According to supporters of President Barack Obama's controversial health care law, Wisconsinites need only wait until 2014, when the law's marvelous benefits will shower down upon us, as if by magic. Guaranteed coverage for all, at much lower cost, is just around the corner, they promise.

But you know what they say: When something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. That's certainly the case with the president's health care law, which if implemented will lead to much higher costs and a lower quality of care for the people of Wisconsin and all Americans.

The U.S. Supreme Court's June decision on the health care law was a surprise and disappointment to those of us who have worked to share the facts about this misguided law. But the ruling focused only on the constitutionality of the health care law. When it comes to questions of the law's affordability, or the effect it will have on the quality of care, the verdict will be dramatically different.

That's especially true in Wisconsin, where right now we rank second in the nation for quality of care and third in the nation for the number of insured citizens, according to the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. But those positive rankings will be endangered as the law goes into effect, as Washington bureaucrats take over your health care decisions.

The misleading spin is embedded right in the name of the law: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Protecting patients? Affordable? Not likely. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the law will cost $1.683 trillion over its first 10 years and includes more than $500 billion in tax hikes. Meanwhile, an independent study issued by a trustee of the Centers on Medicare and Medicaid Services forecasts that the law will lead to rapid growth in both health care spending and the federal budget deficit.

Nor will the law be any more affordable at the state level. In particular, the expansion of the Medicaid program under the ACA is certain to drive up costs, while leading to worse care for the program's participants.

On Aug. 1, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office released results of a survey of state budget directors nationwide, which revealed that most states expect the Medicaid expansion to lead to additional costs, rather than savings. Perhaps that's why eight states already have declined to participate in the Medicaid expansion, while other state leaders, including some Democratic governors, have expressed misgivings about expanding an already overburdened program.

But if you're currently insured, you have nothing to worry about, right? Don't be so sure. The president claims that those who like their health insurance plans have nothing to fear. "If you're one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance," he promised.

But many employers, eyeing the tangle of rules, regulations, mandates and bureaucratic oversight that the new law will foist upon their businesses, will simply drop health care coverage for their employees, forcing more Wisconsinites on to the state-run insurance exchange. In 2011, an actuarial study conducted by one of the ACA's architects found that 100,000 people in Wisconsin will lose their employer health coverage.

These facts probably explain the abiding unpopularity of the health care law. A CBS News/New York Times poll in mid-July, taken after the Supreme Court ruling, revealed that 50% of Americans disapproved of the law - a number that has remained relatively constant since the law was passed in 2010.

In July, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wrote in The Washington Post that the health care law will lead to 150,000 Wisconsinites exiting the private insurance market and becoming dependent on government and taxpayers. Meanwhile, the law will bring huge increases in premiums for everybody else, as much as 31%. Walker called it an "unhealthy prescription." He could have added "unaffordable" and "unsustainable."

The best course of action now is for the entire health care law to be repealed and replaced with a real solution to our nation's health needs: market-oriented solutions that foster competition between providers, instead of a larger and more invasive role for the federal government. That's what will bring down costs and make care more affordable and accessible, so that all Americans can enjoy the quality and access to care that we have in Wisconsin.