Republicans have insisted for years that Obamacare would make health insurance more expensive — and this week they have eagerly seized upon new evidence that appears to feed their claim.
Prices for 2016 haven’t been finalized, and premiums had been growing more expensive before the Affordable Care Act was ever passed. But many insurers are proposing to raise premiums significantly next year, some as much as 70 percent, based on their initial filings.
“This is an ominous sign for the future of #Obamacare,” House Speaker John Boehner tweeted.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy wrote: “#Obamacare is packed with uncertainties, but there is one thing we know for sure: under the President’s healthcare law, costs will go up.”
Obamacare as a political issue has faded somewhat in recent months, but the rate news put it back on center-stage this week, as the GOP used it to press their point that the law is hurting insurance affordability instead of helping it.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee tried to wring some political points out of the news, using it to blast Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy in his race to replace Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, although Murphy wasn’t in office when the healthcare law was passed.
Some plans in Florida are proposing to reduce premiums. But 13 plans are requesting rate increases of more than 10 percent next year, including a 63 percent proposed hike by Time Insurance Co.
“When Floridians begin to get hit with higher rate increases in 2016, it will be yet another reminder of why Patrick Murphy is wrong for Florida,” the NRSC wrote.
Americans for Prosperity, an advocacy group aggressively lobbying against the law’s Medicaid expansion, brought up President Obama’s promise before the 2010 law was passed that it would lower premiums — a statement frequently referred to by the law’s opponents.
“Millions of Americans could again see double-digit premium hikes next year, despite the fact that President Obama repeatedly promised his signature healthcare law would lower premiums by up to $2,500 per family per year,” said Brent Gardner, the group’s vice president of government affairs. “This is just another in a long line of Obamacare’s broken promises.”
The healthcare law requires insurers to publicly post any rate increases of more than 10 percent, although nothing in the law prevents them from going through with steep rate hikes.
The filings come as House Republicans plan more Obamacare repeal votes in the lead-up to the Supreme Court’s King v. Burwell decision expected later this month, which could result in the law’s insurance subsidies being blocked in a majority of the states.
And on Wednesday, the Joint Economic Committee is planning a hearing on the question of whether the Affordable Care Act is costing U.S. jobs.
