Over at Investors Business Daily, John Merline reports the latest news on average premiums for work-based family plans:
Employer-based health insurance premiums climbed 4.2% this year for family plans, according to an annual Kaiser Family Foundation report. That's up from 3% the year before. Since 2008, average family premiums have climbed a total of $4,865.
That's not the end of the story. Since 2006, the average annual increase for family plans through work has been just under 5 percent. That's down from 10 percent a year between 1999-2005. So that's good, right?
Indeed, the White House cheered the new figure, because they say it's a clear sign that Obamacare is bending the cost curve down and all that. Maybe, but what did the president actually promise voters about work-based family premiums for health insurance?
Merline again:
Slightly less higher premiums aren't what President Obama promised Americans when he ran for office touting his medical overhaul. He specifically said his plan would cut premiums. "We will start," Obama said back in 2008, "by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family." That $2,500 figure was Obama's mantra on health care. You can watch the video if you don't believe it.
IBD
And Obama wasn't talking about government subsidized insurance or expanding Medicaid or anything like that. He specifically focused on employer provided health care.
A year ago, Merline reported that government at all levels was spending a record 46 percent of dollars spent on health care. That's not good because when someone else is picking up half the tab, you tend to spend more, don't you?
And The New York Times reported that—if all goes well!—we'll be spending 19.3 percent of GDP on health care in 2023. In 2013, we spent 17.3 percent of GDP.
And here's a video highlight reel of Candidate Obama promising cheaper rates for families. Imagine that, a guy running for president offering voters more stuff for less money. How did he ever win with such a tough-love message?
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