Obamacare: Saving Grace or Regulatory Leviathan? A
ny discussion of U.S. healthcare must
factor in the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The massive, 974-page law passed in 2010 has spawned thousands of pages of federal rules and regulations. The ACA and its public option — along with expanded Medicaid coverage — succeeded in increasing the percentage of
the U.S. population covered by health insurance. One federal study estimated an additional 20 million Americans obtained coverage. Despite that
improvement, however, some 25 million citizens remained uncovered in 2023. That year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, about
7.7% of all Americans lacked health insurance coverage, down from 33 million in 2019. Health insurance costs
overall, meanwhile, have skyrocketed. The average monthly premium for an individual market policy has basically doubled since the law was enacted, from $244 per month before the act took effect to $477 today. That’s according to a recent
Heritage Foundation study. Deductibles, meanwhile,
have shot up as well. The average deductible for a modest plan today that covers about 60% of a beneficiary’s claims has increased $2,000 since 2014, when the ACA first took effect. That deductible now stands at a whopping $7,258 for a bronze-tier marketplace plan. — D.A.P.
FDA granted accelerated approval of the drug Aduhelm to treat Alzheimer’s, yet another dis- ease that appears to be spiraling out of control: The number of U.S. Alzheimer’s patients stood at 5.1 million in 2015, and is expected to triple to 13.8 million by 2050. The FDA’s approval of the drug touched off
a firestorm of controversy and triggered an in- ternal investigation. Three highly credentialed members of the scientific panel that overwhelm- ingly voted to reject the drug tendered their resignations in protest, and one of them called it “probably the worst drug approval decision in recent U.S. history.” Further complicating matters: The drug’s ini-
tial, sky-high cost was over $56,000 annually for each patient. Although drugmaker Biogen an- nounced it would discontinue efforts to market the drug in February 2024, many observers see it as a lingering embarrassment for the FDA. The obvious question: How could Big Pharma be so powerful that it could win FDA approval for a super-expensive drug . . . before it was even proven to work? To answer that, one must fathom the depths of the industry’s extraordinary power. Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson has done just that, documenting the breathtaking power and influence of the pharmaceutical in- dustry in her new book, Follow the Science: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails. Her book reveals that the healthcare industry
spent half a billion dollars to lobby politicians in 2023, a staggering sum. The amount it invests in currying favor with politicians leads every other
The FDA granted accelerated approval of the drug Aduhelm to treat
Alzheimer’s. Biogen completed the FDA application in July 2020, and despite an FDA advisory committee voting against approval in November 2020 due to concerns about the eficacy data, the agency ultimately granted approval in June 2021.
industry by a large margin. During the coronavirus pandemic, then-
President Donald Trump fast-tracked the record development of the COVID-19 vaccines. But that didn’t seem to win him many friends in the medical-industrial complex. According to
OpenSecrets.org, the pharma-
ceutical companies pumped $9 million into Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, triple the $3 million it contributed to the reelection effort of Trump.
This campaign cycle, perhaps not surprising-
ly, the disparity appeared to be even greater. As of mid-October, according to OpenSecrets, Big Pharma had chipped in another $6 million for Kamala Harris. The pharmaceutical industry’s
DECEMBER 2024 | NEWSMAX 63
$56,000 annually for each patient.
ACA SIGN/CRAIG MCCAUSLAND/GETTY IMAGES
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