Obamacare’s five years of failure

On March 23, 2010, exactly five years ago today, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. Virtually no one had actually read the law, and still fewer understood the full implications of a government takeover of health insurance markets. Now, five years later, we are experiencing these effects firsthand.

Obamacare was sold to the American people — unsuccessfully, since most people opposed it at the time of its passage — as a social safety net to help poor people, to stop them from having to live at the mercy of ruthless insurance companies, and to ensure that every American, regardless of income, could get the healthcare they needed. For many, it was a compelling story, but like all things that sound too good to be true, it turned out to be nothing but smoke and mirrors.

Obamacare doesn’t help the poor; in fact, it hurts them. It doesn’t provide them with opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty, it doesn’t help them find jobs, and it doesn’t increase their access to medical services.