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Guess Who Obama is Blaming Now for Insurance Hikes?

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

When in doubt, blame the private sector” seems to be the official mantra of the Obama White House when it comes to attempting to micromanage the economy. Barack Obama’s latest finger pointing: blaming premium hikes on greedy insurance companies, not the individual mandate that drove up insurance costs in the first place.

John Merline explains the absurdity of this claim in Investor’s Business Daily:

President Obama is already pointing the finger of blame at greedy insurance companies for what many expect will be huge ObamaCare premium hikes when people go to sign up for their 2016 health insurance. On his ObamaCare victory tour last week after the Supreme Court ruling on insurance subsidies, Obama bragged at an event in Tennessee about the many wonderful aspects of the law, including the fact that “we’re actually seeing less health care inflation.”

But then a questioner had the temerity to ask Obama about massive rate hikes in the state: “I don’t know if you’re aware,” the questioner said, “that BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has announced a significant increase after the one that they gave from 2014 to 2015.” BCBS is asking for a 36.3% hike in premiums this year, on top of the 18%-plus increase they got last year, because “claims significantly exceed the premiums collected.”

Obama’s response was to tell her to “stay on your insurance commissioner, pay attention to what they’re doing.” Those insurance companies, he said, always ask for sky-high rate increases, and if the commissioner “does their job in not just passively reviewing the rates” then rates will “come in significantly lower than what’s being requested.”

Here’s the thing- cost increases don’t just happen in a vacuum. If prices go up, somebody has to pay for it. And it’s not going to be the insurance companies, it’s going to be us, the consumers.

Merline highlighted this point in his analysis:

…regulators have to make sure their insurance markets don’t collapse. And the big insurers asking for double-digit rate hikes are backing those requests up with cold hard claims data which show that costs per enrollee are far higher than expected. (Which is what critics of the law said would happen.)

But enough about facts. When in doubt, blame the private sector!

Tom Borelli

Dr. Tom Borelli is a Newsmax TV contributor and radio commentator addressing political issues from a conservative grassroots perspective. As a columnist, he has written for The Washington Times and authored articles for Newsmax Magazine, Newsmax Insider and previously was a co-host with his wife Deneen Borelli on the SiriusXM Patriot channel. Dr. Borelli appeared on numerous television programs, including the highly ranked Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” “Hannity,” “The Kelly File," and "America’s News Headquarters." He has also appeared on Fox Business Network’s “Making Money with Charles Payne” and “After the Bell” as well as TheBlaze TV’s "The Glenn Beck Program" and "Dana!" Prior to working for public policy organizations, Dr. Borelli was a managing partner with the investment advisory firm of Action Fund Management, LLC and a portfolio manager for the Free Enterprise Action Fund (FEAF) where he used shareholder activism to challenge corporations that sought to profit from the growth of government. During his 25 years with the Altria Group, Inc., he built a foundation in public policy and issues management, drawing from diverse experiences ranging from basic research to corporate affairs. Dr. Borelli served as science fellow for the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space, and Technology during the 100th Congress. Dr. Borelli has also published scientific papers on interferon and human leukemia.

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