WASHINGTON – A claim from the final presidential debate and how it stacks up with the facts:
DONADL TRUMP: Insurance premiums under the Obama health care law next year “are going to go up over 100 per cent.”
THE FACTS: Premiums are going up, and by double digits in many states, but to say it’s over 100 per cent is pure hyperbole.
The full impact of next year’s premium increases is going to take time to sort out and vary across the country. Full information will be available Nov. 1 when the HealthCare.gov market goes live.
A study this summer by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation looked at 14 metro areas with complete information and found premiums were rising in 12 of them. The average increase for a popular option called the “lowest-cost silver plan” was 11 per cent.
Since then, some states have reported higher numbers. California’s marketplace projected an average increase of 13.2 per cent. The three insurers in Tennessee’s market got increases of 44 per cent, 46 per cent and 62 per cent on average. In Minnesota customers will see increases ranging from 50 per cent to 67 per cent.
Many consumers receive subsidies that will offset the rising premiums, but an estimated 9 million people buy individual policies outside the health law’s markets and pay full freight. Many will be shocked when they get their renewal notices.
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Contributed by Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar.
EDITOR’S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures
