After famously telling the American people she would be taking a wait-and see-what’s-in-it approach to the Affordable Care Act, it appears as though Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) still doesn’t understand the law.
In response to a question about the rising cost of healthcare for Millennials, the House Minority Leader told reporters at a briefing Thursday that young people will see their premiums rise because, well, this is the first time they’ll be paying for healthcare.
“Well some people don’t have health insurance and they certainly will have their premiums go up because they don’t have any health insurance now so they don’t have any premiums now,” Pelosi said. “…If you don’t have health insurance you’re going to pay something you didn’t pay for before.”
While it’s no surprise that the cost of something does increase if you’ve never paid for it before, it doesn’t seem as though Pelosi quite understood just what was going to happen for young people under the Affordable Care Act.
As has been widely reported, many Millennials will be forced to pay higher premiums in an effort to subsidize the cost of healthcare for the elderly — regardless of whether or not they’ve previously had health insurance. According to the American Enterprise Institute, young people could see their premiums increase by as much as 189 percent. And another study, AEI reported, claimed those between the ages of 21 and 29 could see their health insurance costs rise by 42 percent.
But Pelosi didn’t seem to think that was the reason for the increase.
“We’re very sensitive to what it means for young people, especially young singles … I don’t remember saying that everybody in the country would have a lower premium because everyone in the country doesn’t have health insurance so how could it be lower?” she said.
Still, for many young Americans, paying the annual fee for not carrying the insurance is more cost effective than actually paying for it.
But the former Speaker of the House did have a small bit of reassurance for those doubting the bill.
“Be optimistic about it,” she said. “It is a very exciting enterprise.”
