Obamacare’s Bait-and-Switch on Premiums — And Keeping Your Coverage
The journal Health Affairs is out this afternoon with a new study (subscription required) comparing health insurance currently offered in the individual market with the new federally-imposed requirements under Obamacare. The study concluded that, when it comes to the individual market, nearly half of all policies currently being sold are not “Obamacare-compliant” – that is, they do not meet the new standards imposed by federal bureaucrats for all health insurance under Obamacare.
There are two obvious implications from this study. First, it again confirms the fact that individuals will NOT be able to keep their existing health insurance. The study itself admitted that “individual insurance coverage does not meet [Obamacare’s] Exchange standards for the majority of covered lives.” And while Democrats may claim that individuals can keep their prior coverage, even liberals like Tim Jost have admitted that “eventually, if the [law] remains in effect, grandfathered [i.e., pre-Obamacare] plans will disappear.”
Second, premiums will skyrocket due to these new federally-imposed mandates. The Congressional Budget Office previously concluded that Obamacare will RAISE individual market insurance premiums by an average of $2,100 per family. Richer benefit packages would raise premiums by 27 to 30 percent – and these increases will be due in part to “the minimum level of coverage (and related requirements) specified in” the bill. In other words, people will be paying more for health insurance because federal bureaucrats have told them their coverage is not “Obamacare-compliant.”
Recall that candidate Obama promised repeatedly that premiums would go DOWN by $2,500 per family under his plan, and that “you will not have to change plans. For those who have insurance now, nothing will change under the Obama plan – except that you will pay less.” Today’s survey again illustrates how Obamacare has inflicted a massive “bait-and-switch” on the American people – who will be paying higher, not lower, premiums for new government-mandated benefits under the guise of health “reform.”