In 2021, the Democratic majority in Washington, D.C., utilized the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as a reason to bolster ObamaCare by introducing enhanced premium subsidies. Fast forward to 2025, and it seems the Republican majority is gearing up to follow a similar path. Despite their previous calls to “Repeal and Replace” the Affordable Care Act, these lawmakers are now crafting strategies to support the system with a substantial injection of taxpayer funds. Whether these funds are channeled through extended premium subsidies or funneled into individuals’ Health Savings Accounts, as some Republicans suggest, the overarching issue remains: injecting money into a flawed system does not inherently resolve its problems.

Critics of ObamaCare had valid points from the beginning. Insurance premiums have skyrocketed, doubling in some cases, and smaller insurers have found it increasingly difficult to compete, leading to their exit from the market. Moreover, the national debt has ballooned by an additional $1.5 trillion. Meanwhile, the country’s largest health insurance companies have thrived, reaping significant benefits from taxpayer contributions.

Representative Chip Roy of Texas succinctly summed up the situation, stating that the system has lost its essence of being “free and competitive.” Instead, it has morphed into a model of “government-regulated, government-funded, Big-Insurance-managed care.”

In 2021, a Democratic trifecta in Washington, D.C. used the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to bail out ObamaCare with enhanced premium subsidies. Now, in 2025, a Republican trifecta appears poised to do the same. Elected officials that once sought to “Repeal and Replace” the so-called “Affordable Care Act” are now working on plans to prop it up with another massive infusion of taxpayer dollars. However that new funding is structured — whether extending Democrats’ premium subsidies or, as some Republicans prefer, depositing it in individuals’ Health Savings Accounts — the fact of the matter remains that you cannot fix broken systems by shoveling money into them.

ObamaCare’s haters were right the first time around. Premiums have doubled. Smaller insurers have been pushed out of the market. And the national debt has grown by $1.5 trillion. The nation’s largest health care insurance companies, meanwhile, have grown richer on taxpayer money. 

In Rep. Chip Roy’s (R-Texas) words, the system is no longer “free nor competitive,” but “government-regulated, government-funded, Big-Insurance-managed care.” 

The reality of government intervention in the market continues unabated, at the expense of American taxpayers.

It isn’t hard to see why insurance giants want to keep the money flowing. The Affordable Care Act shields them from competition. When insurers raise premiums, they don’t risk losing customers because taxpayers, not enrollees, cover the extra cost. The higher the rates go, the larger the federal payout becomes, at the expense of American taxpayers. It’s a rigged arrangement that guarantees profits for the biggest carriers and pushes out any insurer that attempts to offer lower prices. 

That structure has hollowed out the market. Insurers have no incentive to negotiate lower prices with doctors or hospitals, and patients have no real choice. Over the past decade, premiums for individual-market plans have doubled.

In 2023 alone, family coverage averaged almost $25,000 a year — almost twice what Americans paid before 2010, despite Barack Obama’s promise to cut costs by $2,500. 

The system has also eroded access. Insurers have narrowed their networks, merged with competitors and delayed payments to providers, while patients have seen their options and quality of care decline. 

In the wake of ObamaCare, millions of Americans lost their plans and doctors. Patients in many states are completely shut out of leading hospitals that no longer accept individual ObamaCare plans. 

Thanks to the enhanced COVID-19 subsidies, households earning up to half a million dollars a year qualified for government assistance. Meanwhile, middle-class families who buy insurance on their own face rising deductibles and shrinking options.

What began as a promise to lower costs has become the insurance giant’s profit act. It grows more expensive every year and leaves Americans with less control over their own care.

In this environment, Democrats have little incentive to change course. 

The relationship between their party and the insurance industry has become one of mutual dependence. The industry has learned to thrive on guaranteed revenue, and Democrats have learned to turn that dependence into political capital. Each round of subsidies deepens the relationship: insurers gain predictable profit, and Democrats gain another constituency with a financial stake in preserving their policy agenda. 

Republicans should not mistake this standoff for a negotiation over spending levels. It is not. 

Extending these subsidies would cement a broken system simply because its beneficiaries are powerful enough to demand it. It would confirm that no government-funded program ever ends once it becomes politically profitable.

Moreover, continuing these subsidies will add nearly half a trillion dollars to the national debt, while further distorting the health care market, driving out private competition, and making it harder for families to find affordable coverage outside government control.

We already have one party intent on protecting a system that serves Democrats and their corporate allies. Republicans cannot cave and join them. Every dollar spent to save ObamaCare is another dollar spent to keep a broken system alive. 

Republicans must pursue bold legislative action to build an alternative system where Americans can pursue the health care of their choice at prices determined by a market — not bureaucrats and insurance companies.

Tim Chapman is president of Advancing American Freedom.