Has the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, worked?

It’s a difficult question to answer given that there is so much politicking around the issue. In the new Learn Liberty video below, Duquesne University Professor Antony Davies cuts through the politics to give an honest assessment of the law’s performance.

“Politicians promised that the ACA would solve two important problems,” says Davies. “It would put an end to decades of rising health care costs, and it would ensure that everyone had access to health insurance.”

But in reality, health care costs continue to skyrocket. Since 2008, the average annual cost of health insurance has increased by over $1,000, and average deductibles have almost doubled. At the same time, 32 million people are still uninsured.

So by its own criteria, the ACA has failed.

Why? Because government bureaucracy has further perverted the health care market, driving up its price. In Davies’ words: “The ACA took an expensive and low competition industry and put it under the control of a more expensive and even less competitive government. It should surprise no one that the results are the opposite of what we were promised.”

Like with all government intervention in the economy, “politicians and bureaucrats have neither have the information nor the incentive to make prudent decisions for others.”