Viewpoints: Obamacare’s Premium Increases, Accountability And How It Could Be Fixed

The Washington Post: Obamacare Is Not ‘Blowing Up.’ But It Does Need Fixing.
The Affodable Care Act is “blowing up,” Donald Trump claimed at a Tuesday rally, jumping on the government’s announcement that premiums for a popular group of ACA plans will increase by 25 percent next year. “All of my employees are having a tremendous problem with Obamacare,” he claimed. Well, no. ACA rates are going up by double digits, but that does not mean that most people’s premiums are. Most people — including, we presume, quite a few Trump employees — get their health insurance through their employers, not the ACA marketplaces for individual insurance-buyers. For that matter, most of those individual buyers also will not face a huge premium spike. The 25 percent is an average, masking regional variation, and most people buying on the ACA marketplaces get significant government help that softens any top-line premium increase. So — surprise! — Mr. Trump is wrong. (10/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Accountability For ObamaCare
ObamaCare has suddenly been injected back into the 2016 election debate, on the news of the law’s 25%-plus average premium increase for 2017. Even Donald Trump is talking about it. With only two weeks to go, this is a moment for voters to hold accountable the Democrats who imposed this debacle on the country over voter objections. (10/25)

The New York Times: A Quick Guide To Rising Obamacare Rates
The Obama administration released the prices for many Obamacare health plans on Monday, and they showed big increases in many parts of the country. Obamacare customers will begin shopping for new plans next week, just a few days before the presidential election. The news fanned political interest in the health law — both presidential campaigns were talking about the topic on Tuesday — and whether its structure of private insurance markets is sustainable. The health law will almost certainly stay on the minds of politicians in the next administration: Both Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump have proposed substantial changes to it. (Reed Abelson and Margot Sanger-Katz, 10/25)

Los Angeles Times: Growing Pains For Obamacare — And Its Customers
The price hikes have renewed calls by Republicans to repeal the law, better known as Obamacare. And there’s no denying that the increases are going to be painful for many working-class Americans who don’t get coverage through their employers. One key driver of the premium hikes is the disproportionately high cost of covering the people who’ve signed up for Obamacare. Although the law requires virtually all adult Americans to obtain insurance, too many younger, healthier people have either flouted the mandate or chosen to buy the less comprehensive policies that the Obama administration unwisely allowed to remain on the market. (10/26)

The New York Times: Affordable Care Act Premium Increases Are A Fixable Problem
The Affordable Care Act has improved and expanded health insurance to cover millions more Americans. But it is far from perfect, and the sharp increase in premiums for plans sold under the program shows some of the problems that the next president and Congress need to fix. Premiums will increase by 25 percent on average for midlevel plans next year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, but most Americans will be largely insulated from price increases by federal subsidies. About 85 percent of the 10.5 million people who bought insurance through the online health exchanges this year received subsidies; that proportion is likely to increase in 2017 as premiums rise. (10/25)

Los Angeles Times: Obamacare Premiums Are Spiking 25% Next Year. How Bad Is That?
You can almost set your watch by it: Every year, when new premium rates for the Affordable Care Act exchange plans are published by the government, critics proclaim that the law has failed Americans by failing to rein in prices. This year, the cries are sure to be even louder, because premium increases nationwide are averaging about 25%. (Michael Hiltzik, 10/25)

The Washington Post: Obamacare Has Some Problems. Here’s How We Can Fix Them.
“All of my employees are having a tremendous problem with Obamacare,” Donald Trump said today, which is odd because under the law, Trump should be providing health coverage to his employees, at least the full-time ones. That means that the actual problems with the Affordable Care Act don’t affect them. But it’s fair to say that the Republican presidential nominee is not the only one laboring under misconceptions about what the ACA is, how it works, what its genuine problems are, and how they might be fixed. (Paul Waldman, 10/25)

The Washington Post: Trump Just Made A Big Mess Of His Attack On Obamacare. But He Also Got One Big Thing Right.
Donald Trump opened up a new attack line today, blasting Obamacare over the news that premiums are set to increase sharply for some people buying insurance on the exchanges. The New York Times reports that his campaign is convinced that this is a game changer for him that will put Hillary Clinton badly on the defensive in the race’s final days, since she wants to preserve and build upon the law. But Trump botched his attack, and everyone is having a good laugh over it. (Greg Sargent, 10/25)

The Wall Street Journal: ObamaCare Comes Back To Haunt Evan Bayh In Indiana
Thomas Wolfe once wrote that you can’t go home again, but Evan Bayh—a former two-term Democratic governor and U.S. senator from Indiana—is trying. After casting the deciding 60th vote for ObamaCare, Mr. Bayh retired in 2011 and cashed in as a fixer on Washington’s K Street. Now he’s running against Republican Rep. Todd Young—and his own liberal voting record—to reclaim the seat. (Allysia Finley, 10/25)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Price Increases Coming For Obamacare Policies. Fixes Must Follow.
Twenty million more people today have health insurance than before the Affordable Care Act launched in 2010. That’s a million more than the combined populations of Missouri and Illinois. Yes, the Obama administration announced Monday that premiums on most government health exchanges will increase next year by an average of 25 percent. That’s bad news, and there’s no way to sugarcoat it. Private insurers underpriced their plans, and this is a course correction. The signature achievement of President Barack Obama’s administration will need some fixes. But 20 million people refute Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s assertions that “Obamacare is a disaster.” (10/25)

RealClear Policy: The Health-Care Reform We Need
The ACA's individual mandate is not working for either insurers or consumers. Three out of the big five insurers — Aetna, United Healthcare, and Humana — have effectively pulled out of the exchanges after losing hundreds of millions of dollars. Seventeen of the ACA's 23 non-profit health-insurance co-ops, which received $2.4 billion in taxpayer funds, have failed and five others are on the brink of collapse. (Andy Puzder, 10/24)