Obamacare = A Death Panel For The U.S. EconomyMichael Snyder Taking advantage of the stupidity of the American voter, the Democrats succeeded in ramming through one of the worst pieces of legislation that has ever come before Congress. The full implementation of Obamacare has been repeatedly delayed, but now we are finally starting to see the true horror of this terrible law. Thanks to Obamacare, millions of American families are losing health plans that they were very happy with, health insurance rates are skyrocketing, millions of workers are having their full-time hours cut back to part-time hours, rural hospitals all over the countryare dying, and thousands of doctors are being driven out of the industry thus intensifyingthe greatest doctor shortage in U.S. history. Obamacare is a slow-motion train wreck of epic proportions, and the full effect of this law is only beginning to be felt. In the end, the economic impact of this law will likely be measured in the trillions of dollars. One of the primary reasons why Democrats experienced so much pain during the recent elections was because millions of Americans are receiving some very disturbing letters from their health insurance providers. At a time when U.S. incomes are stagnating, health insurance rates are rising to absolutely ridiculous levels. As the New York Times recently reported, even the Obama administration is admitting that substantial price increases are on the way Originally, Barack Obama promised that if we liked our current health plans that we could keep them. Well, it turns out that was not true at all. Instead, the vast majority of us will eventually have to move to new plans if we have not done so already. This is particularly true for those that purchase health insurance individually. The following is an excerpt from anNBC News investigation This is something that actually happened to me. I received a letter in the mail informing me that my new health insurance policy which meets the requirements of Obamacare will cost me nearly twice as much as my old one. Needless to say, I was not too thrilled about that. Other Americans are being hit even harder. For instance, one family down in Texas got hammered witha 539 percent rate increase These rate increases are coming at a time when the middle class in the U.S. is already steadily shrinking. A lot of families that are already stretched to the breaking point are making the very painful decision to give up health insurance entirely. At this point, there are millions of families that simply cannot afford it. But Obama is not about to let those people off the hook. In fact,huge tax penalties are on the way for those that do not participate in the new system No wonder so many people are so angry with the Democrats. And as Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Jonathan Gruber has so infamously observed, Obamacare never would have become law if the American people had been told the truth about what it would do to them. It has been documented that Gruber has visited the White House about a dozen times since 2009, and he has been one of the leading intellectual proponents of Obamacare. A video in which he states that the stupidity of the American voter was really critical to the passage of Obamacare has gone viral over the past week. I have posted a copy of this video below What he is essentially saying is that the Democrats purposely deceived the American people because it was the only way that Obamacare was going to become law. And this is a man that has become very wealthy advising government on healthcare matters. According to an article inthe Washington Post, he has made millions of dollars from consulting in recent years If you are Gruber, life is quite good. But for most of the rest of America, the economic pain continues. For example, one recent study foundthat almost half of all Floridians cannot even afford to pay for basic necessities If all those people cannot even afford the basics, how are they going to pay for Obamacare? This law is going to financially cripple millions of American families. It truly is a death panel for the U.S. economy. And because Barack Obama can veto anything that the Republicans in Congress do, we are stuck with it for at least another two years (and probably longer). So what about you? Have your health insurance premiums gone up yet? Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. 