July 23, 2015

Yes, ObamaCare Is Bending the Cost Curve … the Wrong Way

The price tag just keeps getting steeper.

Two events this month are drilling home an unshakeable fact: Not only is ObamaCare an unadulterated failure, but it’s shockingly more expensive than its supporters tried to make the public believe.

The first is a report released by Avalere, a health policy group, that examines the damage ObamaCare is doing to the health care sector.

Avalere’s analysis discovered that health plan networks tied directly to ObamaCare exchanges include “42% fewer oncology and cardiology specialists; 32% fewer mental health and primary care providers; and 24% fewer hospitals.” This means that a growing number of people who receive their insurance from the exchanges must go out of their network and pay for providers whose care does not count toward the out-of-pocket limits set by ObamaCare.

So not only can you not keep your doctor, but finding any doctor is becoming even more difficult.

The other blow in this one-two ObamaCare sucker punch is that, this month, state regulators will begin approving insurance premium hikes requested by providers in every state. The proposed hikes requested by the insurance companies have already been made public, though they have yet to be approved. Every increase over 10% requires regulatory approval, and while there is no guarantee that all these rate hikes will be okayed, the scope of the requests spells seriously bad news for a large number of individuals and families.

Nearly every state has multiple plans facing premium increases over 10%. A large number of plans, including those on the state markets, are facing hikes of anywhere from 30% to 50%. ObamaCare opponents predicted these steep hikes as far back as 2009, though supporters refused to believe they would come to pass. In reality, they were inevitable.

When the law first went into effect three years ago, insurers had to speculate what their rates would be from one year to the next because there was no hard data to measure the impact of ObamaCare on the health care sector. But Stephen Parente, a health finance professor at the University of Minnesota, explains in The Wall Street Journal that for 2016, the year that the rates currently being analyzed will go into effect, “insurers have a more complete picture,” and “it is clear that costs are increasing much faster than anticipated.”

Gee, who saw that coming? Democrats flat out lied about what was in store for the American people once ObamaCare finally took hold. The only generous alternative is that they were too ignorant to realize the damage that would be inflicted by a government takeover on the health care system. Either way, they are not to be trusted.

Compounding the problem is the termination of two programs in 2016 that have so far somewhat alleviated the pain — or, should we say, redistribute it. Risk corridors, which use taxpayer money to cover patients who spend more than insurers predict, and reinsurance, which uses taxpayer money to cover patients with outsized medical bills, are both going away. When they do, insurers will be forced to increase premiums even further in order to stay ahead of the high costs. This means the premium hikes in 2016 are just the beginning of the long-feared and widely predicted death spiral of insurance costs that ObamaCare created.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.