Fox News | Health Care Reform Coverage

Published: Fri 26 Feb 2010

Lucas Eichmann

As the panelists from today's health care summit broke for lunch, Jim Angle came on Fox News with Bret Baier to do what Baier deemed a "fact check." However, the analysis Angle offered ignored a central fact that utterly contradicts his conclusion that higher premiums will result from the health care reform bill; namely, that the bill Angle mentioned contains subsidies to help combat premium costs.

Angle claimed to fact check a summit interchange between President Obama and Senator Lamar Alexander about whether the Senate's health care reform bill would raise premiums for people who purchase medical insurance on the individual market instead of through an employer. Angle's conclusion: "rates would increase by 10-13 percent." Angle even repeated himself to underscore the point.

Angle's Comments

Here are Angle's exact words from his appearance today:

"Now, what the CBO -- and I can show you a chart here. CBO did a chart on what would happen to rates in individual, small-business, and large-group markets. And you see, in the non-group market -- that's the individual market. If you'll show -- the CBO found that after bringing in all sorts of people -- younger people, healthier people -- after all factors are considered, the bottom line is that rates would increase by 10 to 13 percent. Ten to 13 percent. That is what Senator Alexander was saying."

"The president disputed that number, saying, "Well, no, it's a different thing." He came back after being handed a piece of paper by an aide and said, "Well, yes, in fact, the reason I'm paying 10 to 13 percent more is because I'm getting better insurance." Actually, the CBO found that that would cost 30 percent more, up to 30 percent more, but that after you take everything out, the net increase for individuals would be 10 to 13 percent. The president has now essentially embraced that number and seems to have confirmed that Senator Alexander was right; he was not -- with the one stipulation that it'd be different, better insurance, because it may be required by the federal government."

The Real Bottom Line

In reality, the bottom line on this matter is that the Congressional Budget Office decided that the reform bill would reduce premiums for the majority of policies bought on the individual market. Angle only came to his conclusion after dismissing one of the bill's most critical parts-significant subsidies that would help policyholders in the individual market pay their insurance premiums. The CBO approximated that federal subsidies would pay two-thirds of the premium costs and lower premiums for the majority of people buying health insurance on the individual market. Even the on-screen chart to which Angle referred noted that the 10-13 percent number did not factor in the federal subsidies.