Letter: We cannot afford Affordable Care Act

More than five years later, and after a disastrous roll-out of the program, we are finding out, and the results are less than satisfying:

The $2,500 medical premium reduction per family, promised by President Obama, never happened.

Deductibles for 2016 policies offered on the exchanges rose from6 percent to 15 percent, depending on the plan. Twelve of the 23 co-ops established in the bill to act as competitors to established insurers have failed, costing taxpayers $1.2 billion in defaulted loan repayments. In our immediate area, Consumer's Choice folded after being in business for only two years.

Major insurers, including the nation's largest insurance company, UnitedHealth Group, are threatening to leave the exchanges altogether, because they continue to lose money despite hefty premium increases passed on to their customers.

Jonathan Gruber, MIT economist and ACA consultant, was quoted as saying that passage of the law depended on the stupidity of the American voter. It turns out that he was correct.

Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate for president, believes that the law is working, but we need to "fix the glitches." Based on her comments, it's clear that to gain a truly bipartisan solution to this debacle, we will need a Republican in the White House in 2017.

Ken Ahlers

This story was originally published December 27, 2015 at 7:23 PM with the headline "Letter: We cannot afford Affordable Care Act."