Obamacare critic apologizes to readers

Heritage.org, which laid the groundwork for Obamacare two decades ago, now claims it will cause premiums to skyrocket.

“If you are among the many Americans who have bought into the fear and loathing that has been the campaign against Obamacare, you just might wish to reconsider. With every passing day, the various myths, legends and lies put forward by those with a political axe to grind, TV or radio rating to be raised, or vote to be purchased, are falling victim to the facts.”

--Rick Ungar, Forbes magazine columnist

The above quote was part of Ungar’s recent apology to his readersfor being so wrong in predicting a rapid rise in health insurance premiums under Obamacare. The health care rates announced in California by the 13 insurance companies that will be participating in the state’s online exchange proved to be far lower than Obamacare critics had expected.

“Setting aside the never-ending nonsense peddled by the opponents of healthcare reform, everyone from the Congressional Budget Office to numerous private actuaries have warned that premium shock could be expected to set in once the public began to see the reality of what Obamacare would mean to their pocketbooks,” Ungar wrote. “And yet, the only real jolt to the system being felt by these public and private prognosticators today is utter amazement over just how reasonable the California prices have turned out to be.”

The reason the rates on the California Covered exchange are so low is that the market forces at work drove down prices as insurers jockey for bigger market share in a state where Obamacare may add 2 million customers for the companies.

In a big, diverse state where some commentators thought the exchange would never work properly, it is instead working exactly as the architects of Obamacare intended. Similar results have been found in Oregon and Washington State.

Liberals are eager to point this out, and they note that in states without Republican obstructionists, the Affordable Care Act seems like it will be a success. Among the lefties who predict a Red/Blue State divide over Obamacare implementation that will damage the GOP is New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

Krugman wrote that the Republican “sabotage” also extends to states (such as Michigan) where state lawmakers have blocked Medicaid expansion. Regardless of the subsidized rates offered on the exchange, some of the uninsured population cannot afford even the cheapest health care policy. Without a federally financed expansion of Medicaid eligibility, Krugman wrote, those people will be left out in the cold.

Krugman concluded: “Still, here’s what it seems is about to happen: millions of Americans will suddenly gain health coverage, and millions more will feel much more secure knowing that such coverage is available if they lose their jobs or suffer other misfortunes. Only a relative handful of people will be hurt at all. And as contrasts emerge between the experience of states like California that are making the most of the new policy and that of states like Texas whose politicians are doing their best to undermine it, the sheer mean-spiritedness of the Obamacare opponents will become ever more obvious.