If you’re one of the unfortunate few that listened to the Republicans and conservative media 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you’ll be scratching your head wondering why Obamacare is working. And you’ll be wondering why the prices haven’t skyrocketed, crashing the economy and bringing the nation to its knees. And for some of you walking around with no insurance because you drank the Republican Kool-aid about Obamacare, you are probably scratching your head and kicking yourself now.
Well, don’t kick too hard. Remember, you have no insurance.
For the other millions who were smart enough to buy into Obamacare, here’s more good news. Rates are falling more than was anticipated.
A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that in seven major cities that have released data on 2015 premiums, the price of the benchmark Obamacare plan — the second-cheapest silver plan, which the federal government uses to calculate subsidies — is falling.
Yes, falling.
“Falling” is not a word that people associate with health-insurance premiums. They tend to rise as regularly as the morning sun. And, to be fair, the Kaiser Family Foundation is only looking at 16 cities in 15 states and the District of Columbia, and the drop they record is, on average, a modest 0.8 percent (though this is the same methodology they used in 2014, and to good results). But this data, though preliminary, is the best data we have — and it shows that Obamacare is doing a better job holding down costs than anyone seriously predicted, including Kaiser’s researchers.
“I expected premium growth to be modest in most of the country,” Larry Levitt, a co-author of the report, told Vox’s Sarah Kliff. “But what we saw were some decreases instead.”
