The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, was signed into law by President Obama in 2010. It was intended to make healthcare more affordable and provide health coverage for the uninsured. What happened was that costs increased, and for Nevadans in particular, the cost of healthcare skyrocketed. You have better odds of winning the slots than winning the ACA game.

Federally, individuals are required to have health insurance, but there is zero penalty for not doing so in Nevada. However, if you have insurance, you are likely paying too much because you’re paying for benefits you’ll never need. Reforms are needed to reduce state regulations and make health insurance more accessible and affordable. Budget conscious Nevadans will find that paying for benefits they’ll never use cuts into their savings.

ACA: A Quadrupling of Premiums

The big government ACA program sounded “good,” as pitched by President Obama. Who wouldn’t want something made more affordable to them? Promises were made that you could keep your doctor, that healthcare for all as mandated by big government was the right and responsible thing to do, and hey, it would be affordable. 

The problem with that is that in a short period of time, premiums doubled, and in some cases, they quadrupled. Somebody needed to pay the bill for everyone being covered, and those costs were spread out to everyone.

Mandates for Unnecessary Coverages

In a free market – where buyers and sellers determine prices based only on supply and demand without government interference – there are no mandates. No government intervention. Unfortunately, that is not the case with ACA. State-mandated benefits require insurance plans to cover services many people may not need. Services like preventative screenings and different types of therapies. It also includes treatments for medical conditions that don’t apply to everyone.

And because these mandated benefits have to be included in the health insurance policy, it drives up the cost of premiums. How? When a mandated benefit is included in a health plan, all of the plan policyholders pay for that benefit, even those unlikely ever to need the service. That results in a higher premium for the policyholders who would never need the mandated benefit.

Then why charge people for care they don’t or won’t need? Because the mandates say so.

Putting the Affordable Back into “Affordable Care”

Common sense says that allowing consumers to purchase insurance plans that fit their specific needs, rather than mandating coverage for services they don’t want, would make health insurance more affordable. If a family was shopping for a couch and they found the perfect one and the salesman said, “I’m sorry, to buy this couch, you have to buy the loveseat too,” they wouldn’t want to buy it because they don’t need it (and might not even have room for it).

What ACA is doing is trying to jam unneeded benefits down Nevadan’s throats and make them pay for it. The solution? Let’s make it so you only pay for the coverage you need. 

Making affordable care affordable will take common-sense reforms that make healthcare available and allow you to choose what you need. Just as you should be able to choose where your child goes to school, you should be able to select the specific health benefits you need.