Republicans and average Americans tried to warn them. We tried to warn Democrats that Obamacare was wholly unsustainable. Now in the year 2025, we are seeing the consequences of arguably the single most disastrous healthcare policy ever devised in America. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) promised to improve our system. Instead, it has corrupted one of our most critical systems and turned it into a shell of what it should be.

Prices have steadily risen, subsidies have created an untenable situation of both indifference and costs, and healthcare options have dwindled down to solely major conglomerates. Now, Democrats want to continue the entire thing by extending them before the year is up. As a result, new surveys show that over 70-percent of Americans are unhappy with the U.S. healthcare system.

Dr. Cliff Porter of the Texas Public Policy Foundation says this whole operation has turned into a conveyor belt of sorts. They make patients answer a million questions, charge them, and get them out as quick as possible, all to keep feeding the broken system.

"All of it is about building a chart for billing purposes...they have to go so fat because their reimbursements are going low or they are fighting with insurance," he says. "That is not how medicine is supposed to be."

All Obamacare did was create monopolies more akin to cartels than actual healthcare providers. They swallowed up any opportunity for options, all while increasing costs every step of the way.

To make things even more tricky, the ACA has miles of red tape for providers. One of them stands out in particular and has made the industry substantially worse off.

"Physicians are not allowed to own hospitals anymore...which is nonsense saying they have a conflict of interest if they own one...even though they are better and more cost effective," says Dr. Porter. "Now, we have private equity and government running healthcare instead of actually providers."

Government run healthcare is something no one wants. Most proponents of it point to places like France or Canada, who have universal healthcare. News flash: the United States has been essentially funding those systems and propping them up for the decades of their existence.

The ACA, while it might seem like a good idea on the surface, is plagued by rampant corruption, bottom line money hunting, and a lack of empathy for patients.

The problems too track all back to those ACA subsidies that Democrats hold so dearly.

"The subsidies were essentially going straight to insurers, the insurers had no incentive to lower prices," Dr. Porter says.

They want to extend those subsidies because they and their counterparts profit off of them. That is why they love the ACA. Not because it helps Americans. Because it lines their own already grossly fat pockets.

But the fix is pretty simple. The GOP has proposed creating health savings accounts, so Americans can use the money have their own choices. Dr. Porter says that is the best way to fix this problem and make American healthcare work for Americans once again.

San Antonio's First News