Thanks to McCain, Obamacare premiums to rise 15%, 63 counties to lose coverage in 2018

Obamacare, which could have been killed off last summer, were it not for the saving vote of Sen. John McCain of Arizona, is continuing its living-death death spiral and taking its unwilling consumers down for the ride.

Insurance premiums under Obama's Affordable Care Act are set to jump 15% in 2018 according to projections from the Congressional Budget Office, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon.

The budget office projects that average premiums will total $3,400 for a 21 year old, $4,800 for a 45 year old, and $9,800 for a 64 year old this year.

Market uncertainty is rampant among insurers, fearful that $705 billion in subsidies for buyers may not be replenished by Congress and that either Obamacare's buyers or else they themselves will have to eat that cost.

Meanwhile, the CBO projects that two million consumers will be knocked out of the market by the 15% higher cost, leaving the remaining consumers to pick up the tab – meaning that another price hike should be well in the works.

At the same time as this spiraling cost nightmare is going on, the Free Beacon reports that 63 counties next year are projected to have no Obamacare provider – all of the insurers have "gone Galt" and pulled out due to skyrocketing costs and the inability to cover them.  Another 1,472 counties are projected to have just one provider, so take it or leave it.  Those recipients, incredibly, must still pay the fine even if there is no coverage to buy, despite talk in Congress of exempting them from that.

Can a system this bad be stopped?  Sure, the way a car crash is stopped, through momentum.  Eventually, it will just stop.  Price hikes and uncovered counties can go on only so long until the whole system fails.  Such a path takes a lot of people down with it before the wheels finally stop spinning.

The other option was in front of us last summer – when the Senate voted to get rid of Obamacare and allow the free markets some sort of room to breathe.  That was stopped, by a handful of GOP senators, the final deciding vote being cast by McCain, who, despite campaigning to get rid of the nightmare, would do anything to prevent President Trump from achieving any of his agenda.

Now the consequences of that are here in the rising costs and uncovered counties.  McCain can stand up and take a bow, because he owns it.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/09/thanks_to_mccain_obamacare_premiums_to_rise_15_63_counties_to_lose_coverage_in_2018.html