When the Department of Health and Human Services announced last week
that average premiums for Obamacare plans were rising by 22 percent,
President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies had a response ready
for worried consumers and the law’s critics: Don’t worry, almost
everyone on Obamacare is shielded from them by the law’s generous
subsidies.
There are lots of problems with that response (someone has to pay for them, for one). But the biggest one is that about half of Americans who are subject to the law do not, in fact, get subsidies.
This fact has often been lost in the conversation over this month’s news. Just yesterday, the president said the Obamacare rate hikes will affect a “handful of people.” David Leonhardt of the New York Times explained that of the 10 million people who buy coverage on the exchange, “the vast majority receives government subsidies that will largely or partly cancel out the price increase.” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman estimated that only “several million” people are subject to unsubsidized rate hikes.
There are lots of problems with that response (someone has to pay for them, for one). But the biggest one is that about half of Americans who are subject to the law do not, in fact, get subsidies.
This fact has often been lost in the conversation over this month’s news. Just yesterday, the president said the Obamacare rate hikes will affect a “handful of people.” David Leonhardt of the New York Times explained that of the 10 million people who buy coverage on the exchange, “the vast majority receives government subsidies that will largely or partly cancel out the price increase.” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman estimated that only “several million” people are subject to unsubsidized rate hikes.
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