Another Day, Another Independent Analysis Projecting That ObamaCare Will Make Health Insurance More Expensive
It's always fun to go back and reread old New York Times articles about how, on the campaign trail in 2008, President Obama vowed "in speech after speech" to "bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family." And then you can follow up with reports like this one, via the Columbus Dispatch:
Ohioans who buy individual insurance policies could see their premiums jump 55 to 85 percent in 2014 when key provisions of the new federal health-care law kick in, according to a new report.
Rates also are expected to increase for those with employer-sponsored coverage but not nearly as much.
Lt. Gov. and Department of Insurance Director Mary Taylor today announced the findings of the report commissioned by the state to analyze how the law will impact Ohio consumers, businesses and insurance market.
The analysis by Milliman Inc. projected that premiums on policies offered through small businesses could increase 5 to 15 percent while the cost of insurance through large employers may jump 3 to 5 percent.
The report's findings were announced by Ohio's Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who has been an outspoken critic of the law. But they're similar to the results of a recent state-ordered report on ObamaCare's effects produced for Wisconsin. And that one was ordered by a Democratic governor who went on to front a pro-ObamaCare messaging group and a Massachusetts consultant who helped design both the president's health care overhaul and its Bay State predecessor. That report also projected that health coverage in the state would increase substantially, and the Ohio report expects the same.
Are these projected increases just a fact of life given rising health care and insurance prices? Not at all, according to the Dispatch's report: "The increases do not include medical inflation which has been pushing health care costs up about 7 to 8 percent a year." But I suspect you won't hear speech after speech about that.
