Opinion

Obamacare’s Costly Illusion of Affordability: From Subsidies to Serfdom

The ACA obscures the true costs of healthcare. The government shutdown revealed just how much.
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Obamacare’s Costly Illusion of Affordability: From Subsidies to Serfdom
Kelly vanDellen/Shutterstock
Richard Menger
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Commentary
Since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), health insurance premiums have steadily increased, as has healthcare’s proportion of the gross domestic product (GDP). In employer-sponsored insurance, escalating premiums are the primary driver for stagnant take-home wages.
Richard Menger
Richard Menger
Author
Richard Menger, MD MPA, is an academic neurosurgeon and a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He focuses on complex spinal deformity and scoliosis surgery performing over 350 operations a year. He is a lead editor of the textbook Economics, Business, Policy of Neurosurgery. He is currently the Chief of Complex Spine Surgery at the University of South Alabama and is on the faculty of the neurosurgery and political science departments. He is a healthcare contributor to Forbes.