Fact Check: Spinning Premium Rates

Both sides in the great Obamacare debate are distorting the facts about premium rates on the soon-to-open health exchanges to make their case for or against the law:
◾President Obama gave false comparisons, saying that average premiums for the exchange in Illinois were 25 percent lower than current individual market rates. Illinois officials compared exchange rates with what the federal government had predicted the exchange premiums would be — not with current individual market pricing.
◾Obama said the average decrease in California was 33 percent. But officials said premiums were up to 29 percent lower compared with small-employer plans — not individual plans.
◾Sen. Ted Cruz claimed that the Ohio Department of Insurance announced an 88 percent average increase for the individual market. It didn’t. The department estimated a 41 percent increase on average in a press release that called for the law’s repeal.