America’s Healthcare Nightmare: Exploding Costs, Empty Trust Funds, and How Politics Sold Us Out! Government Reform, Healthcare Crisis!
- Jeremy Black
- Oct 28
- 7 min read
Updated: Nov 14
America’s Healthcare Nightmare: Exploding Costs, Empty Trust Funds, and a Rare Sense to Save America!
By Jeremy Black, October 28, 2025
“The system is not broken. It was built this way.”
A whistleblower physician, speaking anonymously to The New York Times, 2024
Imagine this: You’re scrolling through your bank app after a routine doctor’s visit, only to see a bill that could wipe out your savings. Or worse, you’re a retiree staring at the calendar, wondering if Medicare will still cover your meds by the time you need them most. This isn’t dystopian fiction; it’s the daily reality for millions of Americans in 2025. Our healthcare system, once a beacon of innovation, has morphed into a labyrinth of escalating costs, bureaucratic tangles, and unmet promises. From the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) teetering subsidies to the trillion-dollar black hole of unfunded liabilities, the cracks are widening. And the people? They’re fed up. In this post, we’ll unpack the chaos and explore why it’s time for a rare sense of clarity and courage to pull America back from the brink.
The Drastic Rise in Healthcare Costs: A Ticking Time Bomb
Healthcare inflation isn’t just outpacing the economy; it’s lapping it twice over. In 2025, the average cost of employer-sponsored health coverage is projected to surge by 9%, pushing totals beyond $16,000 per employee. For families, premiums are closing in on $27,000 annually, with workers shouldering about $6,850 of that burden. And it’s not slowing down: Medical cost trends are holding steady at 8.5% for group plans and 7.5% for individuals this year, with employers bracing for a 6.5% hike in 2026, the steepest in over a decade.
Why the explosion? Blame a cocktail of factors: An aging population demanding more services, skyrocketing drug prices, hospital consolidations driving up fees, and administrative bloat that rivals a bad bureaucracy thriller. The U.S. already spends more per capita on healthcare than any other nation, nearly twice as much as peers like Canada and Germany, but outcomes lag. This isn’t sustainable; it’s a squeeze on families and businesses alike, forcing tough choices between care and groceries.
ACA Government Subsidies: The Cliff We’re All Heading Toward
Enter the ACA, the 2010 law that expanded coverage to 20 million Americans but now hangs by a thread. Enhanced premium tax credits supercharged subsidies introduced in 2021 and extended through 2025 via the Inflation Reduction Act have kept marketplace plans affordable for lower- and middle-income folks. Without them, premiums could more than double on average in 2026, with nationwide hikes of up to 18%. Notice how this was set up to happen AFTER the election. Research why insurance companies agreed to wait until 2026 to raise rates. Politics at its finest!
As open enrollment kicks off this fall, “sticker shock” is already hitting early birds. For a family of four earning $80,000, that could mean an extra $2,000+ in out-of-pocket costs annually. Republicans in Congress are divided on extending these credits, with vulnerable House members facing voter backlash over potential job losses of up to 340,000 nationwide if they lapse. The irony? These subsidies have driven record enrollment (21 million in 2025), yet their sunset could unravel it all, leaving millions uninsured or underinsured just as costs climb.
Depleting Medicare and Medicaid Funds: The Inevitable Crunch
Medicare and Medicaid, lifelines for 150 million Americans, are running on fumes. The Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund, which funds Part A hospital stays, is projected to be depleted by 2033, three years earlier than last year’s estimate. Once exhausted, it could slash hospital payments by 11%, delaying care, closing rural facilities, and hiking premiums for the 65 million beneficiaries.
Medicaid, covering low-income families and long-term care, faces its own squeeze amid state budget strains and federal cuts in the 2025 reconciliation bill. What does this mean? Longer waiting times, rationed services, and a ripple effect on the entire system. Hospitals already absorb $50 billion in uncompensated care each year; depletion would amplify that, potentially bankrupting providers and deterring doctors from participating in public programs. For seniors and the poor, it’s not abstract; it’s choosing between meds and meals.
Unfunded Liabilities: A $50 Trillion Shadow Over Our Future
Zoom out, and the numbers get apocalyptic. Medicare’s 75-year unfunded obligation clocks in at $52.8 trillion, while combined with Social Security, it’s a staggering $28.1 trillion shortfall (1.5% of GDP). Medicaid adds fuel to the fire, with costs projected to balloon from 3.9% of GDP in 2025 to 6.2% by 2049.
These aren’t optional IOUs; they’re promises we’ve made to retirees and the vulnerable, backed by nothing but faith in future taxes or cuts. Borrowing from tomorrow to pay today? It’s borrowing from our kids’ futures, exacerbating the $38 trillion national debt. Without reform, we’re staring at tax hikes, benefit cuts, or both, which are nonpalatable in an election cycle.
Personal Healthcare Debt: The Silent Bankrupter
The macro mess trickles down to individual agony. In 2025, 41% of adults carry medical or dental debt, often funneled through credit cards or collections. Shockingly, 36% of households owe something, with 100 million Americans saddled by at least $220 billion in unpaid bills.
The ACA Wasn’t a Reform—It Was a Heist
The Affordable Care Act didn’t accidentally become a cash cow for corporate healthcare. It was engineered that way from day one.
In 2009–2010, the healthcare lobby spent $1.2 billion on lobbying and campaign contributions, more than any other sector in history. Hospitals, insurers, and Big Pharma weren’t fighting against the ACA; they were writing it behind closed doors.
