The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) released a report Friday which estimated that health insurance premiums will increase for 11 million people who work for small businesses.
Nationally, CMS is “estimating that 65 percent of the small firms are expected to experience increases in their premium rates while the remaining 35 percent are anticipated to have rate reductions.” In terms of the number of workers the rate hikes will affect, CMS writes, “Specifically, we have estimated that the premium rates for roughly 11 million people will increase…”
The report quotes an independent 2011 analysis of the Affordable Care Act’s impact on Maine residents which found the vast majority of plan holders would experience rate increases: “Maine – A study by Gorman Actuarial and Dr. Jonathan Gruber estimated that a large majority (89 percent) of small employers are expected to experience a premium rate increase on average, while the remaining 11 percent will experience an average premium rate decline of 17 percent.”
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) blasted the Obama administration on Monday for what he called yet another broken promise used to sell Obamacare to an unsuspecting American public.
“The Obama administration has finally been forced to disclose what we’ve long feared: the president’s health care law means higher premiums for millions of American workers,” Boehner said in a prepared statement. “For all the promises of lower costs for small businesses, the administration now admits that far more of these workers will pay higher than lower premiums under the law.”
“It’s clear why the Administration sought to delay and deemphasize the release of this report,” he said. “It undermines the central promise of the president’s health care law: affordable coverage. And the only reason this information has come to light is the hard oversight work of House Republicans. These 11 million people who will see their premiums spike are 11 million more reasons to repeal this law and start over with common sense reform that will make care more affordable, not more costly.”
According to Boehner’s office, the Speaker demanded the CMS report as part of the 2011 Budget Control Act. It was due 90 days after the enactment of that law, but was been published two years late, with no public announcement.
