Ask most people whether they would prefer “free” health insurance or a job where they can earn money to buy it while supporting themselves, or perhaps get coverage as a fringe benefit, and there is no doubt how the vast majority would answer.

But President Barack Obama and his fellow liberals don’t want millions of people to have a choice. Their Obamacare insurance program, while providing free insurance to millions through Medicaid, has hurt millions more.

Obamacare actively discourages companies from providing really good health insurance for employees. As a result, many Americans have lost that fringe benefit.

Worse, Obamacare is a job killer. It will force layoffs and hours-worked cuts equal to 2 million full time jobs during the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Obamacare has been an unmixed blessing only for the about 12 million people who have received insurance through the expanded Medicaid program. Officials in many states already are wondering how they will pay for Medicaid once federal subsidies are rolled back.

Many other Americans have been forced to accept Obamacare policies with high co-pays and deductibles.

And several big insurance companies already have said they will or may pull out of Obamacare because they are losing money under it.

Yet Obama and liberals in Congress reject out of hand suggestions the program be refined – even though it is clear Obamacare is hurting many Americans badly.

One wonders how that attitude would work in a hospital emergency room.