WASHINGTON – Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print.

Premiums are likely to keep going up even if the health care bill passes, experts say. If cost controls work as advertised, annual increases would level off with time. But don't look for a rollback. Instead, the main reason premiums would be more affordable is that new government tax credits would help cover the cost for millions of people.

Listening to Obama pitch his plan, you might not realize that's how it works.

Visiting a Cleveland suburb this week, the president described how individuals and small businesses will be able to buy coverage in a new kind of health insurance marketplace, gaining the same strength in numbers that federal employees have.

"You'll be able to buy in, or a small business will be able to buy into this pool," Obama said. "And that will lower rates, it's estimated, by up to 14 to 20 percent over what you're currently getting. That's money out of pocket."

And that's not all.

Obama asked his audience for a show of hands from people with employer-provided coverage, what most Americans have.

"Your employer, it's estimated, would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent," said the president, "which means they could give you a raise."

A White House press spokesman later said the president misspoke; he had meant to say annual premiums would drop by $3,000.
It could be a long wait.

"There's no question premiums are still going to keep going up," said Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a research clearinghouse on the health care system. "There are pieces of reform that will hopefully keep them from going up as fast. But it would be miraculous if premiums actually went down relative to where they are today."

The statistics Obama based his claims on come from two sources. In both cases, the caveats got left out.

A report for the Business Roundtable, an association of big company CEOs, was the source for the claim that employers could save $3,000 per worker on health care costs, the White House said.

Issued in November, the report looked generally at proposals that Democrats were considering to curb health care costs, concluding they had the potential to significantly reduce future increases.
But the analysis didn't consider specific legislation, much less the final language being tweaked this week. It's unclear to what degree the bill that the House is expected to vote on within days would reduce costs for employers.

An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office of earlier Senate legislation suggested savings could be fairly modest.
It found that large employers would see premium savings of at most 3 percent compared with what their costs would have been without the legislation. That would be more like a few hundred dollars instead of several thousand.

The claim that people buying coverage individually would save 14 percent to 20 percent comes from the same budget office report, prepared in November for Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind. But the presidential sound bite fails to convey the full picture.

The budget office concluded that premiums for people buying their own coverage would go up by an average of 10 percent to 13 percent, compared with the levels they'd reach without the legislation. That's mainly because policies in the individual insurance market would provide more comprehensive benefits than they do today.

For most households, those added costs would be more than offset by the tax credits provided under the bill, and they would pay significantly less than they have to now.

The premium reduction of 14 percent to 20 percent that Obama cites would apply only to a portion of the people buying coverage on their own — those who decide they want to keep the skimpier kinds of policies available today.

Their costs would go down because more young people would be joining the risk pool and because insurance company overhead costs would be lower in the more efficient system Obama wants to create.

The president usually alludes to that distinction in his health care stump speech, saying the savings would accrue to those people who continue to buy "comparable" coverage to what they have today.
But many of his listeners may not pick up on it.

"People are likely to not buy the same low-value policies they are buying now," said health economist Len Nichols of George Mason University. "If they did buy the same value plans ... the premium would be lower than it is now. This makes the White House statement true. But is it possibly misleading for some people? Sure."

thought this was interesting

But, but, but Obama said primiums would drop 3,000% for companies and then they could give you a raise
I wonder if that will happen in all 57 states?

“My proposal would bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses, and for the federal government. So, Americans buying comparable coverage to what they have today, I already said this, would see premiums fall by 14 to 20 percent. That’s aren’t my numbers, that’s what the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says. For Americans who get their insurance through the workplace, how many people get insurance through your jobs right now, raise your hands. Well a lot of those folks, its your employer, it estimated, would see costs could fall by as much as 3,000 percent. That means they could give you a raise.”

http://netrightnation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1252492:the-obamacare-lies-thicken-in-ohio&catid=1:nrn-blog&Itemid=7

So....your saying an American President is being...dishonest??? Politicians lie??? They're all criminals in Washington. This fact remains: Every United States citizen should have health care. How to get there, I don't know It won't happen with the Democrats or Republicans in charge

that's what I've been saying for a long time now

i doubt this..this is one of the reasons for reform because this price gouging has been going on for years now

Looks to me like we should be able to cut our premiums in half
and still improve our quality of care. I want to make it so our
legislators get exactly the same health care as everybody else.
And I want to have my premiums cut in half immediately.

