Irony: liberal MSM that pushed ObamaCare now lament that "federal mandates jack up costs:

from theblogprof by The blogprof


Irony: liberal MSM that pushed ObamaCare now lament that "federal mandates jack up costs:: "An ironic headline from The Grand Rapids Press: The cost of health insurance reform: Federal mandates jack up costs

From the article via MLive:

When clients looking to renew their health insurance policies wince at the steep rate hikes for 2011, Joel Schaaf feels their pain.

Like many of his clients, the Georgetown Township agent’s health insurance bill recently took a big jump: Golden Rule raised the monthly fee by $100 to $353. And, like his clients suffering from sticker shock, Schaaf is comparing companies and plans in the hope of finding a lower-cost remedy.

Rate increases, fueled in part by wellness provisions required by health care reform, have hit many individual and small-group plans hard, agents say.

...Schaaf said most policy renewals are coming in at 20 percent to 35 percent increases.

He cites the example of a company with about 10 employees. Under its Blue Cross Blue Shield plan, its family rate rose from $1,311 a month to $1,583, a 21 percent increase.

To keep costs down, he said many employers are increasing deductibles — to $4,000, $6,000 or even $10,000. Some are shifting to health savings account plans, in which employees can make tax-deductible contributions to a fund to pay for unreimbursed medical expenses.

Kurt Buursma, a Holland agent, said most policies he sees are going up 20 to 25 percent. His own family insurance policy with Humana has doubled in four years, from $102 a month to $203.

...He also has seen many people lose employer-sponsored health care coverage.

“I’ve had three different clients tell me they are shutting their health plan down or closing their company in the past week,” Buursma said.

This is ObamaCare by design - bankrupting the system so that people have to seek out healthcare themselves. And with the increasing expense because of ObamaCare, people will clamor. And when there is a critical mass of such people, the government will swoop in and want to offer a public option to fix a problem that they themselves have created. Game, set, match. But there is some hope: Report: House to vote on repealing ObamaCare on January 12

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