Monday, November 28, 2011

Obamacare Has NOT Contained Skyrocketing Costs

Health insurance premiums and Obamacare were again in the news over the holiday week.  The Administration made its first decision to publicize one 12 percent premium increase as “unjustified” under Obamacare’s new rate review procedures.  However, the Washington Post noted that HHS had previously approved an 11 percent increase and an 18 percent increase for other plans.  Separately, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ endorsement of actions to protect health insurance brokers drew criticism from the liberal organization Health Care for America Now, which stated the action was “tone-deaf to the skyrocketing health premium costs of average Americans.”

Both these events have one thing in common: They prove how Obamacare is not living up to its own promises.  Remember that candidate Obama repeatedly promised his health care plan would lower premiums by $2,500 per family, and do so within his first termSo the 18 percent premium increases the Obama Administration itself approved – and the “skyrocketing health premium costs” criticized by a pro-Obamacare group – all should be a thing of the past.  That they are not only reinforces the conventional wisdom that Obamacare is not helping struggling American families.