Administration Admits: Premiums Will RISE by AT LEAST $12,000
In her prepared testimony this morning before the HELP Committee, HHS Secretary Sebelius claims that a Business Roundtable study* found that the health care law will reduce premium costs for large employers by $3,000 per year. But in reality, that’s not what the report said at all – in fact, it only presumes a reduction in the increase of premiums, NOT the reduction in absolute terms the President promised during his campaign. But don’t take my word for it: Look at Exhibit 1 of the study (depicted below), which study illustrates that under the maximum achievable “savings,” large employer premiums in 2019 will be $23,151 per family – or $12,408 higher than they were in 2009. How is a $12,400 increase in premiums – as opposed to the $2,500 reduction that candidate Obama repeatedly promised – a change that struggling middle-class families can believe in?
* A further note on the Business Roundtable study: Its last page notes that the estimates referred to above (and depicted below) were generated in the following way: “We assumed that discretely identified savings opportunities found in health care reform, could, when fully implemented, reduce the overall cost trend by 15% to 20%.” In other words, the study started out with savings under the law being assumed. That might prove convenient for the Administration and its allies – but the non-partisan Medicare actuary disagrees, publishing an analysis indicating the law would raise costs by more than $310 billion, and just yesterday calling “False” the Administration’s stated goal of reducing health care costs.