The Affordable Care Act's open enrollment period begins this week, giving people three months to find or renew a health insurance policy, or face being hit with a hefty tax hike for not doing so.

The confluence of the sign-up period's arrival, news about pending rates for next year and Election Day also gives the politicians another opportunity to brawl over whether the controversial law has worked. The answer, of course, depends on your political persuasion.

In Miami last week, President Barack Obama asserted that Obamacare has succeeded. The president pointed out that 20 million people have gained insurance coverage through Obamacare's changes, and that the rate of uninsured Americans is a historic low of 8.6 percent. That's attributable to participation in the law's healthcare exchanges (roughly 12 million people), expanding Medicaid in many states, and many young adults (up to age 26) remaining on their parents' insurance plan.

Yet Obamacare has problems. Big ones. And Republicans, including presidential nominee Donald Trump, are seizing on them to declare Obamacare a failure.

For 2017, as the Department of Health and Human Services has acknowledged, most of the country will see significant jumps in premiums — an average of 25 percent, more than tripling the rate increase for 2016.

Patients in Florida, based on the benchmark plan, will be hit with a 17 percent increase.

But that is before accounting for taxpayer-funded subsidies. Once the subsidies are factored in, the cost increases disappear. Good for those patients, but bad for the majority of taxpayers funding them.

An estimated 87 percent of the people who signed up for insurance through the federal exchange qualify for financial help from taxpayers. In Florida, one of 38 states that declined to set up its own exchange, that subsidy-receiving ratio is even higher: 93 percent of enrollees for the past two years.

Premiums are rising because, according to healthcare industry think tank Kaiser Family Foundation, five providers will serve Florida, down from 10 just two years ago. Although those companies will cover 85 percent of the state's population, 44 Florida counties — presumably small and poorer ones — will have only one insurer to turn to. That paucity of choices is clearly not what Obama promised in promoting this plan as a candidate or as president, and will encourage some to argue more government-funded insurance is necessary.

Obamacare was initially a Republican idea — and parts of the law still enjoy GOP support — that was co-opted, retooled and enacted by Democrats. Thus, both sides share the credit, or the blame, for its current condition. The sooner they agree on that, perhaps we can get beyond the finger-pointing and find a fix that ensures more Americans coverage without burying taxpayers or employers.

Admittedly, that will be tough to do no matter who wins next month's election. But doing more of the same only gets us more of the same.

REPRINTED FROM THE NORTHWEST FLORIDA DAILY NEWS