Free Republic

There are hundreds of aspects of Obamacare that people argue over. But there’s one question that matters above all others: does the Affordable Care Act live up to its name? Does it make health insurance less expensive? Last November, our team at the Manhattan Institute published a study indicating that Obamacare had increased the underlying cost of individually-purchased health insurance in the average state by 41 percent in 2014, relative to 2013. We’ve now redone the study on a county-by-county basis, complete with a brand-new interactive map. Depending on where you live, the results may surprise you.

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Why did Democrats give Obamacare an annual marriage tax of up to $11,028 per couple? In front of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Obama administration argued that Obamacare is a tax.According to the Obamacare calulator, Obamacare places an annual tax on married couples for being married instead of single. The amount of this tax depends upon the ages, incomes, and parental status of the married couple.According to the Obamacare calculator, the extreme case of this tax occurs with a 60-year-old married couple with no children, where the two spouses have identical incomes totaling $62,041 per year....

In Vermont, the rate increases announced Monday range from 9.8 percent to 18.3 percent. Kentuckians will pay up to 17 percent more in 2015, and in Virginia rates will rise as much as 22 percent. These increases are the direct result of the Obamacare scheme to make health care “more affordable,” and the increases could have a considerable impact on the November congressional elections. The state-by-state drip, drip, drip of bad news for Democratic candidates can be good news for the rest of us if it encourages voters to shake up Washington. The shake-up starts with getting the government out...

States are nailing down dates to release 2015 premium costs under ObamaCare, and their decisions will guarantee a drumbeat of news about rate hikes all the way to the November midterm elections. Democrats are bracing for grim headlines that could put the unpopular law back at the forefront of voters’ minds. Premiums are expected to go up in a majority of states, as they do every year, but the size of the increases could go a long way toward determining how much political damage Obama-Care inflicts on vulnerable Democratic lawmakers. A survey by The Hill of state insurance commissioners found...

A large number of people who've signed up for private health insurers through the Cover Oregon health insurance exchange have not paid their first month's premiums, meaning they are at risk of going without coverage through November. "I've already had clients not pay and lose their coverage," says Lisa Lettenmaier, who owns the health insurance brokerage Health Source NW in Tigard. "It's imperative for people to pay their premiums on time." More than 81,000 people went through through Cover Oregon – either through paper or electronic applications—to select a private health plan. Of those, 5,000 have already cancelled policies or...

The Obama administration postponed a portion of the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act in order to avoid paying the political consequences of a market disruption in the group insurance sector. If new premium pricing proposals from insurer filings in the states of Virginia and Washington come to pass, the White House may have no way out of accountability for their health-care reform folly. When Obamacare first rolled out last fall, the failure of the federal and state exchanges were only the first signs of disaster. Premiums spiked upward in both the individual and group markets, and insurers raised deductibles...

Paul Siperke is the co-owner of Fat Head's, a popular brew pub in Cleveland. He has fewer than 50 full-time employees, so he's classified under the Affordable Care Act as a small business. He doesn't have to provide health insurance to his employees, but that's what he's been doing since the bar opened in 2009, despite some pretty dramatic volatility in rates. This year, under the Affordable Care Act, he saw another hike — this one about 20 percent. "It just seems odd that we get such a drastic price increase when nothing has really changed with us as far...

The Obamacare "winning streak" continues apace. Kaiser Health News reports on the increasing likelihood of more and more large employers dumping employees into Obamacare's exchanges. An untold number of employees will discover that they can't keep their plan, especially if they're a high-risk, high-cost employee. The Obama administration estimated that as many as 93 million Americans will lose their existing coverage under the new law, despite what the president promised repeatedly. We wrote about "targeted dumping" back in 2011. Those concerns are now being realized:

With enrollment in the Obamacare exchanges now closed, Democrats and their friends in the media are ebullient. Obamacare is an enormous success, they say, and conservatives have been humiliated. On closer inspection, however, things seem decidedly less bullish for President Obama’s signature achievement. Among the many exaggerations and inaccuracies the law’s defenders are touting, five stand out. • First, they say that premium rates are down. In support of this, liberals cite research from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), but they misinterpret it. In fact, the CBO’s most recent estimate of premiums shows a decline not from what they were...

Major health insurers say at least 80 percent of the people enrolled in their ObamaCare plans have paid their first premium. Aetna, which offers ObamaCare plans in 17 states, told a House committee roughly 500,000 of their 600,000 enrollees had paid a premium by the third week of April. Paul Wingle, an executive with Aetna, said the company's payment rate has been in the "low- to mid-80 percent range" and suggested it would rise. "These are dynamic figures and do not reflect final enrollment numbers, as some enrollees have not yet reached their payment due dates," Wingle said. Frank Coyne,...

