Do you believe the president or your lying insurance premium?
Soon, that will be the most important question about ObamaCare. President Obama continues to insist that under the law, as he said in his pre-vacation press conference, people are going to be able to “sign up for affordable quality health insurance at a significantly cheaper rate than what they can get right now on the individual market.”
This has been his sales pitch for his health-care law from the beginning, and it’s never been true. But admitting that ObamaCare will mean higher rates for many people is too painful a concession to make, so the president simply doesn’t make it, despite all the evidence contradicting his rote assurances of lower premiums.
The news reports of impending rate shock, driven by the law’s new regulations, keep rolling in, especially in states that don’t already have insurance rules like those in ObamaCare. “Some lightly regulated states,” CNN reports, “including Indiana, Ohio, Florida and South Carolina, have recently released preliminary rate information highlighting steep price increases.” Florida estimates an average premium increase of 35 percent, and Ohio projects an average increase of 41 percent.It is young and healthy people, forced by the law to buy expensive insurance that they wouldn’t otherwise purchase, who will be particularly hard hit (the idea is that less healthy people will benefit). Avik Roy of the Manhattan Institute crunched the numbers in California. He found that in San Francisco and San Diego, rates for 25-year-olds in the individual market will roughly double; and in Los Angeles County they will rise by 44 percent.
Small businesses are also vulnerable. According to the Associated Press, “Insurance companies have already warned small business customers that premiums could rise 20 percent or more in 2014 under the Affordable Care Act. That’s making some owners consider not paying for coverage for workers’ families.”
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