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June 28, 2017 11:26 AM UTC

Gardner is mad about insurance costs, but they'd go up more under Obamacare replacement than under Obamacare

  • 5 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Sen. Cory Gardner (R).

On a national conservative radio show Tuesday, guest hosted by Denver’s Ross Kaminsky, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) cited increased health-insurance costs and stated that the “most important thing we can do for this country is to make sure we have a replacement for Obamacare.”

But neither Kaminsky nor Gardner pointed out that under the U.S. Senate’s proposed Obamacare replacement, insurance rates are projected to go up more than they would if Obamacare remained in place, according to figures released by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

Gardner must not be reading The Denver Post, because Kaiser’s Colorado-specific facts were presented there, in an article by John Ingold:

[Under the Senate bill,] for a 40-year-old making $50,000 a year, a mid-level “silver” plan on the state’s insurance exchange would cost:

$1,930 more per year in Mesa County.
$0 more per year in Denver.
$910 more per year in Yuma County.

For a 60-year-old making $30,000 a year, the same level plan would cost:

$3,230 more per year in Mesa County.
$2,710 more per year in Denver.
$2,820 more per year in Yuma County.

For a 27-year-old making $20,000 a year, the same level plan would cost:

$700 more per year in Mesa County
$550 more per year in Denver.
$580 more per year in Yuma County.

Overall, the Kaiser report projects marketplace enrollees to pay 74 percent more in insurance premiums.

Kaiser Family Foundation: “Overall, marketplace enrollees would pay on average 74 percent more towards the premium for a benchmark silver plan in 2020 under the BCRA [Senate bill] than under current law (Table 1). Younger enrollees would see modest increases on average (10 percent for those under age 18; 17 percent for those ages 18 to 34), while average premiums would more than double for enrollees ages 55 to 64.

On the radio, Gardner said insurance “executives” told him that the Senate bill will “bend the cost curve down,” and they will be able to “reduce rates.”

This is in line with what he told Denver Post reporter Mark Matthews Monday.

“Over the weekend I had conversations with CEOs (including at least one official at) Blue Cross Blue Shield, who said their support for the bill is robust,” Gardner said of the health insurance giant. “They believe that it would markedly help stabilize the market, so I’ve got to go through each and every one of those arguments and see whether or not this achieves that.”

Gardner’s DC office did not return my call seeking the names of the insurance executives he spoke with and an explanation of why he would believe them more than the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

This post was updated with Gardner’s statement to The Denver Post Monday about his conversation with insurance industry CEOs.

Comments

5 thoughts on “Gardner is mad about insurance costs, but they’d go up more under Obamacare replacement than under Obamacare

  1. "Con Man Cory" Gardner: Always the dissembling, duplicitous, deceitful, deplorable, disappearing dick. Nary a truthful, honorable bone in his entire ALEC-owned body, nor a pinch of humanity in his shriveled, Koch-owned soul.

      1. Translating all that: Cory Gardner is a LIAR (say it Jason – break the bonds of that journalistic impulse to treat both sides equally) – all Republicans are now lying about this Health Care Ruination Act just like they lied the last 8 years about the affects and intent of Obamacare.

        (This is what you get for all your earnest desire to be bipartisanshippy and stuff with Pathological, Lying Politicians who hate government and want to destroy its function only so the wealthy can be more wealthy.)

  2. How can Kaiser Family Foundation say TrumpCare will result in an average of 74% increases in cost and an unnamed insurance company exec say it will reduce premiums? Two not mutually exclusive answers:

    1. The executives are lying sacks of crap who will receive a huge tax break on their own compensation, so they are willing to say anything Cory wants to hear to make him feel better about screwing everyone that doesn't make over $500,000 a year.

    2. Premiums may go down, but costs will go way up. For example, TrumpCare will allow the insurers to sell policies that do not include emergency room coverage, maternity care, or mental health coverage, and have high deductibles and co-pays. That will nominally reduce premiums, but will overall cost more in copays, deductibles, and lost coverage. TrumpCare also reduces subsidies. So the sticker price of your crappy policy may be less than your Silver Plan under the ACA, but it will cost you more because will have no subsidy or a reduced subsidy.  Your premium goes down, and you are screwed. 

    As someone that is older and has to buy on the exchange, I would love for BlueCross to guarantee me a lower premium on my current policy for next year if TrumpCare passes (net after subsidy). If they do, I will eat my hat.

     

  3. Finally, voters (except maybe Republicans) are finally taking notice and the polls show that unlike DontCare, they do care!

    The Quinnipiac University poll is nearly identical to Marist’s survey: 16 percent of registered voters approve of the Republican health care plan to replace Obamacare, and 58 percent disapprove. The numbers among Republicans are similar, too: 37 percent approve, 23 percent disapprove and 40 percent are undecided. By comparison, only 11 percent of Democrats and 26 percent of independents didn’t express an opinion about the GOP health bill.

    Opposition to the bill is stout. Nearly half of all voters, 48 percent, say they strongly disapprove of the measure; only 6 percent strongly approve of it.

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