The Affordable Care Act is doing exactly what it was designed to do - make it impossible for most people to afford health care so that we beg the government to take over healthcare to "fix" it.
The problem, as congress sees it, is that the healthcare industry isn't being run by the government. Imagine how much more political power, bribes, favors, illegal income, and swagger there will be for politicians who control and launder all of the money in the healthcare industry.
But, there was no justification to rip control of healthcare from the private sector since everything was working fine. So, they had to break it first. The Affordable Care Act was designed to do that.