SOURCE:
AMERICAN THINKERURL:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/10/virginia_dem_obamacare_has_made_health_care_more_affordable_crowd_laughs.htmlRick Moran
How much are Democrats in denial about the Obamacare meltdown? Virginia Democratic congressional candidate LuAnn Bennett, who is running against incumbent GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock, told the audience at a debate that Obamacare has made health insurance "more affordable."
The reaction of the audience was priceless.
Washington Free Beacon.
“For the last 50 years, both parties have agreed that we have a health care crisis,” Bennett said. “By 2005, we had 47 million uninsured Americans, and health care costs had grown to 16 percent of our GDP. The Affordable Care Act has made health care more affordable—”
She spoke a bit haltingly as the crowd chuckled.
“And it’s created access,” she said.
According to the Daily Press, rate requests filed by Virginia’s five largest insurers show average increases ranging up to 37.1 percent. Nationally, prices for medicine, doctor appointments and health insurance rose the most in August since 1984.
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Then there's the case of Obamacare architect Ezekial Emanuel, who blamed the meltdown on Republicans.
Fox News:
ObamaCare architect Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel sought Wednesday to defend the embattled health care law he helped design, in a contentious interview with Fox News where he tried to pin the blame for rising premiums on Republican lawmakers.
Speaking with "The Kelly File," Emanuel acknowledged premium hikes in some markets are a "problem" that needs to be addressed. But he also accused critics of "cherry-picking" the worst-case scenarios.
"Some have gone up higher than others, but the premium hikes are because they came in, they did re-calibrate the market. They were trying to get market share, and it is a correction. It is a problem that we do need to address. But it is not across the board," he said. "And it is going to be a one-time increase.”
Emanuel also argued that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and other GOP lawmakers were to blame because of their push to prevent tax dollars from being used to cover insurance company losses.
"Republicans bear some of the responsibility for this," Emanuel said. "Remember: Marco Rubio eliminated some of the risk adjustment that actually buffered and helped the insurance companies in this situation. He took it out of the budget. And that is a serious problem.”
Host Megyn Kelly pushed back – reminding Emanuel that he was a principal player in the creation of the health care overhaul.
"You are the architect of the law, sir," Kelly noted. "Let's start with you. When I get Marco Rubio here, we'll talk to him. You're the architect. You said it was going to be stable, and what we're hearing today from the chief executive of the National Association of Health Underwriters is: In many states, the individual market is 'in a shamble.'"
First, Ms. Bennett's contention that in 2005, there were "47 million uninsured Americans" is a flat out lie. We know this because since Obamacare began, about 18 million Americans who didn't have insurance before have it now. But the government informs us that there are still about 15 million Americans without insurance.
Math was not one of my strong suits in high school, but 18 million plus 15 million equals 33 million - not 47 million. And that number doesn't take into consideration the millions of Americans who leave their jobs, lose their health insurance, and a few months later find another job with another health care plan. The actual number of uninsured Americans was always many millions fewer than Democrats were claiming.
As for Mr. Emanuel's paranoid fantasy about Obamacare's rate increases, the average premium increase for 2017 will be a whopping 24% with numerous states reporting increases over 50%. That reality is why people laughed at Ms. Bennett for saying Obamacare was making health insurance more "affordable."
But blaming Republicans for the debacle? The programs to bribe insurance companies to remain on the state exchanges are set to expire this year anyway. Republicans did the taxpayer a favor by not throwing more money at a failing system.
Will someone ask Hillary Clinton about her husband's contention that Obamacare is a "crazy system" at the debate Sunday night? Don't count on it, but Trump would be smart to bring it up.
