"In a mailer to Virginia voters, the conservative Heritage Action calls out President Obama for breaking his promise to save families up to $2,500 in premiums per year under his health care overhaul. But the group makes its own misleading claims about premiums in the process.
- The mailer falsely claims "Obamacare will increase premiums an average of $7,450 for families." That's the increase in national health care spending attributable to the law for every four people over nine years — as 30 million uninsured Americans gain coverage. It's not an average annual premium increase.
- The mailer also wrongly says "Virginians will experience between 3% and 67% in premium increases." The study it cites actually said premium changes would range from a decrease of 19 percent to an increase of 67 percent. And the estimates are only for the individual market, where 5 percent of Virginians buy insurance, and do not account for subsidies that many will receive.
Heritage Action, a 501(c)4 arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, starts off by saying, "Obama and Virginia liberals promised a $2,500 reduction in health care premiums for families." And it goes on to falsely say: "In real dollars, Obamacare will increase premiums an average of $7,450 for families." That figure comes from a Forbes contributor who calculated the per-capita amount of the increase in health care spending over nine years because of the Affordable Care Act and then multiplied it by four.
It's a nine-year figure, compared with Obama's $2,500 one-year figure. Neither of the numbers pertains only to premiums — despite what then-candidate Obama said — and they're both based on a loose definition of "average family."
All of those points are made clear by the Forbes contributor who calculated the $7,450 number."
rest at http://www.factcheck.org/2013/11/fighting-premium-spin-with-more-spin/
Somewhere I have come across the opinion that young and healthy Americans will most likely avoid being insured under the new program as long as possible. This will most probably benefit to their personal budget and in case of emergency extra money loan can become an effective tool to solve temporary health problems. The advantage of Obamacare is obvious for people suffering from chronic or professional diseases or in need of long-term medical treatment.
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