Nearly A Decade Later, Farmers, Ranchers, Still Reeling from Obamacare

In August 2009, Nebraska Farm Bureau then President, Keith Olsen, warned that health insurance costs could skyrocket for farmers and ranchers under the Obama administration’s proposal to mandate certain kinds of health insurance. “A large majority of food producers are self-employed, and many buy their own health insurance without the benefit of being part of a group,” said Olsen. “Requiring compulsory health insurance in the form of an individual coverage mandate or forcing insurers to cover everyone will mean higher insurance premiums.” Olsen also pointed out that farmers and ranchers would likely suffer the most with increased health insurance premiums associated with adoption of those policies given farmers and ranchers inability to pass increased costs onto customers, an option available to other businesses. His assessment of the harm that could fall on farm and ranch families wasn’t based on half-baked guesses, but a 2008 study conducted by researchers from MIT, the Brookings Institute, and Brigham Young University. The study examined the implementation of community rating and guarantee issue on health insurance premium increases in the state of New Jersey, which had adopted both community rating and guaranteed issue laws. In short, the study found that implementation of both resulted in health insurance premium increases of 108 to 227 percent for high-deductible family policies. Flash forward to today, nearly a decade after passage of the “Affordable Care Act”, and Olsen’s warnings about skyrocketing health insurance premiums in the individual market and the impact on farmers and ranchers associated with Obamacare were not only “spot on,” but prove it’s not always good to be right. Escalating health care and health insurance costs were among the top concerns registered by farmers and ranchers who attended Nebraska Farm Bureau listening sessions held across the state this summer...MORE