Pouring Gasoline on the Affordability Fire

Congress appears poised to pour more gasoline on the fire that caused the nation’s affordability crisis by extending COVID-era subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka “Obamacare.” This is not to say that the beneficiaries of the ACA aren’t suffering from soaring healthcare costs. They are. But the problem, once again, is that the government’s “solution” is just more of what caused the problem in the first place.

The growing deficit, the epidemic of dependence on government welfare programs, and soaring prices are all part of the same crisis. We’re not just having an affordability crisis. We’re having a government subsidy crisis. 

The majority of current government spending falls into one of two categories: entitlement spending, and paying the interest on the giant debt we’ve accumulated. We’ve all seen how this dynamic plays out across industries. For example, when the cost of education spiked, the government stepped in with subsidies and loans. Soon, only people receiving government assistance and those who are independently wealthy will be able to afford college.

After the Obama administration stepped in to make health care “affordable,” it should be no surprise that it has become anything but that. According to Forbes, an astonishing 91 percent of Americans are dependent on the government in one way or another for their healthcare. Not coincidentally, healthcare inflation is stubbornly high.