An Independent study by the Society of Actuaries is causing the Obama adminsitration headaches as the report determines there will be a 32 percent claims cost increase due to Obamacare aka Affordable Care Act. This in turn confirms recent reports of massive increases expected to result in insurance premiums with Obamacare again being cited as the reason.
(The 83-page report on the study will be embedded below the post)
Via Washington Times:
While some states will see medical claims costs per person decline, the report concluded 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.
The report did not make similar estimates for employer plans, the mainstay for workers and their families. That’s because the primary impact of Obama’s lawis on people who don’t have coverage through their jobs.
This study follows up on the alarming chart shown by the majority staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee worked with two Senate committee staffs wichlsts he exected increases to premiums per state caused by Obamacare.
Via Hertiage:
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| Click chart to enlarge |
The administration questions the design of the study, saying it focused only on one piece of the puzzle and ignored cost relief strategies in the law such as tax credits to help people afford premiums and special payments to insurers who attract an outsize share of the sick. The study also doesn’t take into account the potential price-cutting effect of competition in new state insurance markets that will go live on Oct. 1, administration officials said.The problem with the Obama administration's argument there is that not all states have opted to create the insurance exchanges, therefore the study correctly did not assume savings from exchanges that won't exist.
Darrell Issa (R-CA) explains another glitch in the Obamacare law:
Although Obamacare requires the federal government to establish an exchange in states that decline to do so, a legal analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service found, "[t]he plain language of [the law] suggests that premium tax credits are available only where a taxpayer is enrolled in an 'Exchange established by the State.' A strictly textual analysis of the plain meaning of the provision would likely lead to the conclusion that the IRS's authority to issue the premium tax credits is limited only to situations in which the taxpayer is enrolled in a state-established exchange."Attempting to bypass the rules written into the Obamacare law, Obama would have to break his own law.
Simply put, Obamacare does not authorize tax credits unless states set up their own health insurance exchanges.
83-page study below: