Yesterday the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report that claims to highlight how Obamacare is working for Americans—but in reality, it actually shows how the law has fallen short of candidate Obama’s promises.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then one chart in the report tells the tale. Figure 3 of the HHS report (below) highlights what happened when insurers requested to increase premiums by more than 10 percent—triggering a new rate review process established under Obamacare. While some of these premium increases were modified or withdrawn, nearly three in five (57.8 percent) were approved “unmodified” by regulators:
However, if Obama’s campaign promises had come true, NONE of those proposed premium increases would have occurred—because candidate Obama promised premiums would go down under his plan:
For those who have insurance now, nothing will change under the Obama plan — except that you will pay less. Obama’s plan will save a typical family up to $2,500 on premiums.
The HHS report claims that, because rate review lowered the average premium increase—from 8.1 percent to 7.1 percent for those who purchased insurance coverage on their own, and from 5.8 percent to 4.7 percent for small businesses buying insurance—Americans “saved” $1.2 billion due to Obamacare. But one report released last year found that the Obama Administration had fallen $800 billion short of its promise to lower premiums by $2,500 per family.
The fact that regulators are having to approve premium increases of 10 percent or more demonstrates that Obamacare has singularly failed to achieve candidate Obama’s pledge to lower insurance premiums. It’s why Congress should focus on stopping the law now, before premiums can rise any further.
