Costs mounting for Affordable Care Act
Obamacare Sticker Shock: Not Very Shocking
BY JONATHAN COHN
TNR
“Death panels” are out. “Sticker shock” is in. For the last few weeks, critics of Obamacare have spent less time on their more hysterical claims and focused, instead, on a practical argument. Because the new health care law mucks up the insurance market with regulations on pricing and benefits, they say, you’re going to pay a lot more for insurance. “Health insurance costs are going up,” Sally Pipes, president of the Pacific Research Institute and one of the law’s most persistent critics, wrote recently in a Forbes column. “And for that, you can thank Obamacare.”
It’s the kind of argument that gives the administration and its political allies night sweats, because it has some basis in fact. Come next year, when the Affordable Care Act takes full effect, some people are going to start paying more for their health insurance than they would otherwise. But notice the key word in the previous sentence: “Some.” The real story about Obamacare, the one the law’s critics don’t emphasize, is that far more people will actually pay less. And while those paying more may not be happy about it, they’ll also be getting something for the extra premium dollars they pay up front.
Who are these people? Before we get to that, let’s talk about who they are not. If you are like most non-elderly Americans with private insurance, you get health benefits from a medium- or large employer. It’s part of your compensation. Obamacare isn’t going to have much effect on your premiums one way or the other—except, hopefully, in the long run, as the law’s efforts to control health care costs gradually reduce the annual increases to which you’ve become accustomed.
(More here.)
BY JONATHAN COHN
TNR
“Death panels” are out. “Sticker shock” is in. For the last few weeks, critics of Obamacare have spent less time on their more hysterical claims and focused, instead, on a practical argument. Because the new health care law mucks up the insurance market with regulations on pricing and benefits, they say, you’re going to pay a lot more for insurance. “Health insurance costs are going up,” Sally Pipes, president of the Pacific Research Institute and one of the law’s most persistent critics, wrote recently in a Forbes column. “And for that, you can thank Obamacare.”
It’s the kind of argument that gives the administration and its political allies night sweats, because it has some basis in fact. Come next year, when the Affordable Care Act takes full effect, some people are going to start paying more for their health insurance than they would otherwise. But notice the key word in the previous sentence: “Some.” The real story about Obamacare, the one the law’s critics don’t emphasize, is that far more people will actually pay less. And while those paying more may not be happy about it, they’ll also be getting something for the extra premium dollars they pay up front.
Who are these people? Before we get to that, let’s talk about who they are not. If you are like most non-elderly Americans with private insurance, you get health benefits from a medium- or large employer. It’s part of your compensation. Obamacare isn’t going to have much effect on your premiums one way or the other—except, hopefully, in the long run, as the law’s efforts to control health care costs gradually reduce the annual increases to which you’ve become accustomed.
(More here.)
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