Before Obamacare was instituted, its opponents predicted massive rate hikes. Well, the latest study from the Kaiser Family Foundation surveyed sixteen major U.S. cities and found otherwise.
Rates used to go up 10% or more each year. In the sixteen cities, there was one (Nashville) with an 8.7% increase, two more in the 6% range and six more at 3% or below. The rest went down a little or in a few cases, a lot. The average was a drop of 0.8%. In many cases, that's people paying less for better insurance.
No, it's not better everywhere and I'm sure the plan's foes will find examples to point to. But I think we see the reason why so many Republican candidates are dialing back on their vows to repeal every word of the Affordable Care Act. In Colorado, there's a tight race between Democratic incumbent senator Mark Udall and his Republican opponent, congressguy Cory Gardner. Gardner is a staunch "get rid of Obamacare" guy…and now the Kaiser survey is saying that insurance premimums are down 15.6% in Denver. How's that going to play out?