Cross-posted from the archived Media Trackers Ohio site.
President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will increase health insurance premiums, slash Medicare benefits, and cause fewer doctors to accept Medicare patients, according to conservative Forbes health care blogger Avik Roy. Roy reviewed a number of nonpartisan studies into the likely outcomes of PPACA – commonly referred to as Obamacare – as part of a series analyzing the bill’s impact on presidential swing states.
Roy cited an August 2011 study completed for the Ohio Department of Insurance (ODI) by actuarial consulting firm Milliman, which wrote that “individual health insurance market premiums are estimated to increase by 55% to 85% above current market average rates (excluding the impact of medical inflation)” by 2017.
A University of Minnesota study estimated that Medicare cuts “amount to $10,763 for every senior in Ohio,” Roy wrote, explaining that the state’s share of $716 billion in Medicare cuts included in PPACA amounted to $21.2 billion.
According to a separate Heritage Foundation paper, Roy added, the 36 percent of Ohio seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage will see a 26 percent cut in benefits due to PPACA. Medicare Advantage cuts will amount to nearly $3,400 per enrollee in 2017.
Finally, Roy reported the results of a national survey of physicians. Of Ohio doctors who responded to the survey, 24 percent indicated they would stop accepting Medicare patients after PPACA takes effect. Additionally, 22 percent of Ohio doctors surveyed said they would place new limits on Medicare patients due to PPACA, and 22 percent said they would increase fees on patients with private insurance.
Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor, who also serves as director of ODI, has been a consistent opponent of PPACA – strongly suggesting when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law that Ohio would not implement the insurance exchanges PPACA calls for. Though Governor John Kasich has not stated whether Ohio will implement the exchanges or expand Medicaid eligibility, the Ohio Healthcare Freedom Amendment added to the state constitution in 2011 shields Ohioans from many of PPACA’s provisions.
Kasich has alluded to the fact that the federal government – which promises to fund most of states’ PPACA costs – is already deeply indebted and cannot be relied upon. The Republican’s administration has also estimated that compliance with PPACA would cost Ohio taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year by 2018.
In a September 20, 2011 release discussing the results of the Milliman report, Taylor wrote, “Handcuffing states with Obamacare’s one-size-fits-all approach is not the reform we need. Ohioans deserve a consumer-driven, market-based approach that provides adequate protections along with accountability, affordability and transparency. We do not need a government-knows-best set of mandates.”