Friday, May 28, 2010

I Thought the Bill Was Supposed to LOWER Premiums…

The New York Times has a story out today regarding Secretary Sebelius’ meeting yesterday with insurance industry executives, at which she asserted that insurance rates were at a “crisis point” and that “more and more people are dropping coverage because of the increase in prices.”  She also said that “the worst of all worlds is to have more Americans driven out of the market [by higher premiums] in the next couple of years,” before the coverage expansions take effect in 2014.

The Secretary’s comments are a startling admission from an Administration elected on a promise to cut the average family’s premiums by $2,500 per year “by the end of my first term as President.”  But it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who’s read the Congressional Budget Office report noting that the health care law would RAISE premiums in the individual market by $2,100 per year.  And the idea of people dropping coverage because of higher premiums will only be encouraged by a law that encourages healthy people to drop coverage, pay a tax penalty, and buy insurance only when they need it, as multiple studies suggest is occurring as a result of Massachusetts’ health care law.

So the real question to the Secretary is: Instead of turning insurance companies into a political punching bag, why won’t the Administration own up to the fact that, rather than helping lower premiums, as the President repeatedly promised, their government takeover of health care is making the problem worse?