How Much Is Your Health Insurance Going Up?

by Kelsey Harris, Heritage Foundation, October 11, 2013

President Obama promised that Obamacare would lower premiums by $2,500. But instead, Americans everywhere are facing higher premiums because of Obamacare.

George Schwab, who lives in North Carolina, was notified in a letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield on September 23 that his current plan doesn’t meet Obamacare’s benefit requirements and would be canceled at the end of the year. While Blue Cross did suggest a comparable plan, it was $980 more than what he now pays.

“The President told the American people numerous times that… ‘If you like your coverage, you can keep it,’” Schwab told The Charlotte Observer. “How can we keep it if it has been eliminated? How can we keep it if the premium has been increased 430 percent in one year?”

Michael Yount and his wife, a retired couple in North Carolina, buy their individual insurance through Blue Cross Blue Shield and pay about $380 a month with an $11,000 deductible. But they were just informed their new plan will be three times the price, costing them $1,124.50 a month, The Christian Science Monitor reported. The couple said they plan to drop out of formal health insurance, pay the penalty, and “self-insure.”

Cindy Vinson in California “will pay $1,800 more a year for an individual policy,” reports theSan Jose Mercury News. She is an Obama voter who was surprised by the personal impact of Obamacare. “Of course, I want people to have health care,” Vinson said. “I just didn’t realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally.”

Higher costs and dropped coverage are just two of the many reasons Obamacare must be stopped. Members of Congress are getting distracted by political maneuvering on Capitol Hill, but the most important thing for them to be focused on is acting to save America from this unpopular, unfair, and unworkable law.

Across the country, people are being notified of price increases in the hundreds or thousands of dollars. Have you gotten a notice? How much is your insurance going up? We want to hear from you.

Send us a picture of yourself like George did above. Tell us how much your insurance is going up per month—write your increase on a sign.

Ways to send your picture:

• Email: Respond to this email and attach your photo.
• Facebook: Post your photo on our Facebook page.
• Twitter: Tweet your photo to @Heritage and use the hashtag #ObamaHikes.
• Instagram: Post your photo on Instagram with the hashtag #ObamaHikes.

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Quick Hits:

• Do you watch Megyn Kelly on Fox? So do a lot of other people.
• If you know anything about websites, you might wonder who programmed the Obamacare website.
• A new report finds the Administration might need a refresher course in freedom of the press.
• Washington faces a dual crisis of excessive spending and debt. Here’s the role Obamacare plays.
• The Libyan prime minister was kidnapped, briefly held, then freed on Thursday.
• Government spending is growing at an excessive rate. What would the Founding Fathers say?
• More bad news about the Obamacare exchanges: A lot of doctors won’t be accepting this insurance.