WisPolitics: Americans have saved an estimated $2.1 billion on health insurance premiums as a result of two important provisions of Obamacare – officially called the Affordable Care Act – that protect citizens from excessive premiums. This includes 288,984 Wisconsin residents who have saved a total of $14,551,793.But RoJo has a different set of numbers, something he researched at the nonpartisan Romney Campaign (I kid you not, see below):
After doing my own research, I turned up 4 Pinocchio's from July 2012, on numbers that were identical to Ron Johnson's figures last week:“In 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama promised that as President, he would reduce health insurance premiums by $2,500 per family by 2012, and that anyone who liked his or her current plan would be able to keep it. But instead of falling by $2,500 per family, premiums have now risen by over $3,000 – a broken promise that is costing the average American family $5,500 annually.
WaPo: The (Johnson)/Romney campaign cites a statement from a 2007 speech by Obama, but it’s a pledge that was repeated often: “When I am president, we will have universal health care in this country by the end of my first term in office. It's a plan that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family's premiums by $2,500 a year.” This particular quote is not very clear on when the savings would be realized, but in another speech , in 2008, Obama suggested it would be at the end of his first term — though to be fair, it is not clear if he is talking about the savings or enacting a new health care law.
Obama was talking about realizing
that savings once reform was in place. But Johnson’s inability to think any
deeper than the Romney Campaigns website misses something else entirely:
Obama’s pledge was not saying premiums would fall by that amount, as Romney asserts, but that costs would be that much lower than anticipated. In other words, if premiums were expected to rise by $5,000, they would only rise by $2,500 — that’s what Obama’s pledge meant, even if he was not too clear about it.
That was in 2008, when Obama had an entirely different plan than what was
finally cobbled together in 2010. The Washington Post Fact Checker went on to say:
The Romney campaign’s math is nonsensical. First of all, the Kaiser survey is conducted from January to May each year, so starting with the 2008 date makes little sense, since that is still George W. Bush’s term. Then the health care law was not passed until 2010, so the first year in which any impact could be seen from the law was in 2011. But, as the Kaiser report notes, most of the provisions of the new law will not take effect in 2014.
Remember during Johnson's campaign when he said it was time the U.S. Senate had its first accountant elected into office. How's that working out?
Isn't it time to start running a candidate against this numskull?
Please correct the headline here. Per the article, U.S. taxpayers have saved $2.1 billion, not Wisconsin taxpayers. But the money saved by Wisconsinites is not nothing, especially since so many have lost portions or all of their employer coverage.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Thank you. Corrected. Yes, many continue to lose their insurance as companies decide it's not worth the cost, or have peaked at cost shifting premiums to their employees.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are pushing to kill the deduction for businesses on their health insurance costs. If that happens, most workers will be left to fend for themselves. Obamacare subsidizes both small companies and individuals, so few will be dropped.
Thank you. Corrected. Yes, many continue to lose their insurance as companies decide it's not worth the cost, or have peaked at cost shifting premiums to their employees.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are pushing to kill the deduction for businesses on their health insurance costs. If that happens, most workers will be left to fend for themselves. Obamacare subsidizes both small companies and individuals, so few will be dropped.