Comment: All the suffering we’ve seen so far has come from only about 5 percent of America–those who buy their own individual policies. Delays in the employer provisions have hidden the impacts from most Americans for a couple more years–individual policy purchasers are the only ones to have felt the full bite of Obamacare thus far.
And quite a bite it has been, as tabulated by Avik Roy at the Manhattan Institute below…
(“If we like your plan you can keep it … you just might not be able to afford it.”)
“We were able to obtain data for 3,137 of the United States’ 3,144 counties.”
“Among men, the county with the greatest increase in insurance prices from 2013 to 2014 was Buchanan County, Missouri, about 45 miles north of Kansas City: 271 percent. Among women, the “winner” was Goodhue County, Minnesota, about an hour southwest of Minneapolis: 200 percent. Overall, the counties of Nevada, North Carolina, Minnesota, and Arkansas haven experienced the largest rate hikes under the law.”
[...] “Across the country, for men overall, individual-market premiums went up in 91 percent of all counties: 2,844 out of 3,137. For 27-year-old men, the average county faced 91 percent increases; for 40-year-old men, 60 percent; for 64-year-old men, 32 percent.”
“Women fared slightly better; their premiums “only” went up in 82 percent of all counties: 2,562 out of 3,137.”
[...] “If you go to our interactive map, … you can find out whether subsidies will help you. For example, in Texas, if you’re a 27-year-old man and you make more than $27,991, you’re likely to pay more under Obamacare, even if you qualify for a subsidy. If you’re 30 years old, with an average household size, you’ll need to make less than $36,409 to break even under Obamacare.”
[...] “Remember that President Obama often promised that his plan would “lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year…by the end of my first term as President of the United States.” It’s an understatement to say that this has not happened.
3,137-County Analysis: Obamacare Increased 2014 Individual-Market Premiums By Average Of 49%
Avik Roy, 6/18/2014