Just like every noble, well-intentioned Federal program, the Obamacare will have unintended consequences that undermine proposed benefits as they get implemented. One of the unintended consequences is that corporations are encouraging their employees to move to health exchanges in order to reduce their healthcare costs. An example is Walmart's effort to hire more part-timers to avoid the Obamacare mandate. Other large corporations such as UPS and Delta Airlines are pulling back on healthcare benefits, citing higher costs due to Obamacare, according to a CNNMoney report. At the end of the day, Obamacare may end up as another growing entitlement program paid by our children.
The most popular and socially responsible components of Obamacare are coverage of pre-existing conditions, the spending cap, and coverage of kids until age 26 under their parents' policy. All of these could have been accomplished without starting another entitlement program and its negative unintended consequences. According to a CBO estimates of April 2014, Health Insurance Exchange enrollment will go from 6 million in 2014 to 25 million in 2024 at a cost of $15 billion in 2014 to $137 billion by 2024 (see figure below) or $4410 per person to $7,170 per year. This will still leave more than half of the Americans uninsured even after 10 years.
One thing is certain, however; the cost of healthcare will continue to rise, since the ACA does not address the cost of healthcare, even though the rhetoric-rich name "Affordable Care Act" implies it does. Moreover, the young generation is again being asked to shoulder a cost burden by being mandated to buy health insurance even though they have the least need for it. But there is a better alternative, which is to fix the cost of healthcare.
