Krugman: Republicans lyin... er, misreading about premium increases

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

The CBO on insurance premiums

The Congressional Budget Office has released its much-awaited estimate on how the Senate health care bill would affect premiums. It’s good news from the point of view of reform advocates: premiums would stay about the same for people with group coverage, while falling significantly for most of those in the small-group or individual markets. Jon Gruber has crunched the numbers, and produces this convenient chart (via Yglesias):



But here’s the thing: senior Republican politicians suffer from reading comprehension. (To be fair, the CBO report is written in a remarkably elliptical style). Several have already claimed that the report shows that premiums will rise.

And they probably won’t get called on it. More than that, in today’s Beltway, where David Broder can say that he can’t find an expert who believes the Senate bill is deficit neutral when the Congressional Budget Office says it is, the good news in this report may well just be ignored.

Anyway, for what it’s worth the CBO has now given the Senate bill a clean bill of, um, health on both its budget impact and its impact on families.


http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/the-cbo-on-insurance-premiums/

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. Okay... this is the worst spastic unrec' yet...

Did the unrecc'r do so because he/she does not want people to see a chart showing that the Senate Bill does NOT raise premiums?

Yeah wouldn't want that getting out...

If your anti-Krugman or anti-Me impulses lead you to behave exactly the same as a trolling insurance company lobbyist would then you may want to revisit your priorities.

[Clio the Leo]

2. Well *I* will rec and kick it for you Kurt. NT