My must read of the day is "More Good News on Obamacare, Just When Democrats Need It," in the Bloomberg Businessweek:
Today the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its latest Obamacare report card (pdf), and for supporters of the law, the news is good: CBO now projects that over 10 years the law will cover more people—25 million, up from 24 million—and cost a lot less—$104 billion less—than it had previously forecast.
This comes on the heels of the other recent bit of good news, that the law has exceeded its enrollment target of 7 million people. Last week, outgoing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told Congress that 7.5 million people had signed up during the open enrollment period, which was supposed to end on the last day of March. Since the Obama administration decided to grant anyone who’d begun the signup process before the March 31 deadline an extension until April 15 to complete their enrollment, the final number could approach 8 million people.
Some have pointed to this change in the CBO’s estimation of cost and coverage as positive news. The White House certainly sees it as that, and from a political standpoint it may be beneficial to Democrats. It’s certainly not bad news, and they will use the CBO report to praise the law—regardless of the argument that can be made against or for this particular report (you’ll hear plenty of them in the coming days and weeks), it won’t matter to individuals.
CBO estimates make for talking points that work with policy wonks, people who are looking at legislative affects 10 years down the road. The average person is looking at this year and next.
As Fox News reported, a survey by Morgan Stanley found that national premiums are rising faster than anything seen in decades. Premium rates in some states increased upwards of 50 percent—that’s an immediate impact and something that matters to individuals much more than a long-term CBO projection.