Gas Savings Sucked Up By … Obamacare!

HEALTH CARE COSTS ARE MORE EXPENSIVE THAN EVER

By FITSNEWS || There’s a great post up on Zero Hedge exposing the myth that lower gas prices will stimulate consumer spending (news flash: they haven’t).  But if Americans aren’t spending the estimated $300 they will save at the pump next year on new get-ups and gadgets … where’s it going?

The answer?  Obamacare.  You know: The law that was passed because you’re stupid.

Years ago, we warned that U.S. president Barack Obama‘s socialized medicine monstrosity was going to be disastrous for the American economy – and we were right (see HERE, HERE and HERE).  As a candidate in 2008, Obama projected annual savings of $2,500 per family by the end of his first term in office – only to close out his first four years with a $2,400 increase  in insurance costs.

In other words, his campaign promise was about as accurate the oft-repeated “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” promise.

The latest evidence of Obamacare’s harmful impact on our economy?  A study released by The Commonwealth Fund … which found that “premiums for family coverage increased 73 percent over the past decade.”  The study also found “employees’ contributions to their premiums climbed by 93 percent over that time frame.”

That’s up 73 percent … and up 93 percent, for those of you keeping score at home.

Anyway, while annual premium increases have averaged 4.1 percent per year after the passage of Obamacare (compared to 5.1 percent per year before), this modest slackening of growth has been accompanied by shrinking incomes.

“Families are paying more in premiums and deductibles as a share of their income than ever before,” the report found, adding “It is unlikely that most families at the middle and lower end of the income distribution are able to detect or feel the premium slowdown in their pocketbooks since they are paying more in premiums and deductibles as a share of their income than ever before.”

Oh, and they’re getting crappier coverage, too …

If Obamacare had been passed in some sort of vacuum – one in which individuals and businesses didn’t have to pay for it – then it easily would have succeeded in its stated goals.  Unfortunately, there is a cost.  And just because Obamacare’s architects lied about it doesn’t mean it isn’t being paid, making the words of P.J. O’Rourke (“If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free”) more prophetic now that ever before.

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