White House Yawns as ObamaCare Spikes Loom

 

IBDEditorials.com

Insurance: News this week that ObamaCare will cause a huge spike in insurance claims in the individual market — and result in sky-high premium hikes — was bad enough. Worse still was the administration's response.

A study released Tuesday by the Society of Actuaries said that health claims will shoot up an average 32% under ObamaCare. Some states will see claims rise as much as 80%, while just five states could see them drop a little.

The reason, the report says, isn't just that millions of uninsured will get coverage, which the actuaries estimate will cause them to double their health spending.

Also driving claims higher is that many employers will dump coverage for workers once ObamaCare kicks in, and those workers will be far more expensive to insure than people already in the individual market.

Either way, the result will be higher premiums for millions of Americans.

This is just the latest in a series of recent reports all pointing in the same direction. Namely that, despite President Obama's many promises, the "Affordable Care Act" will be anything but.

So what is the administration's response? A big yawn.

Sure, prices are going to go up for men, the young and the healthy. But who cares, since they're going to go down for women, sicker and older people.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius dismissed it all as a "sort of a one-to-one shift."

And, besides, she said, those paying more will get far more generous coverage, so what's to complain about?

But in trying to dismiss this report, Sebelius not only showed the administration's indifference to the cost explosion ObamaCare will unleash, but a complete ignorance about the market she's planning to take over.

"Some of these folks," Sebelius said, referring to those hit by ObamaCare's price spikes, "have very high catastrophic plans that don't pay for anything unless you get hit by a bus. They're really mortgage protection plans, not health insurance."

Sebelius has it exactly wrong. It's precisely those catastrophic plans that are real insurance, which in case anyone has forgotten is supposed to protect against unforeseen costly events, not pay $20 doctor visits.

What Obama and company are trying to force down everyone's throats isn't insurance, it's massively expensive prepaid health care.

Too bad for those who'd rather buy real insurance and spend their money on something else.

The problem is that ObamaCare's push toward comprehensive "insurance" coverage will only fuel health care cost inflation.

Back in 1960, people paid almost half the nation's health care tab out of pocket. By last year, that figure had dropped to just over 10%, with the rest paid by government health programs or increasingly generous, tax-subsidized workplace health benefits.

That, in turn, has pushed up health spending, since it looks to consumers like they're getting something for virtually nothing.

By driving out-of-pocket spending for health care down even further, ObamaCare will only succeed in driving up costs for everyone.