PhRMA (Big Pharma): Secured a deal that banned Medicare from negotiating drug prices in exchange for $80 billion in “savings” over 10 years, which never materialized.
UnitedHealth, Cigna, Aetna: Got 20 million new mandated customers via the individual mandate, with zero requirement to lower premiums.
Hospitals: Lobbied to keep the fee-for-service (FFS) model intact meaning they get paid per procedure, not per healthy patient.
Remember Obama promising us we would save $2,500 per year?
Result? Since 2010:
Insurer profits: +1,200% (UnitedHealth alone made $22 billion in 2024).
Hospital CEO pay: Average $1.4 million/year, with top earners over $20 million.
Drug prices: +68% for brand-name meds since ACA passage.
Meanwhile, the federal government now spends $800 billion over less than 10 years on ACA subsidies, more than the entire defense budget in 2000. That’s your tax dollars propping up a system that charges you twice: once in premiums, once in bailouts.
Notice how much higher than estimates!
The GOP’s “Repeal and Replace” Was Never Real
Don’t let the red ties fool you. The Republican Party never had a plan, because they didn’t want one. From 2010 to 2016, the GOP voted 63 times to repeal the ACA. But when they controlled the House, Senate, and White House in 2017? Zero votes on a replacement.
Why? Follow the money:
2024 cycle: Healthcare industry gave $110 million to federal candidates 51% to Republicans, 49% to Democrats.
Top recipients? Mitch McConnell ($2.1M), Kevin McCarthy ($1.8M), Chuck Schumer ($1.9M).
Both parties are franchise owners of the same broken system. The ACA isn’t “socialism”; it’s corporate welfare with a government logo.
The ACA’s Core Flaw: A Cost-Per-Procedure Casino
The ACA didn’t fix the incentive structure; it supercharged it.
The Media Sold Out on Healthcare – And We The People Are Paying the Price!
I’m a U.S. Army veteran. I’ve seen broken systems. But nothing compares to the betrayal Americans face every day when it comes to healthcare and the media on both sides is complicit. Let’s cut through the noise. Both parties sold us out and use their bought-and-sold media to continue playing the game. Most of America is busy blaming other Americans for supporting the opposite side, while the Healthcare Industry and politicians laugh all the way to the BANK!
The Left’s Sacred Cow: The ACA
The Affordable Care Act was sold as a lifeline. Instead, it became a cash machine for insurance giants.
Subsidies have exploded 500% since 2014.
Taxpayers now fund $800 billion every decade to keep it afloat.
UnitedHealth alone raked in $22 billion in profit last year.
Yet MSNBC, CNN, and progressive pundits still call it a “historic success.” They won’t tell you that 1 in 4 Americans skip meds because they can’t afford them, even with insurance.
The Right’s Empty Promise: “Repeal and Replace!”
For seven years, the GOP screamed from every rooftop:
“We’ll repeal Obamacare on Day One!”
Then they took Congress… and did nothing. No plan. No vote. No replacement. Fox News, Newsmax, and talk radio hosts? They gave them a pass. Why? Because rage drives ratings. Solutions don’t.
The Truth Neither Side Wants You to Hear
Healthcare isn’t broken; it’s rigged. By lobbyists. By bureaucrats. By a media that profits from your pain. But there is a way out.
Rare Sense to Save America: Your Blueprint
I didn’t write Rare Sense to Save America to play partisan games. I wrote it to give you the tools to take back power.
Inside, you’ll find real, no-BS solutions:
End surprise billing
Break the insurance cartel
Put patients over profits
Improved patient outcomes
Drastically lower cost
Easy to navigate
Hold politicians accountable, no matter what the party
Plus solutions to other national problems!
This isn’t left. It isn’t right. It’s Red, White, and Blue!
Stop Waiting. Start Fighting.
The media won’t fix this. Congress won’t. You will. Because while common sense is dead, Rare Sense is just waiting for We the People to wake up! Enough talk about high prices, corrupt government, and the biased media! The time to take action is now. Grab your copy of the blueprint to restore power to We the People! Rare Sense to Save America is wherever great books are sold, including Amazon at https://a.co/d/dmxAYjK.
Check out our other blogs at
Government Reform https://www.raresenseamerica.com/post/government-reform
Campaign Finance Reform https://www.raresenseamerica.com/post/the-urgent-call-for-campaign-finance-reform-reclaiming-democracy-from-the-grip-of-big-money-govern
Government Shutdown https://www.raresenseamerica.com/post/government-shutdown-day-30-the-facts-on-demands-votes-and-a-path-forward-government-reform
Rare Sense Healthcare Reform https://www.raresenseamerica.com/post/america-s-healthcare-nightmare-exploding-costs-empty-trust-funds-and-how-politics-sold-us-out
2025 Debt Ceiling https://www.raresenseamerica.com/post/debt-ceiling-2025-deadline
Overview of Government Shutdown. https://www.raresenseamerica.com/post/the-2025-us-government-shutdown-a-wake-up-call-for-fiscal-responsibility-and-rare-sense-reform
Very good post on what really happens with healthcare. “We the People”need to take back our government and let the politicians know that we won’t stand for the fleecing that they are perpetuating at our expense. Campaign reform is needed today. Term limits need to be enacted. Politicians should campaign on our dime. When they are in office, they need to do my and your business. Fix healthcare, don’t give subsidies. Work for “We the People”.