Rising costs
Tell us again, President Obama, how your massive health care legislation — the crowning achievement of your presidency so far — is going to save us money.
It was a theme heard again and again during the year-long debate over ObamaCare. The typical family, we were assured by the president, would realize $2,500 in savings if his legislation became law.
It did. The typical family is still checking the mail.
Predictably, all signs point to the opposite. The bill’s myriad mandates, rules and regulations — many of which went into effect as the new year dawned — have instead increased costs for insurers, providers and customers.
The latest evidence comes in California, where Blue Shield seeks to raise rates by as much as 59 percent over a five-month period, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. The San Francisco based company blames a number of factors, including new California regulations and ObamaCare.
“We raise rates only when absolutely necessary to pay the accelerating cost of medical care for our members,” the nonprofit said in a statement.
Last year, another big California insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, sought a 39 percent rate hike, but settled for 20 percent after pressure from the White House and regulators.
It was always a somewhat fanciful notion that a 2,000-page federal law, replete with scores of regulations and mandates on the private insurance industry, would actually control costs. And as such a folly is exposed, it becomes even more vital that congressional Republicans follow through on their pledge to dismantle ObamaCare.