ObamaCare Causes Insurance Premium Hikes

Back in March, Congress narrowly passed the 2,400 page ObamaCare law that was suppose to help “lower costs in the health care system.” Beforehand, countless economists warned of the costly unintended consequences that may occur. 130 economists signed a letter to the White House stating that “the health care bill will increase spending on health care and will increase the cost of health coverage.” Unfortunately, President Obama ignored their wise advice by signing the health care overhaul bill into law.

Almost six months later, we have already begun to see these harmful unintended consequences take effect. According to the Wall Street Journal, ObamaCare will force health insurers to raise their premiums in coming weeks:

Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1% and 9% to pay for extra benefits required under the [ObamaCare] law, according to filings with state regulators. These and other insurers say Congress’s landmark refashioning of U.S. health coverage is causing them to pass on more costs to consumers than Democrats predicted… Many carriers also are seeking additional rate increases that they say they need to cover rising medical costs. As a result, some consumers could face total premium increases of more than 20%.

Of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. For every extra benefit that Congress mandated that health insurers provide there is an extra cost. One provision of ObamaCare is that children—or adults—must be allowed to stay on their parent’s insurance up to the age of 26. Since this government mandate is likely to cost health insurers a significant amount of money, they have no choice but to pass this extra cost onto consumers.

Like virtually every government intervention in the market, ObamaCare will accomplish the exact opposite of what the law was intended to do. The National Center for Policy Analysis found that state governments forcing insurance companies to provide certain mandated benefits drove up the cost of insurance as much as 30 percent. Additionally, the law is likely to cost far more than the Obama administration’s projection of $950 billion. A new independent study finds that ObamaCare may cost taxpayers as much as $2.7 trillion during its first ten years of full implementation.

Here is a chart from the Wall Street Journal showing some of the health insurance companies that will likely be rising their rates due to ObamaCare:

In order to prevent the coming health insurance premium hikes, we must work towards repealing the bureaucratic nightmare of ObamaCare. In the House, there is a discharge petition sponsored by Rep. Steven King (R-Iowa) that would repeal the entirely of ObamaCare. Thus far, the petition has 170 of the 218 signatures required to force a vote on the motion regardless of the speaker’s objections. However, 6 Republicans and 31 Democrats who voted against ObamaCare have yet to sign the petition—the Republicans include Mark Kirk of Illinois, Joseph Cao and Charles Boustany of Louisiana, David Reichert of Washington, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia (Rep. Castle of Delaware says he intends to sign the petition once he turns from Congressional recess.) Please contact your representatives and tell them to sign a petition to repeal ObamaCare (H.R. 4972) to prevent the cost of healthcare from rising due to needless government intervention.