Health is the Biggest Affordability Challenge

Thanks to decades of bad policy – and four years of Bidenomics – America is facing an affordability crisis.

Thanks to decades of bad policy – and four years of Bidenomics – America is facing an affordability crisis.

The news media tends to focus on the cost of groceries as the heart of the problem. But high grocery bills are a symptom, not the cause.

The greatest long-term cause of the affordability problem is the cost of health insurance. The Democrats say they want to lower health insurance costs – and they think extending supposedly temporary covid-era subsidies will do the trick.

But the truth is, these subsidies will only help sustain the clearly unaffordable system (which Democrats created under Obamacare). The covid subsidies are the latest evidence that they have no idea how to solve the underlying problems – and no plans to truly lower the cost of health care in America.

This problem is personal for Americans and critical to our national survival. Health care costs account for nearly 18 percent of the GDP – and they are rising. Ever increasing health costs make it virtually impossible to balance the federal budget. Without serious fixes it will get much worse. We will be doomed to spend even more money for worse health outcomes in America – and eventually go bankrupt.

Politicians and Washington think tanks are underestimating the devastating impact of the endlessly growing costs of health insurance and health care. Some may be intimidated by the intensity and scale of opposition to real change in the health system. Or they are overwhelmed by the complexity of the health system itself. It is about ten times more complex than national security. So, Washington focuses on small marginal changes that seem manageable.

Instead, leaders should rethink how we take care of people, maximize healthy lives, and ensure that health care is really affordable (not simply subsidized). This should dominate much of our political discourse.

We got here because there are dysfunctional, out of control, and astonishingly self-serving patterns in our health care system – and they have existed for decades. Organizations and guilds intentionally suboptimize to maximize revenue for themselves – at the risk of bankrupting Americans and the government.

Americans are beginning to realize just how unsustainable the health system has become.

Mark Halperin, who writes one of the best political-governmental newsletters in the country, gave me permission to quote two citizens who wrote him about their own personal health insurance cost experiences.

These are worth reading in detail because Washington must come to grips with how big this challenge is (almost one-in-five dollars spent in America go to the health system).

One writer from Springfield Missouri wrote:

“Groceries and gas are often talked about, but the real affordability problem in our family is insurance. In our recent benefit selection both my husband and I took the cheapest plan offered by our employers with the highest deductible for the first time ever. Our car insurance is constantly going up, which I also fight tooth and nail every year. We are basically down to liability insurance on both our 2011 and 2013 cars with the highest deductibles allowed. We keep driving our old clunkers to avoid not only a car payment but increased insurance.

“That is my comparison. I hope Trump keeps working on lowering groceries and gas. I voted for him 3 times, but I do think his administration is out of touch, it is more than eggs and gas. Insurance for health, home and car is out of control. I think they have much to fix, but I also think they have only been in office less than a year and they aren’t magicians. I have hope and will continue to mow our own yard and clean my own home. Like many have stated, I am willing to feel a little pain, but please don’t gaslight me that I have no pain.”

Another person wrote:

“Here’s an example of what is going on with ACA healthcare: I am self employed and my husband is retired. I’m 57, he is 60. Medicare is years away. We have a policy with Anthem through ACA. For 2025, our premium (for both of us) was $885/month with a $9000/pp deductible. We just got the renewal for 2026. Premium is now $2250/month and the deductible has increased to $10,400/pp. We are seriously contemplating going without insurance and doing self pay. Our premiums for ‘26 would be $26,000 plus the $10,400 deductible would be $36,400 out of pocket. Obviously, we are concerned about a catastrophic illness. We are middle class and not poor, but also not wealthy. Our healthcare system is broken! I don’t know if the increase is because of the tax credit going away or greedy health insurance companies. I would definitely appreciate more discussion on this topic. I know there will be many who will go without coverage! We will probably need to dip into our retirement account to pay our insurance premiums- or go without.”

These are two real people with real – and far too common – problems.

As I have written before, the first step toward fixing the health system comes with real, clear transparency of costs. If every level of the health care system has be open and honest about what they are charging, we can start identifying the big cost drivers. Further, if people know how much care is going to cost ahead of time, they can make more informed decisions.

When transparency is combined with expanded opportunities, classic free market forces will drive down cost and increase quality – far better than any bureaucratic solution.

Now is the time to solve the health care affordability problem. Fixing health care will massively lower costs for people, companies, and the government. Then, we can move to fixing other sectors.

This is the health insurance debate we should be having.

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Listen to the latest episode of Newt’s World:

Episode 910: The Whistleblowers vs. The Big Guy

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