Family Health Insurance Premiums
Source: Republican Policy Committee.
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Didn’t the President say he would lower costs for the average family by $2,500?
In Dallas County, a 22-year old male can purchase a $5,000 deductible (hospitalization only) major medical policy for $384 per year from Blue Cross of Texas. That would be more than enough for most recent college grads. Yet, the CBO estimates the average premium for the second-lowest cost “silver” plan for an individual in 2016 is $5,000. It appears to me that Obama will hike the cost of insuring young people by $4,615. That equals $9,232 per young couple just out of college!
Of course, the cost differential in Devon’s example is not for equal coverage. The $384 was for hospitalization-only coverage, and the $5,000 is for comprehensive coverage that the individual will be forced to buy.
Risk adjustment for catastrophic coverage is one thing; I have a harder time forcing one person to pay for another’s out-of-pocket costs.
Too bad the only choices have been a rather extreme progressive package, a slightly less extreme libertarian proposal which goes in the opposite direction, and the status quo.
As a “dictionary conservative” I’d like to see incremental change, quite possible in a libertarian direction, but much more cautious than what has been proposed. This seems to put me right in the middle of the three existing options, none of which I find palatable. “Circular firing squad” seems the wrong analogy; perhaps “scorpion surrounded by a circle of fire” comes closer.
I don’t see any cost curve getting bent here.