Why Did Democratic Party Operative and Pundit Donna Brazile's Insurance Premiums Increase?
Here's a tweet by Democratic Party operative and pundit Donna Brazile:
What's on your menu? Just got off the phone with my health care provider asking them to explain why my premium jumped up. No good answer!
— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) February 27, 2013
Here's a pretty good answer: The Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare.
Over the past couple of weeks, many insurance companies have provided guidance in their investor calls that premiums for insurance plans being sold in the individual market could go up as much as 50 percent on average….
ObamaCare requires insurers to offer benefit plans on the new exchanges that are relatively generous and would include coverage for maternity, prescription drugs and treatment of mental illness. These are clearly important areas to cover….
A key reason why insurance premiums are going up is because insurance companies will no longer be able to turn away or charge people more with pre-existing conditions. Even more significant is that these companies would only be able to charge its oldest customers three times as much as their youngest.
And read Reason's Peter Suderman on how one of Obamacare's key cost-control provisions is actually working to jack up premiums.
I appeared with Brazile on Bill Maher's Real Time show in 2011. She's smart and fun and friendly—but she can't really be wondering why her premiums are going up, can she?
Here's the Overtime segment from our Maher appearance:
