On the recordSeptember 15, 2014
I would like to offer half a cheer for the recent news that the benchmark price for a ``silver'' level ObamaCare plan will drop very slightly in FY 2015. Why only half a cheer? As economics writer Megan McCardle recently noted: Contrary to optimistic early reports, that doesn't mean that everyone's costs are falling. Consumers will have to be attentive to make sure that their costs don't go up. The worse news: we won't actually know what effect the Affordable Care Act is having on insurance prices until 2017, when a bunch of temporary subsidies for insurers expire. She goes on to note that the various ``risk corridors'' and other incentives which the Obama administration created to get insurers to participate in ObamaCare are preventing us from knowing the real cost of the President's disastrous health care law. McCardle writes: Right now, it's just not very risky for insurers to write a policy that loses a bunch of money because your losses are capped at a few percent. Starting in 2017, all that changes. Insurers are going to need to price policies with the expectation of making money and the fear of losing it. Mr. Speaker, I will pause for a moment to note that socialized losses combined with private profits are a hallmark of the crony capitalism of the ObamaCare era. Sadly, even in these heavily subsidized years, Americans are still suffering from price shock on their health insurance plan. As a constituent recently wrote to me: Virginia, here we go again.…
