The Patriot Post® · Obama: We'll Order Spikes in Health Care Costs Away

Barack Obama has a solution for all those spikes in insurance premiums. While speaking to an audience in Nashville, Obama said the ultimate decision on how much health insurance costs comes down to each state’s insurance commissioner and that consumers should pressure the commissioner to pressure the insurance companies to lower rates. Nothing like a little political manipulation of the free market. “So I think the key for Tennessee is just making sure that the insurance commissioner does their job in not just passively reviewing the rates, but really asking, ‘Okay, what is it that you are looking for here?’” Obama said, “‘Why would you need very high premiums?’ And my expectation is, is that they’ll come in significantly lower than what’s being requested.” The real problem with the increasing rates is that the people signing up for ObamaCare are sicker than estimated and it costs more to provide insurance. The New York Times reports that Oregon’s insurance commissioner reviewed the rate hikes the state’s health insurance providers proposed and she decided the hikes were too low. She was the one that ordered insurance costs to spike. Obama implies that the big, bad health care industry is trying to pull a fast one on the American public. In reality, rates are rising because the government controls the industry.