Shaheen: Costs Have Gone Up Under ACA, But It’s Designed to Cover More People and Congress Hasn’t Sp

[mystery-ak]

Shaheen: Costs Have Gone Up Under ACA, But It’s Designed to Cover More People and Congress Hasn’t Spent Enough to Keep Costs Down

Ian Hanchett 11 Dec 2025

On Thursday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) responded to a question on whether subsidies have to keep being increased for the Affordable Care Act because it didn’t lower costs by saying that costs have gone up under the ACA, “But the important thing about Obamacare and the marketplace is that we have covered more people,” “and that’s what the marketplace, the Obamacare marketplace, is designed to do. Now, one of the challenges is that Congress has continued to take away the funding that was designed to help lower those costs over time, so that we haven’t been able to do the work that we need to on the delivery system reform to make the system work better.”

Co-host Steve Inskeep asked, “First, you point out that the rest of us pay for the health care of people who don’t have insurance, who are unable to pay for insurance. You also mentioned the high cost of health care. Do you accept the Republican argument here that Obamacare fundamentally did not bend the curve, as people once said, it has not brought down healthcare expenses overall, and that’s why you keep having to raise the subsidies?”

Shaheen responded, “We have seen healthcare costs continue to go up. But the important thing about Obamacare and the marketplace is that we have covered more people, double the number of people, 24 million people who are covered under the marketplace. And in New Hampshire, which I represent, for the last four years in a row, we have seen the number of uninsured go down and the cost of premiums go down as well. So, I think what we need to do is to look at how we provide health care for all of the people who need it, and that’s what the marketplace, the Obamacare marketplace, is designed to do. Now, one of the challenges is that Congress has continued to take away the funding that was designed to help lower those costs over time, so that we haven’t been able to do the work that we need to on the delivery system reform to make the system work better.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2025/12/11/shaheen-costs-have-gone-up-under-aca-but-its-designed-to-cover-more-people-and-congress-hasnt-spent-enough-to-keep-costs-down/

[Kamaji]

Except that I remember one of the main selling points about Obamacare was that it would bend the cost curve down.

So she’s essentially admitting that that was a lie all along.  But instead of going back to first principles and undoing what they’ve done to f**k things up, she wants to double down on exactly those things that f**ked things up. 

Hair of the dog that bit you doesn’t work for hangovers, and it doesn’t work for socialist eff-ups.

[Timber Rattler]

Except that I remember one of the main selling points about Obamacare was that it would bend the cost curve down.

So she’s essentially admitting that that was a lie all along.  But instead of going back to first principles and undoing what they’ve done to f**k things up, she wants to double down on exactly those things that f**ked things up. 

Hair of the dog that bit you doesn’t work for hangovers, and it doesn’t work for socialist eff-ups.

Yeah, that was a lie back then and everybody knew it.  Remember when Pelosi and Reid twisted the arm of the head of the Congressional Budget Office to "bend that curve" downward to support that lie?

[Kamaji]

Yeah, that was a lie back then and everybody knew it.  Remember when Pelosi and Reid twisted the arm of the head of the Congressional Budget Office to "bend that curve" downward to support that lie?

Yes.  It was not one of CBOs finer moments.

[DB]

The ACAs primary purpose was to destroy private health insurance funneling everything to government administered single payer.

[Smokin Joe]

Except that I remember one of the main selling points about Obamacare was that it would bend the cost curve down.

So she’s essentially admitting that that was a lie all along.  But instead of going back to first principles and undoing what they’ve done to f**k things up, she wants to double down on exactly those things that f**ked things up. 

Hair of the dog that bit you doesn’t work for hangovers, and it doesn’t work for socialist eff-ups.

Sure it does. Their Hangover cure is to just stay kneewalking drunk.

[DefiantMassRINO]

ACA is not fixing anything.  The medical providers are more consolidated now than ever.

The US Sick Care system is in a slow motion collapse.

There are only 3 ways to make money in health insurance:

- deny access to care
- low/slow reimbursement rates
- fraud

[Smokin Joe]

Can we dust off a fundamental idea, here?

This was never about providing health CARE.

It was about making everyone buy health INSURANCE.

Cui bono?

Insurers, who were required to provide coverage for things the patient would not (or could not) use, to the detriment of patients who were required to buy that coverage.

In other words, aside from billing expenses, the insurance companies made pure profit on that coverage.

In the meantime, coverage that was relevant for a particular patient was no longer offered because it did not contain the other provisions required under the ACA.

In the past 50 years, the best coverage I have had was working for Pizza Hut delivering pizzas during COVID. Second place goes to Medicare. During the Obamacare rollout, I lost my insurance and decided that paying out of pocket and risking the fine was more economical for my family of four than buying the $28,000/year insurance with a $14,000 annual deductible (the most economical plan on the exchange here).

If you think something is expensive, just wait until it is "free".

[Hoodat]

But the important thing about Obamacare and the marketplace is that we have covered more people"

Define "we".