Viewpoints: Obamacare Premium Hikes — A Pothole? A Collapse? And How To Save It?
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
The New York Times:
Obamacare Hits A Pothole
For advocates of health reform, the story of the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, has been a wild roller-coaster ride. First there was the legislative drama, with reform seemingly on the edge of collapse right up to the moment of passage. Then there was the initial mess with the website — followed by incredibly good news on enrollment and costs. Now reform has hit a pothole: After several years of coming in far below predictions, premiums on covered plans have shot up by more than 20 percent. So how bad is the picture? (Paul Krugman, 10/28)
The Washington Post:
Higher Health-Insurance Premiums Don’t Mean The Affordable Care Act Is A Disaster
“The Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, it is not affordable. Premiums have gone up. Deductibles have gone up. Co-pays have gone up. Prescriptions have gone up.” That is what one questioner stated in the second presidential debate. As if to highlight this complaint, the Obama administration has just announced that premiums in the both federal and state ACA exchanges will increase an average of 22 percent for 2017. So the Affordable Care Act is a disaster, right? No. (Ezekiel Emanuel and Bob Kocher, 10/27)
Chicago Sun Times:
The Predictable Obamacare House Of Cards Collapse
Despite all those awful, pandering ads aimed at millennials in 2013 — you remember the ones, with college kids doing keg stands and shotskis? — people in the all-important 18-to-34 age range accounted for only 28 percent of exchange members in 2014, and that remained the case for 2016. This is well below the 40 percent level needed to create a stable rate market. The idea that young, healthy twentysomethings would purchase something they historically did not, just because Obama really wanted them to, was always going to be the true test of the ACA. And not surprisingly, lack of millennial participation is now the program’s canary in a coal mine. (S.E. Cupp, 10/27)
USA Today:
Obamacare's Shocking Premium Hikes
Jill: As usual, bad news is giving conservatives an excuse to use health policy as a weapon of political war and once again call for the electric chair for the 2010 law with two unfortunate names. ... David: I am glad you acknowledge that bad news is the “usual” for Obamacare. Let’s dispense with this 20 million number first. The majority of those who gained health insurance coverage were added to Medicaid. That's not health care “reform;” it is spending. The second largest group, as many as 6 million, are young adults now covered under their parents’ plan until they turn 26. That is just cynically telling young people they are getting something for free when everyone else with insurance is paying for it. (David Mastio and Jill Lawrence, 10/27)
Boston Globe:
The Freakout Over The Rise In Obamacare Plan Premiums
On Tuesday, however, the federal government announced that premiums on Obamacare plans will increase next year by 25 percent . . . and the political world lost its collective mind. Here was yet another opportunity for Republicans to bash the law they opposed en masse and have tried for six years to repeal. Media organizations, particularly CNN, were happy to pile on, dredging up old clips of President Obama promising that if you liked your doctor you could keep him and suggesting that the latest bad news story on Obamacare highlights the law’s allegedly abundant failures. Lost in this storm of bad faith attacks were some rather salient facts. (Michael A. Cohen, 10/27)
The New York Times:
The Best Way To Save Obamacare
The Affordable Care Act has faced a rocky six months. First, major national insurers scaled back their participation, leaving about one in five people buying coverage through health exchanges with only one plan to choose from. Then this week, the Obama administration announced that exchange plans would post an average premium increase of more than 20 percent (though most enrollees would be insulated from the full increase by subsidies for their coverage). (Jacob S. Hacker, 10/27)
Bloomberg:
Clinton To The Rescue Of Obamacare
The Affordable Care Act isn’t all that affordable, it turns out. Less than two weeks before Election Day, Obamacare’s woes have become a weapon in the hands of Donald Trump and down-ticket Republicans. Hillary Clinton is left saying the problems are real, but fixable. Just tack on a public option, and Obamacare will be good as new. If she is elected and pushes for a public option, in which individuals purchase a Medicare-like plan on state marketplaces, she could face another HillaryCare fiasco -- not just because it won’t fly politically, but because it’s the wrong policy. (Paula Dwyer, 10/27)
The New England Journal Of Medicine:
Disentangling The ACA’s Coverage Effects — Lessons For Policymakers
Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), an estimated 20 million Americans have gained health insurance, and the country’s uninsured rate has dropped from 16% to 9% since 2010. ... Understanding how the law has achieved these coverage changes is critical to evaluating its progress. The primary ACA tools that took effect in 2014 are by now familiar: the expansion of Medicaid (made optional for states by the Supreme Court in 2012), the availability of tax credits to help consumers purchase coverage on the new health insurance exchanges, and the implementation of an individual requirement to purchase health insurance or pay a tax penalty (the individual mandate). Since 2010, the ACA has also allowed young adults to stay on their parents’ health plan through 26 years of age. ... what is less clear is how these different pieces of the law have fit together to produce these changes. (Molly Frean, Jonathan Gruber and Benjamin D. Sommers, 10/27)
Forbes:
Another Obamacare Problem: Mass Insurer Exit Diminishes Consumer Choice
President Obama promised that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would increase competition and choice in insurance markets. In a 2009 speech to a joint session of Congress, for example, the president said, “Individuals and small businesses will be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices. Insurance companies will have an incentive to participate in this exchange because it lets them compete for millions of new customers.” This claim, along with many others made by ACA supporters, have proven to be wrong. In fact, Americans have far fewer choices for individual market coverage today than they had before the ACA took effect and there is a rapidly declining number of insurers now offering coverage in the ACA exchanges. (Brian Blase, 10/27)
