Folks trying to plan their personal fiscal '15 are at a loss. They can't do a budget because they don't know what their health insurance costs will be.
Nobody knows because Team Obama has conveniently arranged for you to be kept in the dark on your health insurance costs until after everyone votes next week.
Most are expecting 5 percent to 10 percent hikes, but there are rumblings of far nastier surprises.
Read this Denver Post report of a Colorado study of expected rates for individuals on the state's massively screwed-up exchange. (Not a failed exchange, like Oregon's or Maryland's, just a screwed-up exchange.) It begins:
Colorado health-insurance consumers relying on tax credits will see their share of premiums rise an average of 77 percent next year if they keep the same plans, according to the state's preliminary analysis.
While premiums overall are not expected to increase significantly in 2015, the way tax credits are calculated under the Affordable Care Act is creating challenges for Colorado consumers.
According to an analysis done for the Colorado Division of Insurance, the average share of costs for customers receiving tax credits in 2014 was $161.79 a month. In 2015, if they keep the same plans, their average share of costs after tax credits will be $281.01.
You've got to love that "[w]hile premiums overall are not expected to increase significantly in 2015" assurance, followed by the hammer of the rarity of radically decreasing tax credits.
The bottom line is that the total cost while skyrocket for Centennial State consumers buying individual policies if they keep "the plan they like."
Of course most voters won't figure this out until after the elections, but the signs are there. Here's the start of a story from CBS Minnesota:
Minnesotans who bought policies on the state’s health insurance exchange are starting to get their first renewal notices, and many could be in for a jolt.
Premiums for most of the more than 55,000 individuals signed up for private insurance plans via MNsure are going up. For the nearly 33,000 who have coverage from PreferredOne, most who want to keep those policies next year will have to pay over 60 percent more, according to officials with the Minnesota Association of Health Underwriters who’ve seen the company’s rate data.
A 60 percent hike! How would such news impact voters weighing the choice between Al Franken and Mike McFadden --if they knew about it.
Thus has the manipulation of Obamacare's rollout be designed to keep voters from feeling the full impact of the disruptions caused by Obamacare, but like the boat hitting the first patch of rough water, heads are raised and eyebrows furrowed as bits and pieces of information cross the country's collective screen, even as it s mostly watching the Ebola and ISIS stories. Many suspect that something is rotten in Obamacare, and it isn't just the state exchanges.
The ABC News/Washington Post poll is a disaster for Democrats rounding the bend into elections a week away, so they are desperate to talk about anything except the cost of health insurance, the economy, Ebola, ISIS, the collapse of Libya into chaos, Russia's assaults on Ukraine...you name it, Democrats don't want to go there.
They are left with...nothing. Worse than nothing, as they hope voters aren't reading and watching the signs of how their individual wallets will handle 2015.
Not the place they wanted to be a week before the results are tallied, and for this they have President Obama to thank. He's on the ballot, right there with every Democrat. And an angry country cannot wait to send the disconnected, dispirited president a very loud message.