Report: Obamacare Will Increase Premiums for Small Businesses

The National Journal reports:

After getting hammered on a series of government reports that they felt Republicans unfairly characterized, Democrats are taking the unusual step of responding to another potentially damaging report before the GOP attacks even start.

The report, released late Friday by the Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, looks at the impact two provisions of the Affordable Care Act will have on health insurance premiums for small businesses. Republicans requested the report in 2011 when they slipped it into an appropriations bill.

Democrats expect the GOP to seize on a portion of the report that estimates that premiums will go up for most small firms.

"[W]e are estimating that 65 percent of the small firms are expected to experience increases in their premium rates while the remaining 35 percent are anticipated to have rate reductions," the CMS report reads. "This results in roughly 11 million individuals whose premiums are estimated to be higher as a result of the ACA and about 6 million individuals who are estimated to have lower premiums."

Socialism : means the lack of competition and higher prices.