Obamacare Premiums Could Be Second Mortgage Payment For Some – OpEd
By Marguerite Bowling*
Obamacare premium rates for 2017 are out, and consumers are taking it on the chin. Price hikes average more than 20 percent—and more than twice that in some states.
In fact, Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Edmund Haislmaier says that premiums for some Obamacare customers could easily be the equivalent of a second mortgage payment.
“Obamacare’s costly regulations continue to punish consumers,” Haislmaier says. “Furthermore, the law has encouraged people with expensive medical conditions to switch to the new, more heavily subsidized exchange coverage.”
“Essentially, the Obamacare exchanges are becoming a high-risk pool, so it’s no surprise that premiums on average are increasing by 25%,” Haislmaier says.
While the Obama administration claims that most Obamacare consumers will pay $75 or less per month for these plans because they will receive subsidies, recent enrollment figures show that only 42% of people with individual health plans receive subsidies through Obamacare’s exchanges.
“The rest are paying full cost for their premiums—either on or off the Obamacare exchanges,” Haislmaier says.
“More subsidies are an unaffordable Band-Aid, not a cure,” he adds. “Throwing more of the taxpayers’ money at Obamacare won’t fix its underlying problems. Only correcting Obamacare’s structural design flaws will do that.”
*Marguerite Bowling, Senior Communications Manager and Media Relations for The Heritage Foundation.
Tone down the rhetoric I don’t know where you got your numbers but I don’t know ANYBODY that got an increase like that.