Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Administration’s Amnesia on How Obamacare Will Raise Premiums

Testifying before the HELP Committee, Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight Director Steve Larsen just claimed not to recall all the details of the CBO analysis of health insurance premium increases under Obamacare, but alleged that the impact on premiums would be “minimal.”  Seeing as how Director Larsen didn’t know all the details, here’s what CBO said on page 6 of its November 2009 analysis of Obamacare’s impact on premiums:

Average premiums per policy in the nongroup market in 2016 would be roughly $5,800 for single policies and $15,200 for family policies under the proposal, compared with roughly $5,500 for single policies and $13,100 for family policies under current law.

That amounts to a $2,100 per year increase for a family buying individual insurance, thanks to Obamacare – and a $4,600 per family difference between the increases due to the law President Obama signed and the $2,500 per-family premium reduction candidate Obama repeatedly promised.  Given that the Administration’s policy is costing a whopping $4,600 per family more than candidate Obama’s political rhetoric, is it any wonder that the Administration would claim not to remember how much Obamacare will raise premiums on struggling American families?