Obama Campaign Trumpets $12,400 Premium Increase as “Progress”
The Washington Post reports this morning that the President’s re-election campaign, in responding to a campaign questionnaire, claimed that “when Obamacare is fully implemented, experts estimate it will have lowered health insurance premiums by $2,000 per family.” While that statement (conveniently) doesn’t cite a source on this claim, the Administration has previously invoked a report published by the Business Roundtable in November 2009 to make this assertion. But the Roundtable’s study only assumes* a reduction in the increase of premiums, NOT the reduction in absolute terms the President promised during his campaign. Don’t take my word for it: Look at Exhibit 1 of the study (depicted below), which illustrates that under the maximum achievable “savings,” large employer premiums in 2019 will be $23,151 per family – or $12,408 higher than they were in 2009. How is a $12,400 increase in premiums – as opposed to the $2,500 reduction that candidate Obama repeatedly promised – a change that struggling middle-class families can believe in?
* A further note on the Business Roundtable study: Its last page notes that the estimates referred to above were generated in the following way: “We assumed that discretely identified savings opportunities found in health care reform, could, when fully implemented, reduce the overall cost trend by 15% to 20%.” In other words, the study started out with savings under the law being assumed. That might prove convenient for the Administration and its allies – but the non-partisan Medicare actuary disagrees, publishing an analysis indicating the law would raise costs by more than $478 billion, and calling “False” the Administration’s stated goal of reducing health care costs.