PolitiFact: Analysis backs claim of jump in Obamacare premiums
PolitiFact this year rated True a similar claim. According to a 2016 analysis, people trying to purchase insurance on a government exchange only had one provider to choose from in 32 percent of the nation's counties. Some 21 percent of Affordable Care Act enrollees, or about 1.9 million people, could pick from a single insurance provider.
But a
We decided to put that declared increase to the Texas Truth-O-Meter.
This claim, we found, stems from a reputable report, though the percentage cited by Cornyn merits explanatory clarifications.
Cornyn spokesman
The report further says: "The median state percent increase was 108%. The results are similar with those published by online health insurance broker eHealth, which found a 99% increase in premiums for plans purchased on their portal between 2013 and 2017."
Nationally, the HHS report says, average "monthly premiums increased from
A chart in the report shows variations by state ranging from a low of 12 percent (
Experts we reached agreed premiums in 2017 were up quite a bit from 2013. They also noted contrasts to take into consideration.
The Cornyn-cited HHS report itself offers clarifications, including:
--A reminder that the Obamacare law imposed coverage expectations not fully in place until 2014. "These included a number of changes to the types of insurance products that could be offered and the rules insurers could use to vary prices based on customer risk," a reference to the Obamacare law's mandate that insurers cover pre-existing conditions without imposing additional purchaser costs. "In most states," the report says, "these regulations increased insurance coverage requirements and would be expected, on average, to increase the price of ACA-compliant plans relative to pre-ACA plans all else equal."
--"This analysis," the report says, "does not account for the fact that the overall populations enrolling in the individual market in 2017 are different from those enrolling in 2013. Older and less healthy people are a larger share of the individual market risk pool now than in 2013. The changing mix of enrollees and adverse selection pressure has likely been a significant cause of the large average premium increases in the individual market over this four-year period," the report says.
--The research didn't consider premium changes in states including
--The report did not include premium changes on individual policies purchased privately, not through exchanges. In 2016, the report says, an HHS office estimated that the non-exchange individual market equaled 38 percent of total individual market enrollment.
Our ruling:
Cornyn told a constituent that under the Obamacare law, health insurance "premiums have increased by more than 105 percent since" 2013.
This claim traces to an admittedly incomplete federal analysis of changes in 39 states that didn't endeavor to research premium changes in 11 states that run their own insurance exchanges. It's also worth clarifying that Obamacare policies must cover pre-existing conditions without penalty and that they generally provide more benefits than what was required in most states in 2013 -- surely factors figuring into increased premiums.
We rate this claim Mostly True.
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