Here's the Proof Obamacare is For the Insurance Companies, and Not For You

When President Obama proposed the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, many championed it as a system which would prioritize consumers over insurance companies. However, as millions are now learning, the opposite is true. Obamacare has opened a hub of cronyism for health insurance companies. The law doesn’t hold insurance companies accountable for out of control rates. Rather, it helps these companies rob you blind.

The Obama administration and Congressional Democrats have recently been recipients of widespread outrage, as many promises about the functionality of Obamacare have completely fallen through. In 2009, Obama promised that, "If you like your health care plan, you can keep [it]." This has been proven false, and has prompted extensive upset by union members.

A lesser known broken promise is that of Obamacare putting Americans before insurance companies. However, cronyism between Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Obama administration, and Enroll America, has proven that Obamacare puts insurance companies first.

When Obama was elected, Blue Cross Blue Shield's (BCBS) lobbying expenditures jumped sharply, and continued to do so until soon after Obamacare passed Congress. BCBS’s involvement turns nefarious, when realizing one of their executives (along with executives from several other health insurance companies) is on the board of Enroll America. Enroll America is a 501(c)(3) with close ties to the White House and the administration, which aims to maximize enrollment in Obamacare and promote it.  

Worse yet, in May, the House Energy and Commerce Committee expanded its investigation into "reports that Health and Human Services [HHS] Secretary Kathleen Sebelius may have solicited funding … from the health care industry to help implement [Obamacare]." An "HHS spokesperson said Secretary Sebelius suggested health care executives and others support the work of Enroll America." Among the 15 organizations from which the committee requested information about Sebelius’s actions is — yes — BCBS.

Even more concerning, Sebelius appointed BCBS Louisiana Senior Vice President to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS). BCBS has become quite cozy with the Obama administration while the American people are left in the lurch.

Recently, former President Bill Clinton spoke in support of Obamacare. He explained that many are concerned that too few healthy young people will sign up for health insurance. He went on to detail that this is an issue of concern, because if too few young, healthy people buy insurance, the sick will have to pay more. Young people need less coverage, while sick people need more. In other words, Clinton is advocating forcing people to buy coverage they don't need, in order to subsidize other peoples' health care costs. This, in effect, gives health insurance companies like BCBS lots of extra money and a free pass to jack up prices without any accountability.

Clinton neglected to explain alternatives to this dynamic, including actually holding insurance companies accountable for their out of control fees, and ridding unnecessary and costly measures used to block doctors from lawsuits, called "defensive medicine." Rep. Tom Price proposed doing the latter. It seems many Democrats are more interested in lining health insurance companies' pockets than promoting actual affordable care.

Those who were formerly huge supporters of the law are now outraged at its negative effects. Unions are fuming at the Obama administration, as they have learned Obamacare prompts employers to cut workers' hours and reduces coverage. Even the Democratic lawmakers who passed the bill are now lamenting its horrendous effects and calling it a "train wreck."

Diminishing support for the law is justly founded. Obamacare promotes corporate cronyism. The real victors are not the American people, but the health insurance companies. Obamacare does a lot to help these companies, and even more to force Americans to support them.