YES! Premiums lower ... but for wrong reasons

[PsychoBabble]

Paul Ryan latched onto what appeared to be a bright spot in the CBO report, but it isn’t what it seems.

https://thinkprogress.org/gop-shouldnt-brag-about-health-care-lower-premiums-1f0c9c54bbcc#.n1oe9ovwv

Despite the fact that a CBO report projected that 24 million more people would be uninsured under Trumpcare, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R) is bragging about its lower premiums. But premiums would be lower because people would buy less generous plans and fewer older people would be able to buy coverage.

Minutes after the CBO released the report, Speaker Ryan tweeted that the CBO confirmed the American Healthcare Act would lower premiums ...

... The report projected that average premiums for single policyholders in the nongroup insurance market would be 15 to 20 percent higher than under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2018 and 2019, because fewer health people would sign up. But beginning in 2020, the CBO said, the increase in premiums would offset by grants to states by Patient and State Stability Fund and the fact that the plan gets rid of the requirement for insurers to offer more generous plans. This means that eventually average insurance premium would be 10 percent lower than under the ACA by 2026.

But the premiums are lower because insurance would be so expensive for older people that they would exit the market and become uninsured. Under the House GOP plan, insurance companies would be allowed to charge five times more for older enrollees. Under the ACA, they could only charge three times more for older enrollees than younger people. This means there would be a larger share of younger people in the nongroup market and a smaller share of older people ...

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Disraeli

Apparently THIS is Ryan's greatest wonk skill ... statistical lies ....

Young people = low premiums
Old people with crappy plans = low premiums

Rich people = high premiums, but they don't care
Old people with good plans = high premiums, no iPhone, learning to love cat food so they don't DIE

Move over, Fluffy ....

[hedda_foil]

1. Thanks. I was waiting for this to be figured out.

The really obvious one to me is that premiums would be lower because the coverage people will be financially able to buy will be much inferior to what people currently get through ACA.