For the past several months, the Department of Health and Human Services has released a variety of reports suggesting that thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, consumers have already seen their health costs fall. But according to Michael Tanner, senior fellow for the Cato Institute, the ACA is a program that is wildly misnamed.
In an opinion piece for the Daily Caller, Tanner outlines numerous reports suggesting that the ACA will, in fact, increase health costs both for consumers as well as for business owners that provide employee benefits for their workers. For example, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, premiums could swell by double-digit percentage points for most of the largest insurers in the country. And on the state level, claims costs could jump by 32 percent, according to the Society of Actuaries.
Though there have been some positive attributes of the ACA – such as the one that enables young adults to stay on their parents' plan until they turn 26 – there are some consequences that have resulted. Tanner points to a study done by the American Action Forum, which found that once kids get off their folks' policy, they may find that their premiums will jump as high as 169 percent.
There are also some guarantees that President Barack Obama made that may not come to pass. Prior to the ACA being signed into law, Obama noted that for those who liked the current plan they were on, they could keep it if they desired to do so. However, given the variety of HR compliance statutes that require health packages to satisfy certain benchmarks, maintaining the status quo may be impossible.
Business associations are largely against the ACA, including the National Federation for Independent Business. Dan Danner, CEO and president of the NFIB, made his displeasure with the reform law plain in a recent statement.
