The Chart the White Board DIDN’T Show
This morning the White House released its latest “white board” video about the health care law. It claimed that premiums will fall under the law, and will increase under repeal – statements that are inaccurate for several reasons. First, the video asserts that premiums for a family of four making just over $30,000 will be $1,500 in 2014. The problem is that such low premiums are made possible only because the federal government is subsidizing them – and only to a select sub-group of individuals. The Congressional Budget Office found that only 19 million individuals – about six percent of the population – would be eligible for these subsidies. If the subsidies were extended to all low-income Americans, federal spending under the law would skyrocket.
The second problem is the claim that the law reduces premiums. The Congressional Budget Office has already debunked this myth, noting that premiums would rise by $2,100 per family in the individual market thanks to the law. But even its supporters don’t argue that the law really reduces premiums – they just claim that premiums will go up by slightly less than they would have had the law been enacted. As we’ve previously noted, the Administration touted as “progress” a study indicating that premiums will rise by ONLY $6,911 per family over the next decade.
Of course, candidate Obama repeatedly promised to give struggling American families a $2,500 average premium reduction within his first term. The Administration’s “progress” on that count is documented below – because for some reason, this chart didn’t make it on to the White House white board.
The white board video also discusses claims that the health care law will create jobs, citing a paper from economist David Cutler on this issue. However, Cutler was the also same Obama campaign adviser who co-wrote the famous memo attempting to defend candidate Obama’s assertion that his health plan would save $200 billion per year, or $2,500 per family. This of course raises an obvious question: If both Cutler and the White House can’t defend their prior allegations that health “reform” will cut premiums by $2,500 per family, why should anyone believe their claims on job creation now?
