Opinion:The Obamacare lies keep piling up

Remember those wonderful promises given to the American people about Obamacare, how we were told that all of us will be saving money because of the government control of healthcare.

President Obama said it over and over again:

“Families will save on their premiums.”

“Your employer, it’s estimated, would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent … which means they could give you a raise.”

Don’t spend that saved insurance money yet. It seems that promise was not true. Heck, even HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said last week that premiums are going higher.

Some people purchasing new insurance policies for themselves this fall could see premiums rise because of requirements in the health-care law, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters on the first day of Passover.

Ms. Sebelius’s remarks came weeks before insurers are expected to begin releasing rates for plans that start on January 1, 2014 (when key provisions of the health law kick in). Premiums have been a sensitive subject for the Obama administration, which is counting on elements in the health law designed to increase competition among insurers--to keep rates in check. The administration has pointed to subsidies that will be available for many lower-income Americans to help them with the cost of coverage.

SOME premiums?? The company I work for saw a 14% increase in health premiums thanks to Obamacare and expects even more next year. The health plan they offer is a generous one.

Part of the reason for the increase in our 2013/14 plan includes the federally mandated contraceptive coverage for women. There was always coverage, for example for women who needed to take the “birth control pill” for medical reasons such as regulating their monthly cycles. This coverage, however, is for all uses of female contraceptives. In other words, we are paying for the “sex life” of every sexually active single woman, which is not a “constitutional right.”

Next year, my colleagues in benefits warned us, the plan may not be as generous since there will be an extra tax on employers who offer exceptional health plans (called “Cadillac” plans).

According to the Society of Actuaries, insurance companies are going to be paying out more on individual health care policies, which will result in higher premiums for all insurance plans:

“Insurance companies will have to pay out an average of 32 percent more for medical claims on individual health policies under President Barack Obama’s overhaul, the nation’s leading group of financial risk analysts has estimated.”

That’s likely to increase premiums for at least some Americans buying individual plans and if the costs need to be spread out further, all insurance plans.

The report by the Society of Actuaries could turn into a big headache for the Obama administration at a time when many parts of the country remain skeptical about the Affordable Care Act.

While some states will see medical claims costs per person decline, the actuary report concluded that the overwhelming majority will see double-digit increases in their individual health insurance markets where people purchase coverage directly from insurers.

The disparities are striking. By 2017, the estimated increase would be 62 percent for California, about 80 percent for Ohio, more than 20 percent for Florida and 67 percent for Maryland. Much of the reason for the higher claims costs is that sicker people are expected to join the pool, the report said.

In the end, it seems that Nancy Pelosi was the only honest Democrat when she said we wouldn’t know what was in the bill until it was passed. Now that it is being implemented we are learning that Barack Obama’s promises were lies:

If You Like Your Plan, You’ll Be Able To Keep It:

According to the Wall Street Journal (June 11, 2010): “The law could leave more than half of employers without a grandfathered plan in 2013, the draft estimated. Its worst-case assumption is that 80% of small-employers will lose grandfathered rights by 2013. New plans would have to comply with all the bill’s requirements; grandfathered plans could avoid elements such as limits on cost sharing.”

Even the Obama Administration said (June 17, 2010) “Under this assumption, the Departments’ mid-range estimate is that 66 percent of small employer plans and 45 percent of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfather status by the end of 2013. The low-end estimates are for 49 percent and 34 percent of small and large employer plans, respectively, to have relinquished grandfather status, and the high-end estimates are 80 percent and 64 percent, respectively.”

The Law Will Protect Medicare:

In a March 18, 2010 letter to Nancy Pelosi, the Congressional Budget Office said,

“Ensuring Medicare Sustainability… -156.6 [Billion Dollars].” “TITLE III—Improving The Quality And Efficiency Of Health Care; Subtitle E—Ensuring Medicare Sustainability; 3401 Revision of Certain Market Basket Updates and Incorporation of services Productivity Improvements into Market Basket Updates that do not Already Incorporate Such Improvements (effect of productivity adjustment for home health included in estimate for section 3131)… 2010-2019… -156.6 [Billion Dollars].”

Later on in the same letter the CBO warned:

Medicare cuts could “reduce access to care or diminish the quality of care.”

Obamacare Will Not Add One Dime to the Deficit:

Doug Holtz-Eakin & Michael Ramlet in the Journal of Health Affairs reported in June 2010:

“A more comprehensive and realistic projection suggests that the new reform law will raise the deficit by more than $500 billion during the first ten years and by nearly $1.5 trillion in the following decade.”

There are many more examples of the pain Obamacare is bringing: The low wage part time workers at fast food and retail locations who will be losing their benefits because smaller plans are no longer allowed. The major corporations who are planning to drop their health plans because it is cheaper to pay the penalty, or the other companies who are covering their employees and their children but not their spouses (because it’s not required under the law).

Two weeks ago “Obamacare” celebrated its third anniversary. Sadly, since its passage we have learned of the many falsehoods thrown at Americans as the bill was being pushed through congress.

Nancy Pelosi, however, was telling the truth. Three years after Obamacare was passed we know much more about it--and the more we know the more we realize that our President was lying about many of the claims he made regarding his signature healthcare program.

Jeff Dunetz is the Editor/Publisher of the political blog “The Lid”