Ex-Obama aide David Axelrod faces mockery for criticizing Obamacare premium increases

David Axelrod, a CNN political commentator and former aide to President Barack Obama, was criticized Wednesday over a social media post about a couple in Wisconsin that had to scrap plans to expand their business due to surging Obamacare premiums.

"Through family, I heard about a couple in WI who started a small business and were planning to expand. Now, with their ACA premiums TRIPLED due to congressional inaction, they've had to scrap plans to expand & grow. I'm sure that scenario is repeating itself all over the U.S.," Axelrod wrote.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, was signed into law in 2010 by Obama.

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Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., wrote, "If only we knew whose signature legislation this was…."

The U.S. entered into a government shutdown on Oct. 1 when Democrats refused to advance spending legislation unless Congress renewed expiring COVID-19-era Obamacare subsidies. However, after weeks of stalled talks, a handful of Senate Democrats voted to reopen the government without securing any extension to the enhanced assistance.

Those subsidies expired at the end of 2025, returning millions of Obamacare policyholders to pre-COVID levels of federal assistance. 

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Axelrod's fellow CNN colleague, Scott Jennings, also responded, "If only we could identify who wrote this law in the first place!"

The Washington Examiner's Tim Carney wrote in response to Axelrod, "This 'ACA' sounds like a pretty Bad Friggin Deal," a reference to then-Vice President Joe Biden's colorful phrase about the law.

"Weird. Doesn’t sound affordable," another wrote.

A clip of Axelrod expressing support for the ACA also resurfaced, during which he said Obamacare would "improve the lives of people all across the country."

Kyle Smith, a Wall Street Journal film critic, posted a screenshot of some text from Obama's White House archives explaining his healthcare plan. 

"In keeping with President Obama’s pledge that reform must fix our health care system without adding to the deficit, the Affordable Care Act reduces the deficit, saving more than $200 billion over 10 years and more than $1 trillion in the second decade. The law reduces health care costs by rewarding doctors, hospitals and other providers that deliver high quality care, making investments to fund research into what works, and cracking down on waste, fraud, and abuse," the text read.

The former Obama aide was swiftly criticized by members of his own party in 2022 after he complained of the cost of a prescription that was no longer covered by his insurance. Axelrod was called out by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., among others, for speaking out against "Medicare-for-all."

Axelrod wrote for CNN in 2017 that he wept when they finally signed the ACA into law, and said people approached him frequently to discuss how the law helped them. He said he also remembered what it was like struggling to pay for treatments for his own daughter. 

"I can’t remember anyone stopping me to share the ‘horror stories’ President Trump and the relentless proponents of ‘repeal and replace’ invoke, though I know there are some who had had bare-bones policies and now are paying more for more coverage than they say they need. (I didn’t know what I needed until I needed it.)," he wrote. 

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He acknowledged it could be improved but ultimately railed against Republican support to get rid of the ACA at the time.

"Without question, the law can be improved. Among the needed steps, additional measures should be taken to stabilize rates in the private insurance exchanges through which 3% of Americans buy their insurance. A bipartisan group of senators was at work on such a plan before being sideswiped by the latest frantic effort to dismantle Obamacare," he added.

The first Trump administration was unable to get a replacement plan passed through Congress.