In victory speech last night following a resounding win in the GOP New York primary, Donald Trump made a short victory speech. He quickly hit on most of his talking points, but made a claim that we haven’t heard in a while. While promising to repeal Obamacare he actually gave us a couple of numbers: “We’re getting rid of Obamacare. It’s going to be repealed and replaced, it is a total disaster. With premiums going up 35, 45, 55 percent it’s probably going to end of its own volition. We’re getting rid of it.”
Trump has made this claim before, and the good people at Politifact looked into it. They found that there are isolated examples of premium hikes that large, but overall health insurances on the Federal Exchange hikes were much lower.
Of all the plans on the Federal Exchange only 7% had a rate of 30% or more. The Kaiser Foundation found that the lowest cost plans, that make up 68% of the plans on the exchange, only increased 4.4%. Politifact and an AP study put the overall increases for health insurance at 12 to 13 percent. During the Bush Administration healthcare premiums grew by an average of 13.2% per year.
Sources:
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHwrSPlygVo
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/oct/25/donald-trump/trump-obamacare-health-care-premiums-going-35-45-5/
http://kff.org/health-reform/fact-sheet/analysis-of-2016-premium-changes-in-the-affordable-care-acts-health-insurance-marketplaces/