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Thank a DemocratDemocrats’ Policies and Biden’s Historic Inflation Have Hiked Health Care Costs (Click here to download)DEMOCRATS’ 15-YEAR TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA’S HEALTH CARE SYSTEM HAS UTTERLY FAILED AND LED TO HIGHER PREMIUMS“The real problem is that the Affordable Care Act was never actually affordable.” (The Washington Post: Editorial: The shutdown conversation no one wants – 10/5/25)“Almost every promise Obama made about what [Obamacare] would do has proven false. It has not cut the budget deficit, slowed medical spending, saved lives, lowered health insurance premiums, improved the quality of care, or let patients keep doctors they liked. That’s quite a list of failures.” (Washington Examiner: Editorial: Obamacare has failed – 12/13/24)“Remember Barack Obama’s promise that if you like your health plan and doctor, you could keep them? Sorry. How about his claim that people with pre-existing conditions would be protected? Also not true. The biggest howler, however, was that healthcare would become more affordable.” (The Wall Street Journal: UnitedHealthcare and the ObamaCare Con – 12/8/24)“Democrats in 2021 sweetened subsidies for buying insurance on the ObamaCare exchanges. Enrollment has since doubled while taxpayer costs rose by 150%. Spending on ObamaCare subsidies has increased faster than Medicaid or Medicare since 2020, if you can believe it. Democrats tout this blowout of government-subsidized healthcare as a triumph.” (The Wall Street Journal: Editorial: The Phantom Patients of ObamaCare – 8/17/25)“The enhanced provisions eliminated the prior income cap for eligibility—400% of the federal poverty level, or $128,600 for a family of four—and lowered the maximum percentage of income enrollees can be required to pay out of pocket.” (The Wall Street Journal: The Health Insurance Subsidies at the Center of the Government Shutdown Fight – 10/1/25)“The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which passed in 2022, extended these enhanced subsidies for an additional three years, ending after 2025.” (Kaiser Family Foundation: Inflation Reduction Act Health Insurance Subsidies: What is Their Impact and What Would Happen if They Expire? – 7/26/24)“[T]he subsidies come at a steep cost to taxpayers, with the CBO projecting that a permanent extension of the subsidies would cost $335 billion over the next ten years.” (Kaiser Family Foundation: Inflation Reduction Act Health Insurance Subsidies: What is Their Impact and What Would Happen if They Expire? – 7/26/24)“Premiums for individual market coverage soared, with average premiums increasing from $242 to $589 — a 143 percent increase — between 2013 and 2019. Deductibles also skyrocketed.” (Paragon Health Institute: Reality Check: The Increasing Cost of Papering Over Obamacare’s Problems – 3/31/22)HISTORIC INFLATION DURING THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION CONTRIBUTED GREATLY TO HIGHER HEALTH CARE COSTS FOR EMPLOYER-PROVIDED PLANSFor 2025, the Business Group on Health “said its annual survey of large employers had found that they expected costs to rise about 8 percent, the highest jump in more than a decade.” (The New York Times: Expect Higher Costs for Your Health Care Benefits Next Year – 11/1/24)“There are multiple reasons why health care costs are rising swiftly now, said Debbie Ashford, the North America chief actuary for Health Solutions at Aon, which pegs the increase at 8.5% for 2024, nearly double the rate for this year.” (CNN: Health care costs at work set to rise steeply in 2024 – 10/31/23)“Higher prices account for more than half of the jump. Though inflation hit its peak last year, the impact is often delayed in the health care sector because contracts between insurers and medical providers are usually locked in for several years.” (CNN: Health care costs at work set to rise steeply in 2024 – 10/31/23)During President Biden’s tenure in office, prices for hospital services increased nearly 18%. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index – January 2021 – 2/10/21; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index – December 2024 – 2/12/25)“[T]he cost of employer-provided health insurance, which rose 7% in 2024 for a second straight year, is likely to rise again. Companies’ total health-benefit cost for an employee is expected to increase an average of 5.8% in 2025, according to a separate Mercer survey.” (The Wall Street Journal: Health Costs and Flat Raises Are Set to Squeeze Paychecks – 10/14/24)2023: “The cost of job-based health care coverage for 2024 is expected to rise at its fastest pace in years as inflation pervades insurance policies.” (CNN: Health care costs at work set to rise steeply in 2024 – 10/31/23)2024: “Family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose 7%... This marks the second year in a row that premiums are up 7%. Over the past five years—a period of high inflation (23%) and wage growth (28%)—the cumulative increase in premiums has been similar (24%).” (Kaier Family Foundation: Annual Family Premiums for Employer Coverage Rise 7% to Average $25,572 in 2024, Benchmark Survey Finds, After Also Rising 7% Last Year – 10/9/24)“The benefits consultant Mercer found that about half of employers expected to make cost-cutting changes to their health insurance plans in 2025, an increase from 44 percent this year. Changes might include raising deductibles, the amount employees must pay out of pocket for care before insurance pays. (Mercer surveyed more than 1,800 employers with at least 50 employees.)” (The New York Times: Expect Higher Costs for Your Health Care Benefits Next Year – 11/1/24)“Some companies that had been absorbing the higher costs for drugs and doctor visits now say they will have to start passing on those prices to workers in the form of higher deductibles and, in some cases, higher healthcare premiums, said Beth Umland, Mercer’s director of research for health and benefits.” (The Wall Street Journal: Health Costs and Flat Raises Are Set to Squeeze Paychecks – 10/14/24)DEMOCRATS’ RHETORIC OVER THE YEARS EXPOSES THE TOTAL FAILURE OF THEIR HEALTH CARE POLICIESAs Obamacare was being passed, Democrats had lofty predictions for how it would fix the American health care system and lower costs:“Who would have thought that we could finally get a handle on the thing that is driving our budget deficit to great heights, which is health care costs, and at the same time do so much good by covering so many people.” – Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) (12/24/09)“Our effort is to make health insurance more affordable for individuals and small businesses.” –Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) (12/3/09)“A collection of measures that will help us to further reduce health care costs and improve the quality of care patients receive.” – Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) (12/8/09)“[A]n historic bill that will finally reform our broken health care system and help millions of our families and small businesses get the coverage they need at a price they can afford. It is about time.” – Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) (11/19/09)But now, facing the results of their failed policies, Democrats are sounding the alarm:“[T]he healthcare crisis is so deep and so real.” – Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)“[W]e’re in a health care crisis right now.” – House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)“Now, right now, we have a broken health care system. Nobody can afford health care.” – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)“People are scared about how they are going to pay for their healthcare or if they are going to have it at all.” – Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)“People are literally standing on a health care cliff right now.” – Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)PrintEmailTweetNextPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER THUNEFacebookXInstagram
