The president’s broken promise of “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan," has been well-documented, but it’s not the only source of middle class dissactisfaction with the president’s health law. His promise that the health care law would save families an average of $2,500 per year is likewise proving false, with an especially painful financial truth in its place. In an effort to distract attention from the botched health care law, the president this week attempted a pivot to the economy. Bloomberg reports President Obama on Wednesday claimed that his signature health care law “would reduce a ‘major source of inequality and help ensure more Americans get the start they need to succeed.’" But a look at the financial consequences of the law now being reported shows skyrocketing premiums will be a major drain on middle class pocketbooks.
USA Today reports, “Insurance brokers and ‘navigators’ helping people apply for insurance say there are shockingly high prices for some consumers who aren’t eligible for subsidies." Those stories exist all across the country. An insurance broker in Texas adds, “Others making about 400% of the poverty level ‘are just angry when they do have to make a change because for the most part they are going to have to pay more money.’" The story goes on, “Ralph Webster, 62, of Kitty Hawk, N.C., says his health insurance premium for a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan is going from $401 a month to $747."
KTVB in Idaho reports, “A small business owner in the Treasure Valley says the Affordable Care Act has made his family’s health care coverage much more expensive." Joel Lund’s plan was cancelled, and he told KTVB, “‘We’re going to go from $770 a month which we were paying up until October, to about $1,300. I don’t see how this helps.’"
WAFF in Alabama adds, “Families across northern Alabama are already in sticker shock over the new policy prices. Mary Elizabeth Comulada was alerted that the family health insurance policy she uses with her two children and her husband has ben banned under the Affordable Care Act, and offered her a plan that complies with the act with higher deductibles for almost twice the price. ‘How can my premium double per month? How can our deductible go up on every single family member? And yet you’re providing me the same plan.’"
An insurance broker in Michigan whose plan was cancelled under the health law told The Detroit News, “I’ve been happy with my plan. …They are raising my premium and they are giving me services that I don’t need. It’s really illogical.’"
The Charlotte Observer adds, “Across North Carolina, thousands of people have been shocked in recent weeks to find out their health insurance plans will be canceled at the end of the year - and premiums for comparable coverage could increase sharply."
The San Francisco Chronicle explains, “Now that the Affordable Care Act exchanges are open for business, voters are finding that the biggest problem with Obamacare isn’t that some Web sites crashed last week but that the Obama promise of big savings for the average family was too good to be true. …middle-class and affluent people stand to pay more. Forget that $2,500 savings."
Politico reports that even “Veteran House Democratic aides are sick over the insurance prices they’ll pay under Obamacare."
The Pacific Standard notes it’s not just rising premiums, “come January, a second rate shock may hit and could produce more bad news for Obamacare. That’s when millions of Americans who select health insurance plans on the new marketplaces may realize that their new insurance plans don’t pay the bills right away. They come with high deductibles and co-pays."
While the president continues to try search for and promote positive stories about his failed health care law, families across the country are left to worry about not only if they will have health care next year, but what it will cost them and their families.
