ADDING IT UP …
U.S. president Barack Obama‘s socialized medicine plan has cost Americans $1.2 trillion in higher health insurance costs over the last six years. That equates to $6,388 per individual and $18,610 per family over that time period, according to research compiled by America Next – a think tank led by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
“The administration has put forth all sorts of excuses about why its law hasn’t met the expectations the president himself set,” Jindal recently wrote in reference to the group’s report. “One of them is that the law’s major provisions only took effect in January, so Obamacare needs more time to achieve savings.”
Of course as we noted in this post, Obama created that problem for himself. As a candidate in 2008 he projected annual savings of $2,500 per family by the end of his first term in office … only to close out his first four years with a $2,400 increase in insurance costs.
In other words that campaign promise was about as accurate as Obama’s oft-repeated “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” promise.
Anyway, with Obamacare’s fate – or at least the fate of the vast majority of its subsidies – headed back to the U.S. Supreme Court, it’s worth taking a look at the impact the law has had on Americans’ health care costs.
Courtesy of the Kaiser Family Foundation, here’s a visual look at recent health care increases … which have kept right on trucking since the law was passed in 2010.
Ouch …
The uptick isn’t expected to stop anything soon, either. In fact earlier this year Obama’s former health czarina Kathleen Sebelius testified before Congress that premiums for 2015 “are likely to go up, but at a smaller pace than what we’ve seen since 2010.”
You believe that? Because we sure as hell don’t …
The fact the Obama administration has been reduced to touting the promise of “smaller cost increases” – not the cost reductions we were promised – should tell you all you need to know about this law.
Which, of course, could have been stopped if “Republicans” in the U.S. Congress had even an ounce of internal fortitude …
27 comments
Obamacare started 6 years ago?
If I can interpret a little from the graph, it looks like Obamacare must have started in 1999.
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Sounds like your “friend’s” step mother is running nude web cams. Good for her.
It started the day he was born!
Why stop there? I’m sure the President has use of the NSA’s time machine. Obamacare started in 65,000,000 B.C.
Year / Ind. / Change from Previous Year
1999 / 2196
2000 / 2471 / 275
2001 / 2689 / 218
2002 / 3083 / 394
2003 / 3383 / 300
2004 / 3695 / 312
2005 / 4024 / 329
2006 / 4242 / 218
2007 / 4479 / 237
2008 / 4704 / 225
2009 / 4824 / 120
2010 / 5049 / 225
2011 / 5429 / 380
2012 / 5615 / 186
2013 / 5884 / 269
Year / Family / Change from Previous Year
1999 / 5791
2000 / 6438 / 647
2001 / 7061 / 623
2002 / 8003 / 942
2003 / 9068 / 1065
2004 / 9950 / 882
2005 / 10880 / 930
2006 / 11480 / 600
2007 / 12106 / 626
2008 / 12680 / 574
2009 / 13375 / 695
2010 / 13770 / 395
2011 / 15073 / 1303
2012 / 15745 / 672
2013 / 16351 / 606
I notice a spike in 2002-2005, and a spike in 2011. Also, note the 2011 spike happened after a fairly small increase from the previous year.
380 + 225 = 605, 605 / 2 = 302.5 average per year for 2010-2011
1303 + 395 = 1698, 1698 / 2 = 849 average per year for 2010-2011
Both are still high, but they aren’t much different from the 2002-2005 spike numbers. And, of course, 2012 and 2013 are average increases for the most part.
You forgot to take into account the rebates. Those would lower the premium increases.
What does it all mean? Obamacare has had no material impact on the increase in the cost of health insurance, despite the lies perpetuated by the insurance industry through their Republican puppets.
You can’t just conveniently dismiss proof that Democrats’ assessments were wrong by labeling them lies. If you have evidence to the contrary, please share it.
But be advised that you’ll look rather stupid doing so since the Obama administration itself has conceded the fact that their calculations were wrong and that premiums have, in fact, risen.
I think the point is not that health care costs have been rising, but rather that this plan was supposed to reverse that trend and hasn’t.
the aca will help slow down our ALWAYS rising health care costs.
simple math.
it adds up.
regardless Bobby Jindhal’s phony extreme partisan repub graph.
more manufactured repub puke.
Another uninformed reply!
It looks like the trend of increases before Obama care continued after. All I know is that I didn’t sign up on the exchange and my payments increased by 38% in two years. This year I got a refund that reduces that increase to about 34%. I don’t want to go to an exchange. I would feel like I’m applying for welfare. I think that is what the Democrats want.
