The Obama administration has tried to put a good face on the news this week that Obamacare premiums are spiking an average of 25 percent for 2017. The department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the increases under the heading, “More Than 70 Percent of Consumers Can Find Marketplace Plans for Less than $75 Per Month.” The reason for this good news for consumers, of course, is the U.S. taxpayer: Subsidies will absorb most of the cost of the 2017 increases.
Now, while some states have only single-digit increases (or even a slight decrease), Arizona residents are looking at a whopping 145 percent jump. That number is based on the increase in the second-lowest cost Silver plan, the coverage level HHS uses to compare premiums from state to state.
Just last November, HHS published a document called “5 Years Later: How the Affordable Care Act is Working for Arizona.” Under the heading “Scrutinizing unreasonable premium increases,” HHS wrote that “insurance companies are required to publicly justify their actions if they want to raise rates by 10 percent or more. Arizona has received $3,000,000 under the new law to help fight unreasonable premium increases.”
When asked to square this promise to require insurance companies to justify increases and prevent unreasonable ones with Arizona’s 145 percent increase, HHS press secretary Jonathan Gold told THE WEEKLY STANDARD, “The review process involves examining the justification for the increases. Largely having to do with the costs to insurers. Important to note that 70 percent (and probably more for 2017) will not pay this increase in Arizona. Tax credits rise with the premiums to match the increases.” HHS’s review apparently found Arizona’s and other states’ increases reasonable and justified due to increased costs to the insurers.
While HHS’s explanation may be comforting for the 70 percent or more of consumers receiving subsidies, the remaining 30 percent (and the U.S. taxpayer) may be less enthusiastic, especially in light of President Obama’s now defunct promise of lower costs for all under his signature healthcare plan.
