Monday, January 9, 2012

On Premiums, Believe Barack Obama — or Your Lying Eyes

Last week we highlighted the misleading nature of the Obama re-election campaign’s claims that Obamacare will actually make health care more affordable.  The Obama campaign released its supposed “documentation” regarding this assertion, which makes for some interesting reading.  When it comes to the heart of the affordability debate – whether or not the law will reduce premiums – the only “evidence” the Obama campaign produced was a single study released by the pro-Obamacare advocacy group Families USA.  We thoroughly debunked this study when it was released back in October, but the bottom line is that the study:

  1. Was conducted by a paid consultant for the Obama Administration;
  2. Assumes the law will result in savings;
  3. Fails to admit that the law will NOT result in premiums going down, and that even under their rosy scenario, premiums will only go up by (slightly) less than projected. (The study talks about premium “savings” between now and 2019, but won’t disclose what premiums will actually cost then, because that number would still be MUCH higher than what Americans are paying now.)

The Washington Post’s Fact Checker blog and others aren’t buying this fuzzy math – it noted that “Insurance premiums have gone up, in part because of new benefits mandated by the law.”  The contradiction between rhetoric and reality is both obvious and glaring:

  • Candidate Obama repeatedly promised to CUT premiums by an average of $2,500 per family by the end of his first term (i.e., 2012).
  • Families USA – and by extension the Obama campaign – claims that Obamacare will still result in massive premium increases – but that premium increases between now and 2019 will be $717 less than they would have been without the law.

The American people see every month how much their premiums keep going up, in many cases because of Obamacare, not despite the law.  The Obama campaign’s cynical attempts to distract Americans from the reality of their unpopular law and broken promises – “Who are you going to believe: Me or your lying eyes?” – will not hold water.