A few years ago, Republicans would send out blaring alerts whenever an insurer proposed a double-digit rate increase for its Obamacare plans, putting Democrats on the defensive.
Now Democrats and Obamacare supporters are hoping to do the same to the GOP, seizing on proposed rate hikes as evidence of GOP “sabotage” of the law.
The Obamacare advocacy group Protect Our Care announced its Rate Watch campaign Tuesday that will highlight proposed premium increases for Obamacare’s exchanges for 2019. The group said the goal of the campaign is to tie Republicans to the rate hikes because of moves such as the repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate penalty that everyone have health insurance.
“This is a purposeful, intentional campaign of sabotage that is making health insurance unaffordable,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said on a call with reporters Tuesday.
Three states — Virginia, Maryland and Vermont — have released proposed rates for the exchanges for 2019. The rates, some of which would increase by double digits, need to be finalized in the fall by each state, and could be lowered or raised after negotiations with insurance regulators.
But Protect Our Care is pointing to the proposals as evidence that the Trump administration is sabotaging the law.
The Rate Watch campaign website lists a filing from Virginia insurer Cigna that stated a 15 percent increase is caused by the elimination of the individual mandate penalty and regulations to expand access to cheap, low-quality health plans.
The administration has issued proposed regulations to expand the duration of short-term plans from 90 days to nearly 12 months and expand access to association health plans that individuals and small employers band together to purchase.
Experts and insurers are worried that expansion of the plans will cause younger and healthier people to flee Obamacare’s exchanges. The plans do not have to meet stringent Obamacare quality rules such as not charging sicker people more money.
Sabotage by the Trump administration and Congress will result in an 18 percent average increase for Obamacare plans, said Sam Berger, senior adviser for the liberal think tank Center for American Progress.
He said the 18 percent consists of the impact from both the repeal of the individual mandate, which goes into effect in 2019, and the expansion of cheaper plans.
Berger conceded that not all of a price hike would be in response to actions from the Trump administration or Congress. He said insurers could raise prices because of concerns about the future of Obamacare after repeated attempts to repeal it.
“There is always that remaining uncertainty factor that insurers put in,” he said.
The campaign is the latest sign that Democrats plan to go on offense on Obamacare ahead of the 2018 midterms.
It is a major turnaround from 2015 and 2016, when price increases on Obamacare’s exchanges turned into political fodder for Republicans to hammer Democrats.
Democrats and the Obama administration defended the increases by pointing to coverage gains under Obamacare and that 85 percent of people receive subsidies that blunt the impact.
The call Tuesday made no mention of the subsidies, which rise with any price hike.
Republicans don’t appear ready to concede the issue to Democrats, however.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who was part of an unsuccessful effort to stabilize the marketplaces, has said that premiums have risen because of the structure of Obamacare and not because of the Trump administration or Congress.
