An Oct. 28 story in the Athens Banner-Herald/OnlineAthens.com described an Arizona family’s fears that they "only have plans from one insurer available next year, and the company doesn’t appear to cover an expensive immune-system medication for the 11-year-old daughter."

"Choice" has been reduced because UnitedHealth Group (2014 CEO compensation: $66.1 million), Aetna, Humana, and other for-profit health insurance companies will stop selling Obamacare policies in most states next year. This lack of "choice" is viewed by some as a failure of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

But did Obama cause the lack of choice or raise insurance premiums for 2017? No. According to the offices of Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue and Rep. Jody Hice, the insurance companies are responsible for increasing premiums.

Why? Profits dropped because more older, less-healthy people enrolled in their plans than younger, healthier individuals. In response, because they no longer can prevent people from buying policies due to pre-existing conditions, insurance companies are hiking premiums to maintain profit margins. (Insurance companies formerly paid their employees to search persons’ insurance applications to find reasons to deny coverage. Such jobs were outlawed in 2010 by the ACA.) They are continuing the U.S. tradition of rationing health care by ability to pay.

Obamacare, doomed because it relies on these companies, has brought short-term improvements. Witness the case of an Athenian who, before Obamacare, got a hip resurfacing in Britain. On returning to the United States, his hips were declared a pre-existing condition and he was denied health insurance. After Obamacare kicked in, he got coverage and had a hip replacement in Athens.

Reacting to the ACA, former state Sen. Ralph Hudgens, now Georgia’s insurance commissioner, sponsored the Healthy Georgians Act of 2010. He boasted then that "the act makes clear that Georgians are entitled to pay out of their pocket for any necessary healthcare treatments without participating in a healthcare plan." Another Republican defending Georgians’ right to go bankrupt.

Pharmaceutical companies excel at keeping health care costs high (witness the EpiPen) and several years ago took over first place from the Defense Department in total annual federal fines received. In 2013, Gilead Sciences, maker of hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir, charged $84,000 for a full 12-week treatment. The cost for making it is around $1,500. Gilead’s revenues tripled in two years. Americans for Tax Justice estimates that Gilead has avoided paying about $10 billion in U.S. taxes since 2013.

There is a balm from Gilead to make the wounded whole, but it ain’t cheap. Big Pharma knows their behavior will be fined, and factors in the fines when setting drug prices.

Since Obamacare passed, our uninsured rate fell by 40 percent – from 49 million in 2010 to 29 million in 2015, definitely helping the poor, near-poor, and minorities. Yet, 3.7 million children remained uninsured during that time. Our private insurance-based system still fails to cover everyone.

U.S. citizens endure health care insecurity from birth to death. If you lose your job, you lose health insurance. Parents feel powerless when confronted with a child’s illness. The annual confusion imposed on the elderly when they are ordered to make the right health insurance "choice" for their situation is stressful and detrimental to their health.

A federal-government-run single-payer system is the most efficient and cost-effective way to deliver health care to all. The for-profit health insurance companies use between 10 percent and 20 percent of their cash intake to fund shareholders’ dividends, lobbying costs, advertising expenses and stratospheric administrative salaries. This sucks up about $400 billion a year. In contrast, Medicare spends about 3 percent of its budget on overhead and administrative costs. Top salaries at Medicare are around $250,000.

In 2010, Democrats refused to put a public health insurance option in the ACA. Instead of introducing single-payer Medicare-for-all over 10 to 15 years, thus giving the for-profit health insurance industry a reasonable time to fold its golden tents, the law keeps us stuck in a world of profiteering insurance and drug companies.

The rest of the wealthy world delivers health care better and cheaper than the United States. They know the free market works for manufacturing, but doesn’t work if you want everyone to have health care.

There is only one right "choice" to reduce costs and cover everyone. Phase out money-sucking for-profit-insurance companies, give the government power to negotiate bulk drug purchase prices, and put us all in one risk pool. A Medicare-for-all system will remove people’s insecurity and end wasting our time sorting through bogus "choices," giving people more time and energy to engage in free market development.

Richard Zimdars, a retired University of Georgia music professor, is an occasional contributor to the Athens Banner-Herald/OnlineAthens.com editorial page. This is the final installment of Zimdars’ series of columns on the history of healthcare in America.