Hold on to Your Wallets: Today’s Mandates Will Raise Premiums
Various press reports this morning regarding an 11:00 conference call being held by the Administration suggest that HHS may be about to release preliminary guidance regarding the “essential health benefits.” Those are the federal mandates that all plans in Obamacare’s Exchanges must carry in order for them to be deemed “acceptable” by Washington bureaucrats.
It’s worth noting the timing of this announcement – right before Christmas, on a Friday (aka “Take Out the Trash Day”), as most folks in Washington are distracted by the omnibus appropriations bill and other end-of-session activities.
But the real story here is WHY the Obamacare mandates are controversial – because they will raise insurance premiums. Candidate Obama repeatedly promised his health care plan would LOWER premiums by $2,500 per family, and do so within his first term. But the Congressional Budget Office has said that Obamacare would RAISE individual insurance premiums by $2,100 per family. So the real question for HHS is: How will their regulations close the whopping $4,600 gap between the $2,500 per family premium reduction candidate Obama promised and the $2,100 premium increase Obamacare is scheduled to deliver?
Unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely that the gap can be closed – because new mandates imposed by government bureaucrats will only raise premiums, not lower them. As a result, struggling middle class families are paying every month for the President’s failure to deliver – and will continue to do so for years to come.