Ezra Klein Can’t Save Obamacare’s Broken Premium Promise
Ezra Klein’s column in Bloomberg this week attempted to defend then-Senator Barack Obama’s repeated promises to lower premiums by $2,500. Unfortunately for Klein, virtually all of his defenses fall short.
First, Klein claims that “there was no time frame attached to the promise.” On this count, he’s flat-out wrong. Campaign advisor Jason Furman—the President’s recent nominee to head the Council of Economic Advisors—told the New York Times in July 2008 that “We think we could get to $2,500 in [premium] savings [per family] by the end of the first term, or be very close to it.” If Klein wants to argue that Americans’ premiums have gone down by $2,500 since 2009, he’s welcome to do so—but I doubt many Americans would believe him.
Second, Klein claims that “the [health care] savings are actually materializing.” He cites a recent study from David Cutler to make his claim, but that study doesn’t actually say health costs and premiums are falling—it just says they’re rising by less than they otherwise would have. Similarly, the Administration has often cited a 2009 study from the Business Roundtable to defend its “lower premiums” claim. I don’t think many Americans would look at the chart from that study and define its projected trend—a line showing premiums going up by “only” $12,400 from 2009 to 2019—as “lowering” premiums.
Source: Report to Business Roundtable by Hewitt Associates, November 2009.
Third, Klein doesn’t point out that many studies view Obamanomics, not Obamacare, as the root cause of the current slowdown in health spending. One study recently released by the Kaiser Family Foundation—not exactly a group of firebrand conservatives—concluded:
Our analysis suggests that the vast majority (77%) of the recent decline in the health spending trend can be attributed to broader changes in the economy.
Of course, if Klein and the Obama Administration want to take credit for the lousy economy that’s slowing down the growth of costs, they’re welcome to do so.
Finally, Klein spends the second half of his column arguing that people on the exchanges will pay more for insurance, but will get better coverage. Trouble is, that’s not what then-Senator Obama promised. His plan promised that “For those who have insurance now, nothing will change under the Obama plan—except that you will pay less.” Klein effectively admits that neither of those provisions is true—at least some individuals will be forced to buy more expensive coverage.
The fact that Klein’s arguments are so far removed from the purported intent of Obamacare—defining premium savings down, and admitting millions of Americans will lose their current coverage and be forced into more expensive insurance—shows the massive gap between the law’s rhetoric and its reality. If he wants to mount an intellectually honest defense of the law, Klein should start by acknowledging the false promises upon which it was sold to the American people.
This post was originally published at The Daily Signal.