As a final parting gift for the overburdened American taxpayer, Barack Obama has stuck them with an extra $10 billion in subsidies paid out to victims of his Obamacare scheme.
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The federal government will spend $42.6 billion to subsidize customers’ Obamacare plans, up from $32.8 billion this year, the Center for Health and Economy said, amid widespread questions over the law’s ability to survive.
Premiums for Obamacare’s benchmark plans are expected to spike an average of 22 percent next year, but under the complex law’s operations, taxpayers finance most of the costs. As a result, the average monthly government bill for each Obamacare customer will rise from $291 this year to $367 next year, the analysis found.
Unsurprisingly, a huge part in Obamacare’s cost overruns is fraud within the hastily-designed system:
Lawmakers also fear there is costly fraud in the program. The Government Accountability Office on Thursday said federal and state-run exchanges approved coverage for nine out of 12 fictitious enrollees who signed up outside of the normal enrollment period because of major live events, such as losing coverage or getting married.
Donald Trump and the new Congress will have to sort out this mess in the coming year. There are already divisions among the GOP over how quickly they will move to repeal and replace this ongoing catastrophe.