And though President Obama has sold the bill as reducing health care costs and Democrat leaders like House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer have claimed it’s the biggest deficit reducing measure in over a decade, these talking points ring hollow with a majority of Americans. The Gallup poll finds 50% believe they’ll see higher costs for themselves and their families, 55% believe overall costs of health care in the U.S. will get worse. And 61% say the deficit will get worse thanks to the Democrats’ health care bill.
The skepticism of regular Americans to this health care boondoggle is certainly warranted, considering the stories that are coming out one after another of the consequences of passing this ill-considered bill. The AP reports today, “Under the health care overhaul, young adults who buy their own insurance will carry a heavier burden of the medical costs of older Americans — a shift expected to raise insurance premiums for young people when the plan takes full effect. Beginning in 2014, most Americans will be required to buy insurance or pay a tax penalty. That's when premiums for young adults seeking coverage on the individual market would likely climb by 17 percent on average, or roughly $42 a month, according to an analysis of the plan conducted for The Associated Press. . . . The higher costs will pinch many people in their 20s and early 30s who are struggling to start or advance their careers with the highest unemployment rate in 26 years.”
Even the number two Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin, admitted that premiums will still go up if this expensive health care bill became law. He said on the Senate floor, “Anyone who would stand before you and say well, if you pass health care reform, next year's health care premiums are going down, I don't think is telling the truth. I think it is likely they would go up, but what we're trying to do is slow the rate of increase.”
And throughout the debate on the health care bill, both the Congressional Budget Office and the Obama administration’s own actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the Democrats’ bill doesn’t lower costs. CBO said federal health care spending “would increase by about $210 billion” and CMS stated that the bill “would increase [health expenditures] by an estimated total of $222 billion” over the next decade.
So it’s easy to see why the public just doesn’t believe the claims of Democrats. Today, President Obama is celebrating signing the partisan reconciliation bill that makes the original health care bill even worse, through higher taxes, more Medicare cuts, and more special deals. I believe most readers will agree with the words of Senator Mitch McConnell on Saturday, “Most people aren’t interested in celebrating a bill that makes their lives more complicated, takes more out of their paychecks and puts decisions they’re used to making themselves into the hands of federal bureaucrats. Most people aren’t celebrating the fact that their insurance premiums will go up. Seniors aren’t popping champagne corks at more than a half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts. And, job creators, already struggling in a down economy, aren’t doing any cartwheels over all the mandates and new taxes they’ll have to shoulder as a result of this bill.”
Tags: Washington D.C., polls, polling, Gallup, government health care, higher premiums, CBO
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