Senate Republicans highlight impact of higher health care costs on families

U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Steve Daines (R-MT) and John McCain (R-AZ) underscored the impact that rising health insurance premiums would have on families.

The Obama administration confirmed on Monday that premiums for health plans purchased in 39 states participating in federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges would increase an average of 25 percent next year.

Eighty-four percent of counties in Missouri will have one insurer participating in exchanges in 2017, Blunt said, compared to 98 percent of counties that had three or more options this year.

“Obamacare is a never-ending nightmare for Missouri families, and it’s only getting worse,” Blunt said. “Next year, the vast majority of Missouri families will have only one option of insurers on the exchange, despite the president’s promise that they could keep the plans and doctors they liked and could afford. The few plans that are available will come with steep premium increases, making it harder for Missourians to make ends meet.”

Rather than help families manage higher costs and fewer options under the healthcare law, Blunt added, the Obama administration has offered billions to insurance companies to prop up faltering exchanges. Furthermore, those who can’t afford any of the plans available to them could face a more than $2,000 penalty next year, he said.

In Montana, meanwhile, average increases among the state’s top three insurance providers will range from 27 percent to 58 percent.

“Montanans are stuck with insurance rate hikes that are more than the jaw dropping 25 percent national average for next year,” Daines said. “Obamacare isn’t affordable and needs to be replaced with state-driven solutions that puts patients at the center of the health care equation.”

McCain said premium increases were “an affront to every American” that believed that the healthcare law would provide affordable and better quality of care.

Arizona’s benchmark plans are expected to increase an average 116 percent, McCain said. In Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county, the 126,000 citizens who have enrolled in Obamacare will only have one health provider option with a steep premium increase, McCain added.

“While real families suffer the consequences of higher costs, less flexibility in coverage and less choice, Democrats continue to trumpet the ‘successes’ of Obamacare and refuse to acknowledge the harm being caused by this fatally flawed health care law,” McCain said. “We must repeal and replace it with real reform that encourages competition, decreases these skyrocketing premiums and puts patients first.”