The Internal Revenue Service this week will publish a final rule requiring Obamacare health insurance exchanges to hand over key personal data to the IRS, which will use the information to implement the tax aspects of the controversial health care law. The IRS rule covers health exchanges that sell insurance to individuals, and it takes effect this year. That means people enrolled in an Obamacare exchange this year will have their information given to the IRS as soon as it’s needed for tax purposes. Information to be handed over from Obamacare exchanges includes names, addresses, taxpayer identification numbers, insurance premium...

“Thnx Mr. President!” That’s what former MSNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan had to say to President Obama in a tweet earlier today. He was saying it sarcastically. You know, like when you say “thanks a lot!” to someone who bumps into you in the hallway, causing you to spill your coffee all over your clothes. But Mr. Ratigan experienced something far worse than a coffee spill. His health insurance premiums are skyrocketing thanks to the hilariously named Affordable Care Act. What happened? Well, for starters, Ratigan had catastrophic health insurance coverage. That means that he sees himself as pretty healthy and...

In the press release accompanying the administration's Obamacare enrollment report yesterday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius declared that the 8 million people who had signed up for private health plans in the law's exchanges had "exceeded expectations." That depends on which expectations you're referring to. Looked at nationally, it's true enough, at least if you count sign-ups rather than paid enrollments... But it's also worth remembering that Obamacare enrollment varies quite a bit by state. And some states beat their enrollment projections handily, while others lagged far behind initial estimates. An analysis released today by the health consultancy...

Just 67 percent of Obamacare enrollees in federally-run marketplaces had paid their premiums by April 15, bringing the federally-run Obamacare enrollment tally to only 2.45 million, according to documents provided to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Obama administration has been heavily promoting that 8 million Americans selected plans on Obamacare marketplaces, but has refused to release any data on how many purchased their plans. The 67 percent payment rate as of April 15 is markedly lower than the 80-85 percent that experts have predicted will end up paying their premiums. April 30 is the final day for most...

The demographic that was key to holding down health care costs apparently came in well below the level necessary to ensure that: Just more than a quarter of the eight million people who signed up for health plans under the Affordable Care Act are in the prized demographic of 18 to 34 years old, falling short of the figure considered ideal to keep down policy prices.The data, released Thursday by the Obama administration, painted a more complete picture of enrollment in the plans. They show that about 28% of people picking plans on the state and federal insurance exchanges...

The Obama administration released a fresh round of Obamacare data for all 50 states Thursday, yet offered no payment data to combat Republican claims that only two-thirds of customers in the federal marketplace have paid their first premium. The Health and Human Services Department reported that more than 8 million people selected a private health plan on the overhaul’s insurance exchanges from Oct. 1 to March 31, a tally that includes people who got extra time to finish up their selections in early April.

With the results sure to affect politics as well as pocketbooks, health insurers are preparing to raise rates next year for plans issued under the Affordable Care Act. But how much depends on their ability to predict how newly enrolled customers — for whom little is known regarding health status and medical needs — will affect 2015 costs. “We’re working with about a third of the information that we usually have,” said Brian Lobley, senior vice president of marketing and consumer business at Pennsylvania’s Independence Blue Cross. The health law required insurers to accept all applicants this year for the...

Lawrence Basich is on the hook for $400,000 in medical bills that would have been paid by his insurer had his application been processed correctly by Nevada’s Obamacare exchange. In a closely-watched class-action lawsuit now gathering steam, Mr. Basich is one of two named plaintiffs in the suit against the state-run exchange — and the company that built it — that claims thousands of residents paid for health insurance, but never got covered because of technical glitches on the portal. The suit may be the first since the Obamacare rollout that pits actual consumers against both the state and its...

While the debate continues over how many ObamaCare enrollees are actually paying their premiums, one aspect of the law temporarily rewards those who actually stop paying – and doctors may wind up bearing the cost. “This law provides a 90-day grace period for people who have subsidized ObamaCare exchange plans and stopped paying their premium," said Betsy McCaughey, health care author and former New York lieutenant governor. But the insurance companies are only obligated to cover the first 30 days of the 90-day grace period

From the first Morning Jolt of the week: Whoops: Half of Georgia’s Insurance Enrollees Haven’t Paid Yet. This seems rather important: Georgia insurers received more than 220,000 applications for health coverage in the Affordable Care Act’s exchange as of the official federal deadline of March 31, state officials said Wednesday. Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens, though, said premiums have been received for only 107,581 of those policies, which cover 149,465 people. “Many Georgians completed the application process by the deadline, but have yet to pay for the coverage,” Hudgens said in a statement Wednesday. Half? Half? Sure, the nonpayment rates will...