Hmm: I don’t remember FITS saying a word about this before the 2012 election…
Kinda hard to listen to anything FITS whines about now. When you are part of the problem, don’t try to Bull-$#!* me by acting like you are against it.
We wrote extensively about the cost of Obamacare prior to the 2012 election – as well as the costs associated with Romneycare, it’s precursor. Google is your friend.
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they can have a go at my starfish.
“Depth panels.”
Romney said he would repeal Obamacare, regardless of what Mass. did. Did you report that?
I remember you hated Romney more than you feigned dislike for Obama. And I think Gary “Global Warming” was who you claimed to be your guy. A vote for him, was in effect a vote for Obama.
You hated Romney from Day 1, so you can knock it off with your revisionist history. If we wanted to do some scorekeeping on your thoughts and predictions, we would unearth more losses than the Washington Generals.
I chose Romney over Obama because Obama is doing EXACTLY what I warned your STUPID @$$ he would do. Now you complain and whine about it, because you are ignorant and do what the media and FITS tells your tells your ignorant @$$ to do.
I’m the one who told you Obama is a F*#k up, Dumb@$$…
Actually, you are wrong as usual, but you go ahead with your lies, myths, and fables. You told me, and us, nothing. And good luck with the SC Political Digest. If you want to be taken seriously (a stretch at this point), try not show your ignorance and immaturity on sites you have not been banned from as of yet…ease up on the symbols and foul language. And let people comment in the manner you have flamed Gamecock and political sites for years.
You’re saying I supported Obama over Romney? Even the most ignorant among you would laugh at that.
Anyway: You seem to be a devout student of mine. You’ve learned a lot, and even taken on a one-time persona. But one thing I don’t do is lie. I don’t have to, and would not if I did have to.
You can be mini-me, but you lose your credibility when you cross that threshold into dishonesty. I accept the mistakes I make. You think that I’m as stupid as the people who side w/ you politically. If you really want to be as effective as me, you must become clean. And that is impossible for you to do, as an ignorant Dumb@$$, @$$ kisser of the liberal religion.
PS: I quit that Gamecock site. I was not banned (another lie by you.) I could go over there today, and use the name you had to steal, because of your lack of creativity. Anyway you notice the Gamecock site went into darkness, as soon as I got tired of their censorship. While FITS allows me freedom, and he is thriving beyond his wildest dreams.
What did you prescribe as a solution back then?
The great wealth transfer from ordinary people to doctors, hospitals and drug companies is slowing down. American Radiologists (who leave hospitals for home at 5 PM, and whose work is assumed by AMA-approved and US-trained radiologists in India for the evening hours) have seen their average annual income fall from $435K to $420K in the past five years. That makes me cry alligator tears. I LOVE SOCIALIZED MEDICINE.
Sorry to pop your balloon, but this downward pressure on the salaries of radiologists doesn’t have much to do with socialized medicine. It’s the market mechanism at work. Because there is a current shortage of radiologists in the U.S., outsourcing to India, Australia, etc. increased the overall supply of available radiologists and so brings the price down.
Socialized medicine, on the other hand, by capping remissions (payments) to doctors, acts as a disincentive to young people to enter the field, thus adding to the problem of a physician shortage — which, because it cannot be reflected in an upward pressure on doctor’s salaries, will inevitably be reflected in poorer quality of care.
You might think that foreign doctors can simply replace American docs, but that leads to a different set of problems, among them, communication, (beyond accent problems… understanding idioms, gestures, and the subtexts in conversations that occur without people realizing it). frequently substandard training — They pass a test in the U.S. but take courses ahead of time geared toward the exact questions on the test, thus avoiding having to get the strong base of knowledge required in U.S. Med Schools — and the fact that there has been a spate of Medicaid and Medicare fraud among foreign doctors who return to their native countries before indictment, thus eluding prosecution and depriving others of available health care dollars.
But mostly, the result will be less face time with doctors, over time a poorer quality of physician candidate, a greater reliance on nurses who, while they may adequately handle the routine, could miss early symptoms of more serious diseases, and delays. Mostly delays.
Naturally, I’d like to be a believer like you. But reading up on the problems that Europeans are currently having in covering with socialized medicine (and they don’t even have to contend with an insurance industry interface which is taking a 15-25% cut out of the health care system) doesn’t leave me with much hope.
Mine has stayed the same. I got a rebate from BCBS last week.
Golly. “Blame” Barak Obama for that rebate check?
Nope. I am very happy about it. Looks like people that have insurance and pay for it like I do got about 5 million dollars back. The 80/20 rule. I am sure this will upset our legislative delegation some how.