New York Democrats, like Gov. Cuomo and Sen. Chuck Schumer, play games with the costs of ObamaCare to make it look good and President Trump bad. But the costs keep rising, and one way or another, Americans are stuck with the bill.
Take Tuesday’s news from Cuomo’s Department of Financial Services boss, Maria Vullo, that premiums for the state’s ObamaCare plans will soar an average 14 percent next year. That follows an even bigger bump, 17 percent, this year.
But don’t worry, says Vullo: Folks who buy “silver” plans (the most popular) will actually pay about 5 percent less next year, thanks to higher federal tax credits that will offset the hikes.
Just ignore the fact that someone, be it policy-holders or taxpayers, will have to cover the higher costs.
DFS blames “uncertainty” over federal “cost-sharing” subsidies (paid to insurers who offer lower deductibles and co-pays) for part of next year’s hikes. Congress has never formally OK’d funds for the subsides, and Trump may pull the plug on them.
Vullo says Team Trump needs to keep making the payouts to protect “consumers’ health care.” Huh? She insists that, thanks to the tax credits, folks will be paying less — so why do they need protection?
True, the Congressional Budget Office this week said premiums for the silver plans would spike 20 percent nationwide next year if Trump kills the subsidies. That prompted Schumer to blast him: “Try to wriggle out of his responsibilities as he might, he will be responsible for American families paying more for less care.”
Except that the CBO, like Vullo, also said the credits would cover the jacked-up premiums. So what’s Schumer talking about?
Meanwhile, as the Empire Center’s Bill Hammond recently noted, a one-year suspension of an ObamaCare tax on insurance premiums is set to end in December, driving up rates in New York by $1.1 billion, or 2.6 percent — and $22 billion nationwide. That wasn’t Trump’s tax.
Fact is, Schumer and Vullo (and her boss, Cuomo) are more interested in political games than looking out for consumers. Because ObamaCare, let’s face it, has been a huge failure. Not only have taxpayer costs soared, America is spending an ever-skyrocketing share of its GDP on health care — even as ObamaCare was supposed to “bend the cost curve” down.
Congress’ failure to start replacing ObamaCare leaves it on its programmed-in path to self-destruct. When it does, don’t expect Schumer and Cuomo to blame the president who pushed it through.