Get ready: Obamacare is about to lower your standard of living

By Tom Quiner

How did Obamacare come to pass?

This legislative boondoggle came about because of  legitimate problems in our health care delivery system.

Insurance premiums kept skyrocketing.

Millions were uninsured.

Folks with pre-existing conditions were having increasing difficulty gaining coverage.

The health insurance policies tended to be owned by our employers, not us, inserting a complicating middleman into the equation.

You get the idea. We had a mess on our hands.

Conservatives blamed the problems on big government and said we need more competition. But they didn’t do a thing about it when they had the chance.

Liberals blamed the free enterprise system and said we need to turn it over to the government. They did act on it with the passage of the 2700 page Obamacare legislation.

The Heritage Foundation took a look at how Obamacare is affecting us now and what will happen in the years to come. And it’s not a pretty picture.

A major issue to all of us has been the rising costs of health insurance. Unlike other forms of insurance, health insurance isn’t allowed to be marketed across state lines, reducing competition and, as a result, increasing rates.

In addition, states and the federal government have imposed mandates on coverage, driving up costs more.

Obamacare builds on this mess with 17 new taxes or penalties that will cost taxpayers $501 Billion by 2019, according to analysis presented by The Heritage Foundation. The chart above reveals the complexity and costs of Obamacare.

These taxes and fines will come on top of the premium increases we’re seeing since Obamacare passed. Despite the president’s promise that he would reduce the price of health insurance, the average policy for families increased by $1303 from 2010 to 2011; and the average increase for individual policies was $380.

Obamacare was also touted as a mechanism to decrease the deficit. A trustee for Medicare, Charles Blahous, blew the lid on this faulty premise with his recent study. Mr. Blahous, a George Mason University research fellow, estimates that Obamacare care will add $530 Billion to the deficit over the next decade.

We’re left with the worst of all worlds: higher taxes, higher premiums, and a larger national debt.

You’ve noticed, I’m sure, that President Obama is desperately trying to avoid talking about this, his signature accomplishment. The Supreme Court may throw the whole thing out with their decision next month. If not, it should be the focal point of the Fall presidential campaign.

The solution is more free enterprise, not less. That is the path to cheaper health insurance.