12 Ways ObamaCare Has Failed The Working Class

How could a law intended to make health care affordable and reduce inequality end up failing — or even hurting — millions of working-class Americans who were supposed to benefit? At least a dozen different ways.ObamaCare is helping millions of people, as one would expect of such a vast and costly undertaking. Yet the law has so many serious flaws that it's hard to keep track of them. This accounting, or cheat sheet, of ObamaCare flaws that hit the working class especially hard, reveals why the law will yield more bitter fruit as it ages.

1. Bronze Trap

To make health care — not just insurance — affordable, Democrats added an extra layer of subsidies for modest earners on top of premium subsidies. But those extra cost-sharing subsidies only go to those who buy midlevel silver coverage. Households with stretched finances that can only afford bronze lose out. How badly? The Congressional Budget Office, which mistakenly thought that most people eligible for the cost-sharing subsidies would opt for silver, cut $39 billion in projected outlays over 10 years — when the budget scorekeeper realized that lots of people were settling for cheaper plans that do little to make care affordable.  For a 35-year-old couple in Miami who have one kid covered by the Children's Health Insurance Program and income of $35,000, silver plans carry a deductible of $500 vs. an untenable $13,000 bronze deductible...