Monday, August 29, 2011

Wisconsin Survey a Microcosm of Obamacare’s Flaws

Late last week, the governor’s office in Wisconsin released a report analyzing the impact of Obamacare on the state and its insurance markets.  To those who predicted that the law would result in higher premiums and individuals losing their current coverage, the results are not surprising:

Losing Coverage:  According to the report, “very few” Wisconsin residents will keep their current individual market coverage thanks to Obamacare’s restrictions.  Instead, 150,000 individuals will give up their current coverage to move to the government-regulated Exchanges.  An additional 100,000 individuals will lose access to employer-sponsored coverage, because the firms they work for will decide to drop coverage instead.

Mandates Raising Price of Insurance:  Nearly two in five (38%) participants in Wisconsin’s individual market will be forced to buy richer coverage than they have now, due to the new mandates and insurance restrictions included in Obamacare.

Higher Premiums:  Government mandates will raise individual market premiums for more than four in five participants – more than 41% of participants face premium increases of more than 50% before federal insurance subsidies are applied.

Winners and Losers:  Even AFTER federal insurance subsidies are applied, 59% of individual market participants will pay more – an average of nearly 31% more – for their coverage, so that a smaller minority can pay less.  To take one example, costs in the individual market for Wisconsin residents aged 19-29 will go up by a whopping 34%, so that costs for residents aged 55-64 can go down by $31, or a mere 1%.  And Wisconsin’s more than 5.5 million residents will pay higher federal taxes – on their drugs, income, and insurance premiums, to name but a few examples – so that only about 220,000 newly insured will receive taxpayer-financed insurance under Obamacare.

Government-Forced Insurance:  340,000 individuals in Wisconsin will obtain coverage under Obamacare, but that if the individual mandate were repealed (or struck down as unconstitutional), coverage would only increase by 60,000.  In other words, nearly 300,000 Wisconsin residents will obtain health coverage not because they want to purchase it, but because the federal government is forcing them to do so.

What IS surprising however is the fact that the report was commissioned last year by the Democrat then-Governor, and completed by Jonathan Gruber, who was a paid – though undisclosed – consultant on Obamacare itself.  If even an Obamacare supporter reaches conclusions this ominous about the impact of the statute on one state, how can Democrats continue to defend their flawed, 2700-page law?