Obama economy and health care system worth bragging about?

IBD grahic

Apparently with a straight face, Obama told The New York times recently, “I actually compare our economic performance to how, historically, countries that have wrenching financial crises perform. By that measure, we probably managed this better than any large economy on Earth in modern history.”

When the April jobs report revealed an anemic 160,000 new jobs being created for the month, he boasted about 74 straight months of private-sector job creation and said the economy had created 14.6 million new jobs during the recovery.

He did not mention that from March to April 562,000 left the labor force — gave up looking for work.

As for those new 14.6 million jobs, an Investor’s Business Daily editorial notes that during that job growth the working-age population grew by 16 million, leaving Obama’s record 1.4 million shy of breaking even.

The editorial further notes that Obama starts his job count from February 2010, when the economy hit the bottom, not from the beginning of the recession when jobs were at a peak.

“There are today only 5.5 million more jobs than there were when employment peaked at the start of the last recession,” IBD relates. “Over these following eight-plus years, however, the working-age population has climbed by 20.4 million. That leaves Obama with a 14.9 million jobs gap.”

But look at all the people who have health insurance under ObamaCare, right?

Down and to the right on the same page of IBD is a report by Stephen Parente, a professor of health finance and an associate dean at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, who notes that everyone focuses on the 12.7 million health insurance policies obtained through ObamaCare, but seldom look at how the 151 million Americans with employer-sponsored health plans are being affected.

Using government data, Parente projects that employees in the most common plan, a midlevel PPO, will see their share of premiums increase by 78 percent for individuals and 71 percent for families.

But it is even worse for employers. Parente writes, “That 78% increase for midlevel PPO plans will cost employers an additional $2,800 per individual plan, and $8,000 more per family by 2025.”

Many firms will not be able to afford to continue coverage, he suggests.

His op-ed piece concludes:

Meanwhile, 11 million fewer Americans will receive health insurance through their employers by 2025. These families and individuals will then have to choose between purchasing insurance on state or federal exchanges — where premiums for comparable plans may be three to four times more expensive, according to a similar study I conducted — or pay a penalty equal to 2.5% of their taxable income. These higher costs and penalties will crush low- and middle-income families already living paycheck to paycheck.

Obama talks about the economy on May 6. (Getty Images via USA Today)

First quarter weekly earnings in 2016, adjusted for inflation, are $1 higher than in the first quarter of 2009.