The Numbers Are In: Obamacare Causes Health Insurance Costs to Skyrocket

by John Hinderaker in Obamacare

Morgan Stanley has reported on its quarterly survey of insurance brokers, and Scott Gottlieb of Forbes sums up the depressing findings:

Health insurance premiums are showing the sharpest increases perhaps ever according to a survey of brokers who sell coverage in the individual and small group market. …
The average increases are in excess of 11% in the small group market and 12% in the individual market. Some states show increases 10 to 50 times that amount. The analysts conclude that the “increases are largely due to changes under the ACA.”
The analysts conducting the survey attribute the rate increases largely to a combination of four factors set in motion by Obamacare: Commercial underwriting restrictions, the age bands that don’t allow insurers to vary premiums between young and old beneficiaries based on the actual costs of providing the coverage, the new excise taxes being levied on insurance plans, and new benefit designs.
The prior survey conducted in January also showed rates rising during the fall of 2013, but the new increases will come on top of those hikes and are even sharper.

Obamacare was supposed to save the average family $2,500 annually; instead, it has made health insurance far more expensive. And yet Harry Reid tells us that everyone who points out that his or her insurance costs more under Obamacare is a liar. And Barack Obama says the debate over Obamacare is over. No, Barry, it is just beginning.


http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/04/the-numbers-are-in-obamacare-causes-health-insurance-costs-to-skyrocket.php