To the extent to which Obamacare is cutting health insurance premiums (mostly premiums are going up), it’s cutting them by cutting back providers:
Lower Health Insurance Premiums to Come at Cost of Fewer Choices
WASHINGTON — Federal officials often say that health insurance will cost consumers less than expected under President Obama’s health care law. But they rarely mention one big reason: many insurers are significantly limiting the choices of doctors and hospitals available to consumers.
From California to Illinois to New Hampshire, and in many states in between, insurers are driving down premiums by restricting the number of providers who will treat patients in their new health plans. . .
Some consumer advocates and health care providers are increasingly concerned. Decades of experience with Medicaid, the program for low-income people, show that having an insurance card does not guarantee access to specialists or other providers.
Indeed, studies have shown that Medicaid is so bad, patients are often better off with no insurance at all. And that’s the kind of health care that, in many states, will be offered on the Obamacare exchanges.
