What are the correct numbers?
I can't possibly give you an exact number, but rates are going up radically across the board for vast numbers of people. There is no question in my mind that the passage of Obamacare is directly responsible for a majority of those increases (above and beyond the normal year-to-year increases).
The author of that statement wants you to think that there is no connection between private insurance plans and the ACA, and that programs like Medicare and Medicaid are likewise unaffected.
We already know that Obamacare is (or will be) pulling money out of Medicare. For those people, the rates for private supplement plans will either go up, and/or they will offer less coverage.
From my own perspective, the plan that I am in (employer plan through a private insurer) has more than tripled since Obamacare was passed (this includes the 25% increase for 2014 and the approximately 100% increase in 2011).
Considering how complicated, pervasive, and invasive the Obamacare plan is, to assert that it leaves existing healthcare structures unaffected is simply not believable.
This article is pro-Obamacare propaganda from NPR. That alone should alone be enough to raise a serious level of doubt over anything the author says.
