Donna Brazile wonders: Why are my health-care premiums going up?

Promoted from the Greenroom by popular demand:

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Hard to know why without knowing who her insurer is, but I can think of two possibilities. You all know the first. Force companies to make insurance benefits more comprehensive and to expand coverage to people with preexisting conditions and you’ll force them to make up the cost somewhere. The only (mild) surprise in Brazile’s case is that, as is so often true under Obamanomics, it’s young adults who are supposed to bear the brunt. And if those young adults decide they’d rather pay the penalty than buy insurance, DB’s likely got another premium hike coming in the not-too-distant future.

The other possibility? Health-care costs keep increasing inexorably and her insurer had to hike premiums to keep up. Once upon a time, we were told that ObamaCare would help solve that problem. Jake Tapper wrote about it last year:

During Obama’s term, between 2009 to 2012, premiums have climbed $2,370 for the average family with an employer-provided plan – a rate faster than the during the previous four years under President George W. Bush, according to Kaiser…

At a rally in Virginia in June 2008, Obama said: “In an Obama administration, we’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year.”…

“We won’t do all this twenty years from now, or ten years from now,” he said. “We’ll do it by the end of my first term as President of the United States.”…

Last year, I asked White House deputy chief of staff Nancy-Ann DeParle about that $2,500 in savings the president pledged. She insisted families will see that savings seven years after the president said it would be achieved — by 2019…

Administration officials say they never claimed health care costs would go down, only that they would grow at a slower rate than they would have without the Affordable Care Act.

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Yeah, “bending the cost curve” was an early ludicrous ambition of O-Care but that gradually became secondary to the goal of comprehensive coverage as the bill oozed its way through Congress. As it is, some insurers are now hiking premiums by double digits to match rising costs. The feds’ response? Those rates would be even higher without the new regulations. You’re welcome, America. Exit question: How long before Brazile and her colleagues start tweeting about the need for single-payer?

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Stephen Moore 8:30 AM | December 15, 2024
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