Watching old clips of Barack Obama selling Obamacare feels like revisiting a vintage infomercial, only this one ended with your deductible tripling. The supercut shows the former president promising affordability, choice, competition, and transparency. A decade later, Americans got higher premiums, fewer choices, government monopolies, and insurance fine print so opaque it makes the tax code look user-friendly.
Obama promised his plan would “lower costs” for families. Instead, premiums skyrocketed, deductibles exploded, and out-of-pocket spending hit record highs. The only “savings” were in the White House’s rhetoric. For millions, the Affordable Care Act became the Barely Affordable Care Act.
Then came the famous line: “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” That turned out to be the healthcare equivalent of “the check is in the mail.” Millions lost coverage they actually liked; but hey, at least they got access to new, government-approved plans with narrower networks and higher bills. Progress!
Obama also vowed the law would foster competition, but consolidation became the name of the game. Small insurers vanished, hospital systems merged, and “marketplace options” shrank to one or two per region. Americans were promised a thriving private market; what they got was a slow-motion public takeover.
So watch the supercut. It’s the perfect time capsule of the Obama era: smooth salesmanship, soaring promises, and a product that performed exactly the opposite of how it was advertised. Obamacare didn’t fix the system, it just nationalized the waiting room.