Employer-based health insurance premiums climbed 4.2% this year for family plans, according to an annual Kaiser Family Foundation report. That’s up from 3% the year before.
Since 2008, average family premiums have climbed a total of $4,865.
The White House cheered the news, saying it was a sign of continued slow growth in premium costs.
That much is true. Since 2006, the average annual increase for family plans at work has been 4.9%, down from around 10% a year from 1999-2005.
Slightly less higher premiums aren’t what President Obama promised Americans when he ran for office touting his medical overhaul. He specifically said his plan would cut premiums.
“We will start,” Obama said back in 2008, “by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family.”
That $2,500 figure was Obama’s mantra on health care. You can watch the video if you don’t believe it.
And Obama wasn’t talking about government subsidized insurance or expanding Medicaid or anything like that. He specifically focused on employer provided health care.
For “people who already have insurance, and the employers who are providing it,” he said at one campaign event, “we will work to lower your premiums by up to $2,500 per family.”
So was he talking about lowering the rate of increase? It sure didn’t seem that way. On CNN he said, “We’re going to reduce costs an average of $2,500.”
Every time the subject came up, he promised to cut premiums, not slow the rate of increase.
If what he meant was “we’re going to keep the rate of increase in premiums about where it’s been for several years now,” he was being purposefully misleading.
Of course, even if he did mean what he didn’t say, Obama can’t claim credit for the slowdown.
The truth is that the current trend started in 2006, long before Obama took office, and longer still before ObamaCare took effect.
And the continued trend of modest premium increases has been due largely to the shift in the employer market toward health savings account-type plans, which just happened to hit the market in 2005.
But that’s a topic for another day.
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I never voted for the guy, I clearly remember him saying repeatedly, he would cut costs $2500. So I began to believe him, I mean he was so clear in his statements, he couldn’t be lying. Afterwards, I realized he was, and now I know he is a major POS.
I will never believe ANYTHING a Socialist Democrat says again. The all live by ‘any means necessary’ (hear me Bernie Bros)
Funny how making it illegal for individuals to skip having insurance and illegal for employers of 50 or more not to provide it has allowed insurance companies to jack up prices. Who’d a thunk it?
With or without Obamacare, we can’t sort out paying for healthcare until we have true price and cost discovery. It should be illegal to charge disparate amounts for the same product or service based solely upon manner of payment (cash or via insurance). Some – Denninger – say it already is under Robinson-Patman, and all that’s required is a DOJ willing to prosecute conspiratorial pricing. Another interesting suggestion is for the IRS to negate the “non-profit” status of any hospital or provider that engages in disparate pricing. Since the majority of hospitals are ostensibly non-profit, that would topple the current setup.
Of course, since neither congress nor the executive are willing to excise the grift and graft, we’re headed inexorably toward Single Payer.
Way past the two year mark and Trump administration has done NOTHING, ZIP, ZERO, NADA to ease this criminal shake down of money from the pockets of American families. SHAMEFUL !!
Yup. “But they wouldn’t let him” – even if true – doesn’t excuse the inaction. I assume that Congress wouldn’t make any changes – esp under Ryan and McConnell- and any executive orders would have been stayed by some court, but it doesn’t excuse not trying. And if you’re not willing to risk assassination, you shouldn’t run for president. Or at least don’t pretend you’re anything other than a placeholder.
He lied?
No, no . . . er . . . he propagated an inadvertent mistruth.
They want you do die.
The middle class is purposefully being bankrupted.
I laughed a lot. it’s easy to see when somebody has no experience with anything gov. related. The idea that you will save money with the gov. involved in any way is truly laughable. Doing four years in the military and seeing all the massive amounts of waste at a young age was an eye-opener for me.
When the government gets involved expect costs to shoot into the stratosphere. Student loans were tied to Obamacare and see how tuitions shot up as a result. Doctors in my area are now charging $300 and up for an office visit, PT therapists charge $200 and up for a session. Medicare sets a cap but Medicare need supplemental insurance and that ain’t cheap. Drugs for serious ailments can cost thousands of dollars. Perfect case being epipens, they used to cost $15 and now they are $450. Price gouging runs rampant and insurance premiums go up because, essentially, they can.
With real inflation, not the Fake Inflation put out by BLS, running at 8-12% per year, we haven’t seen anything yet in terms of health and other loving costs (source: http://www.chapwoodindex.com/). The debasement of the US dollar by the private banker-owned Fed continues unabated which is nothing less than a massive plunder of Americans and the transfer of wealth from honest workers to a parasitic ruling class that produces little of value. Central and fractional-reserve banking is at the core of this system of crooked money and massive plunder…and it is all legal because the thieves own Congress, the MSM, social media and are clearly in charge. Folks…the wolves with blood dripping down their jaws are guarding the proverbial hen house and we are the hens. Republican or Democrat, it makes no difference because they are different sides of the same debased coin. The only question that should occupy our brains is how do we escape this world of modern serfdom created for us?
It was all in the plan , lie like a rug get the POS “AHCA” passed then lie about everything about it while excluding everyone you need to ram it up the average Americans ass