[slackfan]

The health insurance companies were given massive government subsidies to insure the previously (theoretically) uninsurable with no real provisions to cap rate hikes for anybody, and no alternative plan (public alternative that was originally part of the bill was killed). Large corporations received a captive market where people HAD to purchase health insurance (or pay a relatively onerous-at-the-time fine).

Insurance companies wrote for, edited, and lobbied around most of the bill as it was passed.

E: A fun downstream effect of it was that employer-provided insurance rates also went through the roof.