Mexico - There is no health care for a bullet hole.

" ... "Your employer, it's estimated, would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent," said the president, "which means they could give you a raise."

A White House press spokesman later said the president misspoke; he had meant to say annual premiums would drop by $3,000. ... "

Whaaaaaaaaaa ... ? I thought it was only BUSH who 'mis-spoke' ...

Once again Obama has put all the eggs for health care reform in one basket....he blames it on insurance premiums....he has attacked the insurers as making excessive profits when in actually the insurers rank way down the line in profits to comparable industries. If you took away all those profits....12.2 billion dollars it wouldn't reduce the trillions spent on health care by even 1 %. Mr Dummy....it the costs behind those premiums that will have to be addressed.

lol, I prefer the presidents idea that we all get the health care the LEGISLATORS get.

And I would like to see evidence that the president said this 3000 percent, more than once, which would be evidence of a lie vs misspeaking. As many mistakes as are made in the posts here, you would think people wouldnt be so quick to POUNCE on someone else when they misspeak.

But Bush has a history of poor , intellectual skills, and REPEATING the same misinformation over and over even though he should have been well rested from so many vacations........unlike this president who graduated magna cum laude from Harvard,has no history of educational or speech weaknesses, but has been working tirelessly on these proposals ,,,,,

Find me nearly as many 'misspeaks' from OBama when his FOUR Years are done as Bush had in just his first two, and I will eat my hat....lol

Oh dear ... please try to keep up ... 'The ONE' has had MORE 'date nights' and 'vacations' DURING A TIME OF WAR than Bush EVER had ... and if he's so 'clever' and such a great 'orator', how come he can't go anywhere without 'TOTUS' (Teleprompter Of The United States' ... ? Off-script, he's an 'uhhh - errr ... ummm - lessee ... hmm ... errr' 'orator' ... At some point, the defenders of 'The ONE' have to admit that he OWNS his problems - Bush is gone - 'The ONE' WANTED the job - time to man up instead of being the li'l crybaby whiner he's been since Day 1 ...

oh sweety,, time to stop condescending without facts to back up your claim.

from factcheck.org

'President George W. Bush spent even more time away from the presidential mansion in the nation’s capital than Reagan. Of the 77 total "vacation" trips the former president made to his Texas ranch while in office, nine of them — all or part of 69 days — came during his first year as president in 2001, according to Knoller.'

...notice thats 77 TRIPS not days, and 69 days were in his first year,,,comparatively

'Obama has spent all or part of 26 days "on vacation" during his first year as president'


As far as the TOTUS,, my guess would be he uses it like a speech giver uses notes,, particularly when talking for spans from 45 minutes or more when it would be difficult to just MEMORIZE each point and detail in a logical order. We have all seen the president , one on one, without Totus , in interviews and even question and answer questions,, its not really even debatable whether this man knows how to ORATE his thoughts.


I will admit though, that he owns the problems under his leadership, and my personal thought is he is working his slim behind off trying to make progress on the long LIST of fires he agreed to take on.

I keep hearing all this preaching about the Republican way but Bush was a complete idiot...and you people elected him to two terms!!! He started the war in Iraq and left his mess for Obama to deal with. That being said, I could have gone and voted for McCain...but some genius/moron decided Palin would be a great Vice President What this country really needs is to scrap our whole government and start over (I know that will never happen)

i agree with etrain it's time to get rid of intimidating elephants and jackasses and put real human beings in our government instead of 90210 animals

Oh I agree - I want the same health care our legislators get!

OBAMA can pronounce "nuclear"

The heading of this thread is misspelled...

... it should read 'FEAR check', not fact check!

Here is a link to the VIDEO of Obama saying it!!!!!!!!
I posted this earlier. So maybe before sticking up for the president you should read all the posts and hear the words come out of the horses mouth!!!!!


http://netrightnation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1252492:the-obamacare-lies-thicken-in-ohio&catid=1:nrn-blog&Itemid=7

what I wrote was...I would like to see evidence that the president said this 3000 percent, MORE THAN ONCE, which would be evidence of a lie vs misspeaking.