President Barack Obama and other supporters insisted a few years ago that passage of his signature health insurance takeover would cure much of what ailed Americans regarding health care.

The Affordable Care Act — known popularly as Obamacare — is the law now and it made many of the problems worse.

With a new open enrollment period for Obamacare insurance underway, federal officials are busy trying to convince Americans it is a good bet.

It is for the more than 16 million people Obamacare added to the Medicaid rolls. They pay nothing for their insurance.

But money does not grow on trees. Expansion of Medicaid, along with billions of dollars’ worth of subsidies for some in Obamacare insurance exchanges, is being paid for with a combination of taxes, higher insurance premiums for millions and yes, more national debt.

The high cost of insurance for many people was one marketing technique Obama and his cronies used to sell the American people on the insurance takeover. But rather than deal with it, Obamacare merely conceals it.

In fact, Obamacare costs millions of people more than their old insurance. And the prices keep going up.

As we reported not long ago, the next round of signups for Obamacare exchange insurance will reflect premium increases averaging about 25 percent. In some states, the damage will be much worse.

Health care choices have been limited by Obamacare.  An Associated Press analysis found that in about one-third of the counties in our country, those relying on Obamacare, will have just one health insurance company available next year.

Prices have gone up while options have gone down steadily under Obamacare. The only reasonable question members of Congress should be asking themselves is not whether to kill the program — but how to minimize the damage to tens of millions of Americans.