The story of Obamacare over the last year has in many ways been a story about how the various claims made by conservatives about why the law would collapse have systematically fallen apart as the Affordable Care Act has gone into effect. The website debacle was so bad that nobody was going to sign up. Actually, lots of people signed up. The net number of people insured was going to go down, not up, because Obamacare would force insurers to cancel their plans. Nope, the uninsured rate has gone down.
One of the scariest claims was that premiums were going to shoot up because only the sick and the old would sign up. The danger, of course, was that this would set off the so-called death spiral, where high prices prompt people to drop their coverage until eventually the whole project collapses in failure and shame.
Back in March, the Hill published a representative story under the headline, “O-Care Premiums to Skyrocket.” Here’s the gist:
Health industry officials say Obamacare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the administration.
The expected rate hikes will be announced in the coming months amid an intense election year, when control of the Senate is up for grabs. The sticker shock would likely bolster the GOP’s prospects in November and hamper Obamacare insurance enrollment efforts in 2015.
Here we are five months later, and those insurance officials have begun reporting their premium increases for next year. To put it mildly, those increases do not seem to fit the definition of “skyrocketing.” Here’s the Hill’s story from this afternoon on what is actually happening to insurance premiums:
Obamacare Premiums Slated to Rise by an Average of 7.5 Percent
The average national increase of 7.5 percent is “well below the double-digit increases many feared,” HRI Managing Director Ceci Connolly wrote in an e-mail.
Needless to say, this is quite a bit different than the scenario the Hill laid out in March. A 7.5 percent average increase is somewhat smaller than the 100 percent increase the newspaper was predicting only five months ago.
this and other exposed misleading misinformation we've endured since ObamaCares was first brought to our attention hopefully will make it's way to the republican base. I know those hardcore will vote for them even if they killed their entire family in front on them, others will see the the truths and reconsider who deserves their devotion.
I think common sense should have raised flags when someone offers you affordable and subsidized health care when you have never been able to see a doctor outside of the ER and others using hateful rhetoric do non stop negatives designed to make you refuse it while they secretly accept it or the state gov. refuse to get that for their citizens something awfully wrong with denying over 30 million and millions of others this Godsend, but they are republicans nothing new just same "OLD" same "OLD"
actually this is not hilarious when you elect and swear in to look out for you and for 6 b years they've done nothing but ignore you and deny you. don't join the party of stupid Nov. 4th.
