For Immediate Release:
Contact: Kelly Broadway, 202-808-8853
[email protected]
Washington, D.C. – Joel White, President of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC), testified today before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, in a hearing titled “Assessing the Damage Done by Obamacare.”
In his testimony, Joel detailed how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has driven up health care costs for patients and small businesses while narrowing coverage options. He noted that premiums have surged by 168 percent since plans became available, double the level in employer plans, and more than four times faster than wages, making coverage less affordable.
Taxpayer subsidies for ACA plans have surged more than 50 percent over the past decade in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars, fueled in part by consolidation among insurers and hospital systems. The ACA’s structure has enabled just two insurers to control over 70 percent of enrollment and spurred payment reforms that encourage hospital and physician buyouts, creating monopolies that raise prices for patients and deliver windfalls to hospitals through programs like 340B.
“The Affordable Care Act’s grand design to reduce costs and increase access has backfired. Instead, it is crushing competition and driving up costs for taxpayers and small businesses through anti-market mandates and bloated government spending,” said Joel White, President of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage.
“Obamacare has dismantled small employer coverage, recklessly expanded Medicaid, and fueled a wave of consolidation across the health care industry, all while sticking taxpayers with the bill.”
White called on Congress to correct the ACA’s design flaws to make health coverage affordable for all Americans.