Here Comes Obamacare "Sticker Shock"

Kevin Glass | September 08, 2013 7:00 PM

The Obamacare health insurance exchanges are still supposed to go live next month even though implementation delays have continued to pile up. Additionally, many analysts have predicted what has come to be known as "rate shock" - the realization of many who go to get insurance on the exchanges that they'll be paying a lot more now than they used to.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) - who is one of a few actual doctors in the Senate - put those predictions into words.

"Many families are going to have real sticker shock when they see their new insurance rates - even families who get government subsidies," Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon, said.

Barrasso said there is "no question" that the U.S. healthcare system needs reform, but at a lower cost, not a higher one.

He cited a Kaiser Family Foundation study this week showing that the average family premium for people getting health insurance through their employers has risen by nearly $3,000 from when Obama took office in January 2009.

Interestingly, as the AP article notes, the Obama Administration used the same Kaiser study to tout that insurance may end up cheaper for many people.

Both Barrasso and the Obama Administration are right on that front. Listed prices for insurance premiums will be higher, but the out-of-pocket cost for those premiums will be lower for many Americans due to government subsidies doled out to pay for insurance. Progressives have used the government subsidies side of the equation to say that the whole enterprise will be worth it, but it's still incredibly important that the total cost of premiums are set to rise all over the country.