Affordability is on the mind of every American in 2024. From groceries to gas, Americans are spending more. Health care is no different, especially for those with costly medical conditions and high deductibles who started back at $0 of their "deductible met" on January 1.

Health care affordability was recently listed as a top issue for voters in 2024 alongside inflation, with eight in ten and nine in ten wanting presidential candidates to talk about the issues, respectively. In 2023, family health insurance premiums rose to nearly $24,000—a 7 percent increase from 2022—and one in five adults with insurance reported not obtaining needed health care in the past year due to cost.

The country is also spending more overall. Every December, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provides national health expenditure data for the prior year. Last month's data showed that in 2022, Americans spent $4.5 trillion—17.3 percent of our GDP—on health care. This was a 4.1 percent increase from 2021 and averaged about $13,500 per person.

This year marks the 11-year anniversary of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—a sweeping law now proven to be affordable in name only. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden touted a record 20 million Americans enrolled in ACA marketplaces as a marker of the law's success. What he didn't address was the high cost of health care in America and the amount of government subsidization required to keep up with rising costs.

Four out of five Americans enrolled in the individual market are subsidized by the government—increasing from 9.7........

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