Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) says on his web site that he is a manufacturer -- yes, he is, of lies and misrepresentations. In one heavily run TV campaign ad (see screen-grab, above), the Johnson campaign fear-mongers mightily, misrepresenting health insurance reform. The ad shows presumed constituents who, reciting an obvious script, complain that "Obamacare" premiums have doubled in cost or even tripled.
Really? Not really.
Actually, premium hikes through the government's online health insurance marketplace for next year will be only fractional, if anything, depending on your location and individual situation. Which has been the norm since the exchanges began. True, they are rising by the highest percentage since the Affordable Care Act exchanges began operating several years ago. But even totaling up the premium hikes in that time they haven’t come close to approaching the scary Johnson meme.
Indeed, the vast majority of individuals buying coverage via the federal health insurance marketplace for 2017 will find plans with subsidized premiums of $75 per month or less, according to the government. www.unionleader.com...
Is there any basis whatsoever in Johnson’s claim of skyrocketing premiums (which of course he blames on Democratic opponent Russ Feingold)? Only in cloud cuckoo land.
The double-or-triple claim has been around since at least 2014, and trumpeted endlessly since then on right-wing web sites, which have used almost exactly the language re-used once again in the Johnson ad. But if you look closely, you'll find this is no more than unrealized conjecture and fear-mongering from the direction of the private insurance industry, amplified by those right-wing sites.
For instance, HumanEvents.com in early 2014 conflated an article from a reputable government news source, The Hill, in which anonymous, private, "health industry officials" warned of, what do you know, double or triple premium increases. One unnamed insurance boss mentioned he would be tripling rates in 2015 (who actually did that? Anyone?). Such is the "basis" for the RoJo ad's wild claim, and its rationale for repealing Obamacare. But the super-increases didn't happen and won't be happening soon, if ever.
If they ever do, we’ll have plenty of advance notice, as Hillary Clinton, Russ Feingold and other Democrats point out, to make further, positive reforms to the nation’s health care system. Just, in fact, as we have time to strengthen Social Security and Medicare.
As usual, however, Johnson and other Republicans want voters to think things are all very much worse rather than better, a rationale they use in their goal to gut or even kill these beneficial, popular, social benefit programs. Never mind that millions of Americans in short order have obtained quality, affordable health care coverage when they couldn’t do that before the new law.
So, Senator Johnson, check your notes and update your talking points and campaign ads, if you're that conscientious or even conscious.
Bear in mind that, mainly because pre-retirement Americans almost exclusively still rely on the for-profit private insurance industry, rates are going to continue rising. However thanks to the Affordable Care Act, overall premiums have risen more slowly than in many a recent year, just as designers of the law predicted.
All but a handful of plans offered on the government exchanges come from for-profit, private insurers, who still get to set their own rates, and who in some cases don't really want to compete all that openly, lest they have to deal with better informed customers.
Rates under the Affordable Care Act subsidized plans were expected to increase sharply in the early years, because officials expected they would attract uninsured individuals who would have a lot of health issues they would seek to address quickly. As the quality of care catches up, costs to insurers should not rise as fast, and thus neither should premiums.
But double and triple increases? Fugeddaboudit.
From a Reuters dispatch today (linked above):
> The average premium for benchmark 2017 Obamacare insurance plans sold on Healthcare.gov rose 25 percent compared with 2016, the U.S. government said on Monday, the biggest increase since the insurance first went on sale in 2013 for the following year.
> The average monthly premium for the benchmark plan is rising to $302 from $242 in 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services said. The agency attributed the large increase to insurers adjusting their premiums to reflect two years of cost data that became available.
> The government provides income-based subsidies to about 85 percent of people enrolled, and those credits will increase with the higher premiums. It said 72 percent of consumers on HealthCare.gov will find plans with a premium of less than $75 per month.