ABC News To Obama - You Lie!

Earlier today during the so called healthcare summit there was a back and forth between the TOTUS and Sen Lamar Alexander on whether health insurance premiums would actually go up or down under the Obamacare plan.

Well, it seems that Sen Alexander was right and your premiums would go up 10 - 13% and Barry O was once again, well, lying.

Both cite a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the Senate bill done at the request of Senator Evan Bayh.

Who is right?

Well, the CBO analysis does say, flatly, that “the average premium per person covered (including dependents) for new nongroup policies would be about 10 percent to 13 percent higher in 2016 than the average premium for nongroup coverage in that same year under current law.”

Why are premiums going up? CBO cites the combination of three factors:

1. Premiums would be 27-30% higher because coverage would be better. The law, for example, requires that all policies cover maternity care, prescription drugs, mental health & substance abuse and no denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions.
2. Premiums would be 7 to 10 percent lower b/c of changes to the way the individual market is structured.
3. Premiums would be 7 to 10 percent lower b/c of an influx of more people, many of them healthy, into the insurance market.

The net effect of those three factors: Premiums would be 10 to 13 percent higher for the average policyholders.

President Obama’s claim of premium reductions of “14 to 20 percent” comes from adding factors two and three. The problem: You can’t ignore factor one.

The Dems need to stick with their constant telling of sob stories, which any of us could probably tell, because when it comes to citing facts and figures they fail miserably.