$2,500 Premium Cut? How about a $2,400 Premium INCREASE…?
In their re-estimate of the health care law in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Congressional Budget Office yesterday noted that the ruling would likely result in some individuals previously thought to gain Medicaid coverage receiving subsidies to buy insurance on Exchanges instead. CBO believes that these individuals “generally have somewhat poorer health. As a result, CBO and JCT now estimate that the premiums for health insurance offered through the exchanges, along with premiums in the individual market, will be 2 percent higher than those estimated in March 2012.”
This 2 percent increase highlighted yesterday amounts to a little over $300 per year for a family, given an average premium on the individual market of about $15,200 per year, according to a CBO analysis published in 2009 (page 6). And that increase comes in addition to the $2,100 per family premium increase CBO previously predicted when the law first passed – meaning that the average premium increase in the individual market thanks to Obamacare will be just under $2,500 per family per year.
Candidate Obama repeatedly promised premiums would be impacted by about $2,500 per family in his proposal – a development CBO has now confirmed. The only problem is that candidate Obama promised premiums would go DOWN $2,500 – but under the law President Obama signed, premiums will go UP by nearly the same amount. It’s one more reason why Obamacare is a step in the wrong direction for struggling middle class families.