Obamacare Will Increase Health Insurance Costs In California, Washington, D.C., And Elsewhere

California officials concede that their state’s Obamacare exchange will hike premiums for policyholders by up to 25 percent. In the District of Columbia, small businesses are being forced to buy overpriced insurance on an Obamacare exchange by the “District of Columbia Health Benefit Exchange Authority,” which “voted . . . to require D.C. small businesses to buy coverage through the exchange. Although President Obama falsely claimed when Obamacare was enacted that “if you like your present health insurance, you can keep it,” Washington’s small “employers can stick with their current health insurer” only “if that provider opts into D.C.’s exchange.” Even if it does, employers “may see their rates increase . . . experts said.” The forced participation in the exchange will “apply to any company that has an office in the District with 50 or fewer employees. ‘If you have a business license here in the District of Columbia, then you participate through the exchange,’ said Dr. Mohammad Akhter, chairman of the D.C. Health Benefit Exchange board.” Earlier, Obamacare resulted in hikes of 41-47% in health insurance premiums for some policyholders in Connecticut.

Obamacare also increases costs to taxpayers.  Obamacare will increase welfare spending by reducing levels of employment, leading to more people being poor enough to qualify for means-tested government benefits. Employers are now cutting full-time workers and replacing them with part-time workers (which helps conceal high unemployment) to avoid Obamacare mandates that apply to full-time employees, a phenomenon chronicled at the Huffington Post and on Fox News. Obamacare will reduce employment by an additional 800,000 due to work disincentives and bizarre income-cliffs, in addition to wiping out thousands of jobs in medical device manufacturing. The Dean of Harvard Medical School, Jeffrey Flier, concluded that Obamacare will harm life-saving medical innovation. Obamacare taxes medical devices and cosmetic surgery, and raises taxes starting in 2013 on investors. The Associated Press and others have reported that it breaks a number of Obama campaign promises.