Kaiser Foundation: "There's NO QUESTION (health) premiums are still going to keep going up."

[Bluebear]

Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print.


..."There's no question premiums are still going to keep going up," said Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a research clearinghouse on the health care system. "There are pieces of reform that will hopefully keep them from going up as fast. But it would be miraculous if premiums actually went down relative to where they are today."

The statistics Obama based his claims on come from two sources. In both cases, caveats got left out.

A report for the Business Roundtable, an association of big company CEOs, was the source for the claim that employers could save $3,000 per worker on health care costs, the White House said.

Issued in November, the report looked generally at proposals that Democrats were considering to curb health care costs, concluding they had the potential to significantly reduce future increases.

But the analysis didn't consider specific legislation, much less the final language being tweaked this week. It's unclear to what degree the bill that the House is expected to vote on within days would reduce costs for employers.

An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office of earlier Senate legislation suggested savings could be fairly modest.

It found that large employers would see premium savings of at most 3 percent in 2016, compared with what their costs would have been without the legislation. That would be more like a few hundred dollars instead of several thousand.

The claim that people buying coverage individually would save 14 percent to 20 percent comes from the same budget office report, prepared in November for Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind. But the presidential sound bite fails to convey the full picture.

The budget office concluded that premiums for people buying their own coverage would go up by an average of 10 percent to 13 percent, compared with the levels they'd reach without the legislation. That's mainly because policies in the individual insurance market would provide more comprehensive benefits than they do today.

For most households, those added costs would be more than offset by the tax credits provided under the bill, and they would pay significantly less than they have to now. However, the budget office estimated that about 4 in 10 customers shopping for an individual policy would not be eligible for tax credits — and would face higher premiums on average than without the legislation.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iVn9wrhB-3SF-Svo9kZyXd4bHRLAD9EGJJNG0

[ProSense]

1. Oh look, details

The premium reduction of 14 percent to 20 percent that Obama often cites would apply only to a portion of the people buying coverage on their own — those who want to keep the skimpier kinds of policies available today.

Their costs would go down because more young people would be joining the risk pool and because insurance company overhead costs would be lower in the more efficient system Obama wants to create.

The claims in this report are not new.

The AP is focused on a tiny share of people cited by the CBO, which also doesn't take into consideration all the factors that will reduce premiums.

For the vast majority of people, premiums will go down, and the quality of benefits will go up compared to what's available today.

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

2. you are naive in the extreme

Interested in buying some property?

[ProSense]

7. Desperation is driving the opposition to this bill.

Go ahead: check out Kaiser's calculator

Premiums are going down across the board.

[kirby]

10. Did you read the OP?

It clearly said that 4 of 10 people do not even qualify for subsidies. That means that calculator is worthless. 40% of the insured will continue to see their rates skyrocket. The remaining 60% will have rates skyrocket, but the taxpayer will sent a check to the insurance company so the individual is not impacted as much.

[Bluebear]

13. :crickets:

[Bluebear]

14. still no answer to your question!

[amborin]

17. that's a post-only

poster, who doesn't read

she/it gets paid by the word

[rucky]

16. and only 17% of the insured are on individual plans.

so that's 60% of 17% that will see rates go up, with the numbers you supply. Using the CBO numbers, that makes up about 7% of all insured under the plan.

In other words, 93% of the insured will see a savings, or no change - compared to the status quo where 100% will see an increase.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

3. This bill is soooo gonna come back to haunt us as a Party.

:( And we will deserve everything that comes our way because of it.

[customerserviceguy]

4. I have no doubt that premiums will go up through the roof

if this passes. There is absolutely nothing in the bill to prevent it, and a lot of new claims insurers will have to pay (without income from the mandates right away) that they will use to justify increases even in the states where they have to run it by insurance regulators.

Single payer is the only answer, and the only way to get it is by not trying to close a sucking chest would with a Band-Aid. This bill actually will cause us to lose momentum towards doing the right thing sooner, as it will have those who will say, "But give it a chance to do something first!"

[Nikki Stone1]

5. Of COURSE the prices will go up. There are no real price controls with teeth.

It's a given.

[girl gone mad]

6. You mean forcing millions of people into the market against their will..

thereby removing one of the few remaining incentives insurers had to keep costs reasonable, won't result in lower premiums?

Hoocoodanode? :shrug:

And now the Dems own every penny of increases.

[babylonsister]

8. AP "fact check" headline falsely suggests people would pay higher premiums under health care reform

AP "fact check" headline falsely suggests people would pay higher premiums under health care reform


The headline of an Associated Press "fact check" article falsely suggested that President Obama's health care plan would cause people to pay higher health insurance premiums. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that by 2016 the Senate's version of health care reform -- on which Obama's plan is largely modeled -- would not increase premiums for the vast majority of Americans, and for many, premium costs would decrease.

more...

http://mediamatters.org/research/201003170014

[RC]

9. Go down, huh? Anybody check with the health insurance companies?

[Nikki Stone1]

11. LOL!!

:D

[Bluebear]

12. lol

[rucky]

15. People buying individual coverage - and won't qualify for subsidies...

make up less than 7% of the pool.

So let's summarize:

30 million new people will be insured.
93% of all insured people will see a decrease in premiums or no change at all.

Under the status quo, 100% of all insured people will see in increase in premiums.

I had to read the actual CBO report to smack down Cronyn's Facebook sock puppet who was delivering the same line of bullshit.