I hate to say it, but I always knew that the Affordable Care Act was never going to FIX the healthcare system in America. It was crony-capitalism right out of the chute and the American middle class got left holding the bag! Liberty, property and free markets are the cornerstone of the American experiment. Abandoning these principles doesn't lead to more prosperity, it leads to less. I never really understood the concept of trying to evade reality. Reality exists and attempting to evade it just leads to great problems down the road. We all know this but when it comes to government, we somehow imagine that evading reality collectively will make a difference. Well, it simply does not.

Essay "The Law" by Frederic Bastiat

https://mises.org/library/book/law

The Affordable Care Act Notes

🧩 Opening Framing

• The ACA began with a promise: coverage, affordability, and reform — but 15 years later, those promises remain largely unfulfilled.

• Politicians now ask for more subsidies, insurance companies want more money, and the public faces higher premiums and thinner coverage.

🔥 Broken Promises & Structural Failures

• “If you like your plan, you can keep it” — Millions lost coverage or saw their plans gutted. This wasn’t a glitch; it was a structural failure.

• Premiums will drop by $2,500 per family — Instead, premiums soared for the unsubsidized. Middle-class families absorbed the cost.

• Universal coverage — Still over 25 million uninsured, and 90 million functionally uninsured due to sky-high deductibles.

• Preexisting condition protections — Only applied to ~5–10% of the population. Most already had coverage through Medicare, Medicaid, or employer plans.

• Essential health benefits — Translated to loss of affordable, lean coverage. No more skinny plans. No more choice.

💸 Middle-Class Squeeze

• Subsidies didn’t make coverage affordable — they masked rising costs and shifted the burden to the middle class.

• No warning, no cushion — just a trap door for middle-income Americans.

🏥 Medicaid & Employer Fallout

• Medicaid expansion was optional — many states opted out, leaving millions without coverage or subsidies.

• Employer mandate backfired — companies cut hours, froze hiring, and pushed full-time workers into part-time status.

💻 Tech Failures & Deficit Myths

• Healthcare.gov was promised to be seamless — it crashed on launch, cost billions, and enriched insiders.

• Deficit reduction never materialized — subsidy costs exploded, and creative accounting masked the reality.

🧠 Systemic Critique

• ACA papered over a broken system without fixing the root causes: bad incentives, entrenched bureaucracy, and insurance complexity.

• Promises were sold, but never delivered — the middle class lost, while bureaucracy and financial interests won.