says Instapundit, commenting on Meghan McArdle’s article: What Everyone Knew About Obamacare and Wouldn’t Say
Meghan concludes…
We forget that when millions of people hear the president say that “if you like your insurance, you can keep it” and “premiums will fall by $2,500 for the average family,” they don’t listen with a wry smile. They don’t write it off as understandable hyperbole from a president who is working to pass a great law with a few flaws. They don’t think this speech means “I care about getting the best insurance for as many people as possible.” They think it means “if you like your insurance, you can keep it” and “premiums will fall by $2,500 for the average family.” If they didn’t think it meant that, they might not have supported the law
Indeed. And if the MSM had done their job…
Backing up, Meghan start off talking about rate shock…
We don’t actually know how bad a problem this is. Mathematically, two things must be true: There are some people in this country who are losing their current insurance and gaining better insurance at a lower cost, and there are some people in this country who are losing their current insurance and getting worse insurance at a higher cost. And there are some who are now getting insurance they couldn’t afford at all before.
We don’t know how many people are in each group. Nor do we know how big a problem rate shock will be for the folks who experience it. But that doesn’t matter for the news story, which, in the absence of data, will be a war of anecdotes. Not ideal, but frankly, most of the folks now complaining about the “rate shock” anecdata were often the same folks who eagerly showcased every anecdotal story about a poor single mom who was excited to be getting insurance for the first time. So I find it hard to take their distress too seriously.
The law’s supporters have made some quite reasonable points in response — that rate shock was an unfortunate but necessary consequence of broadening coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, and it may not even affect that many people. You can’t make even the nicest of omelets without breaking eggs. And some of them did mention this at least once during the run-up to the law’s passage.
And here’s one of my hot buttons…
They’ve also, however, made some arguments that were, at the very least, extremely ill-considered, such as saying that the insurance people had before wasn’t “real insurance” and implying that they are too stupid to know what’s good for them. As product marketers will tell you, when customers complain about a product change, here’s what not to do: Declare that your customers are idiots who don’t understand that they didn’t actually want the thing you took away from them. If you don’t believe me, just ask the folks on the New Coke team.
My plan from Assurant Health was purchased in 1999 so it IS a Grandfathered plan. I did not make any significant changes and was even able to add my wife so it’s still a Grandfathered plan. It has a $500 benefit for wellness per person per year. After that it’s fairly high deductible and I was rated up for some pre-existing conditions. The maximum out of pocket is $9700. The lowest cost plan on the Colorado marketplace is $300/mo higher and has a $12,700 maximum out of pocket.
Despite what I consider unreasonable rate hikes over the years, I would not trade my plan for an Exchange/Marketplace plan. I guess am a stupid idiot that doesn’t know what’s best for him and doesn’t realize he has an “inferior” plan. I would like to say that apparently the money paid out by Assurant Health is still green as Children’s Hospital has accepted the > $200,000 in payments that Assurant Health has sent them.
