Obamacare is providing coverage to fewer Americans than expected while driving healthcare costs to the highest levels seen in seven years, Forbes reported.
According to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, coverage under Obamacare fell short of expectations by 6 to 12 million people.
"In 2010, when Obamacare was passed, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the law would reduce the number of uninsured in 2014 by 19 million," states the article. "By 2016, CBO estimated that 30 million fewer people would be uninsured."
However, last week’s numbers from CMS showed a different picture. "According to their estimates, the number of uninsured fell by 12.6 million from 2010 to 2014," states Forbes. "And 2010’s uninsurance rate was artificially higher due to the Great Recession; if you use 2008 as the baseline, the number of uninsured fell by only 6.7 million."
"In other words, all of the disruption, spending, taxation, and premium hikes in Obamacare has only reduced the percentage of U.S. residents without health insurance by about 2 percent: a remarkably small number, and far lower than what the law was supposed to achieve."
Additionally, economists at CMS found that national health spending grew 5.3 percent in 2014—the highest rate since 2007.
"In 2014, U.S. government spending on health care neared $1.4 trillion," states the article. "That’s over $4,500 for every man, woman and child in the country: far more than we would ever need to achieve universal coverage in a rational, market-based system."