It looks like Obamacare’s chickens are coming home to roost.
According to the New York Times, not normally known as a bastion of right-wing anti-Obama extremism, health insurers are slapping consumers with double digit percentage increases in rates:
Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers.
Particularly vulnerable to the high rates are small businesses and people who do not have employer-provided insurance and must buy it on their own.
Obama promised during the 2008 campaign that his health care initiative would “bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family.” But according to Forbes, premiums have increased by an average of $3,065 and are set to rise even further.
The reason would appear to be something the White House loves to cite during debates about the budget: math.
Insurers are now required to provide, without cost sharing by patients – that is, for free – mammograms, colonoscopies, HIV screening, contraceptives and contraceptive counseling, well-women visits, sexually transmitted disease counseling, breastfeeding support and supplies, and so forth.
Meanwhile, states are tasked with figuring out which health benefits are “essential,” and therefore must be granted at no cost to the consumer. According to Investors.com, various states have already announced that people simply must have things like weight loss surgery, acupuncture, circumcision, smoking cessation services and varicose vein removal, and so they can get them for free.
All of this is very nice. But someone still has to pay for it. And that’s where your premiums come in.
