ObamaCare Increases Both Healthcare Costs and Number of Uninsured

by Dave Blount | September 7, 2011 2:41 pm

There’s no guessing how much ObamaCare will end up costing in the long run, but it’s already clear that if not repealed before it becomes hopelessly entrenched, it will go down as one of the most expensive pieces of legislation in human history. The massive expense of a major new entitlement was justified by the supposed urgency of covering those who were uninsured. But to the surprise only of liberals, the percentage of Americans without health insurance has gone up[1] since ObamaCare was imposed:

In 2008, when George W. Bush was president, according to Gallup, 14.9 percent of adult residents of the United States lacked health insurance coverage. That increased to 16.2 percent in 2009, the year that Obama was inaugurated, and to 16.4 percent in 2010, the year that Obama signed his law requiring that all Americans have health insurance.

In the first half of this year, according to data released by Gallup [Tuesday], the percentage of adults in the United States lacking health insurance ticked up to 16.8 percent.

Big Government solutions can make even bad problems worse. With virtually nonexistent problems like our alleged healthcare crisis, it’s a cinch.

At least ObamaCare will reduce our healthcare costs, even if at the expense of our children and grandchildren, who will have to pick up the tab for Obama’s profligate spending. But wait — ObamaCare actually raises healthcare costs[2]:

One of the major impacts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is that individuals and families will see higher health insurance premiums. Obamacare imposes several costly new mandates and restrictions on health insurers and providers that will raise health cares costs and therefore premiums.

Even liberal apparatchiks are forced to agree[3]:

When Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services, which manages health programs within the state, wanted to get a better sense of how last year’s health care overhaul would affect insurance coverage within the state, they turned to Jonathan Gruber, a health policy expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who served as a consultant on both Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts health care overhaul and (somewhat controversially[4]) President Obama’s nationwide successor program.

Gruber is a frequent defender of ObamaCare as well as one of its architects.

He tried his best, but Gruber was unable to spin this sow’s ear into a silk purse.

Gruber projects that the average individual market health insurance premium will cost about 30 percent more than if ObamaCare had never passed. For most individual market enrollees, the average premium increase will be even higher: 87 percent of the individual market is projected to see a premium price increase of 41 percent.

ObamaCare is projected to cost about $1,000,000,000,000.00 over the next 10 years. What do we get for the money? Absolutely nothing. But our rulers get substantially more power over us, which was the sole objective of the legislation.

No one who won’t whole-heartedly commit to the immediate repeal of ObamaCare is fit to hold public office.

On tips from Bob Roberts and G. Fox. Cross-posted at Moonbattery[6].