June 7, 2016

Obamacare Costs Soar, Approval Plunges


  • Insurance companies are requesting rate increases for next year topping 50 percent.
  • Some plans are dropping out of the marketplaces entirely, including 13 of the 23 insurance co-ops funded by taxpayers.
  • The law is extremely unpopular. Most Americans who are paying high deductibles say that their Obamacare plans are a bad value.

As summer kicked off over Memorial Day weekend, concerns about the future of Obamacare continued to heat up. Americans got more bad news on how much the failing health care law will cost them, and their frustration is rising. This is not what Democrats promised.

Co-ops on the ropes

Late last month, the state co-op in Ohio collapsed, forcing 22,000 people to scramble for new insurance. So far, 13 of the 23 co-ops created by the law – covering 14 states – have closed their doors. Taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $1.4 billion in loans to these failed plans, and 745,000 people have lost their insurance plans.

Families lose coverage as co-ops go bust

Co op fails by state united states map

rate hikes show no signs of slowing down

To satisfy all of the mandates and restrictions in the health care law, insurance companies plan staggering rate increases for next year. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, the biggest insurer in the state, wants to raise rates by nearly 60 percent for 603,000 people. So far, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma will be the only company offering individual plans through HealthCare.gov in the state next year. The company is telling 170,000 Obamacare customers that it must raise premiums by about 50 percent.

Investors Business Daily headline Obamacare premium hike

The lack of competition will start to hit families in more and more states. In California, the nation’s largest health insurer – United Health – is dropping out of the state’s Obamacare exchange entirely. The company plans to drop out of the Obamacare markets in all but a handful of states. In addition to Oklahoma, there are at least three other states with only one insurer in the Obamacare exchanges: Alaska, Alabama, and Wyoming. There are more than 650 counties across the country where families will have only one choice for insurance in the exchanges next year.

As rates and deductibles rise, approval dives

Obamacare approval disapproval graphic

People losing their insurance and paying more are just two of the broken promises of Obamacare. They also help explain why the health care law is extremely unpopular. In the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls, fewer than four out of 10 Americans have a favorable view of the health care law. Nearly half disapprove.

Approval numbers will drop even lower as people learn how much more their coverage will cost next year. Many families face new cost-sharing burdens, with some plans raising deductibles to more than $7,000 per person. According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 70 percent of people with deductibles of $1,500 or more say their Obamacare plans are a bad value. As high-deductible plans become the norm, more Americans will see that Obamacare is no bargain.

Obamacare plan satisfaction chart

Issue Tag: Health Care