. UnitedHealth Group, Anthem (now Elevance), Cigna, and others have all reported record-breaking earnings. The law guaranteed millions of new customers, many subsidized by taxpayers, while reducing competition and risk for insurers.
For these companies the result was predictable: premiums climbed, stock prices surged, and executives received staggering bonuses. The supposed “healthcare reform” became one of the largest corporate windfalls in modern history. The ACA essentially turned the federal government into the health insurance industry’s most reliable customer.
The Political Shell Game
We cannot forget how this law came into existence. In 2010, Democrat lawmakers unveiled the final version of the Affordable Care Act only hours before the vote. Members of Congress were told to pass it first and read it later. That’s right, law makers were encouraged, practically commanded, to pass a law without even knowing what the law said. How can any legislation crafted in secrecy, rushed through without full review, be considered part of the democratic process?
The American people were sold a bill they didn’t order and then forced to pay for it, literally. The ACA included an individual mandate that penalized anyone who chose not to purchase health insurance. Millions of Americans, myself included, were fined by the very government that promised freedom of choice. To make matters worse, those same policymakers now want to use taxpayer money to fund free healthcare for people who entered the country illegally.
It was never about affordability or compassion. It was about control and consolidation.
The Language of Deception
Words matter, and the ACA’s title was one of the most effective marketing slogans in political history. Who would vote against something called “The Affordable Care Act”? The word “affordable” was the bait. The hook was dependency. Once people grew accustomed to subsidies and government coverage, the system became almost impossible to unwind.
The truth is, nothing became more affordable. Costs didn’t vanish; they were simply disguised. Americans paid more, just not all at once. The law’s real genius was in its design to make the damage invisible.
All a person has to do is look at the earnings of the CEO’s of just the top five insurance companies in the United States. Combined, in 2024, they earned more than $100,000,000.00, averaging roughly $20,000,000.00 each. Prior to the ACA, those same CEO’s were only earning about half that amount. I do not think it is a simple coincidence that the premiums have more than doubled, as have the salaries of the CEO’s. If the ACA were truly for the benefit of the consumer, the requirement of maintaining health insurance would not have become a blank check for these companies. Instead of the salary of a CEO doubling, the cost of healthcare premiums for the average person should have been reduced.
The Bottom Line
Before the ACA, health insurance cost less. That is not an opinion; it is a fact supported by the data. What changed was not only the rules of coverage but how the real costs were hidden and redistributed. The Affordable Care Act was not the answer to anything. It was a carefully coordinated effort that benefited large corporations, burdened taxpayers, and undermined the personal responsibility that once kept our nation healthy.
When a system rewards poor health, penalizes productivity, and protects profit above all else, it ceases to be healthcare, it becomes managed illness.
The promise of affordability turned into the practice of dependency. The law that was supposed to care for Americans ended up caring for corporations. And the people who once believed it would help them are now paying the price; one hidden tax, one premium increase, and one declining standard of health at a time.
