“Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers will soon be able to afford insurance.” – President Barack Obama

President Obama gave a BIG shout-out to New York in today’s White House speech, citing yesterday’s announcement by Governor Cuomo that insurance prices in the individual market are set to drop by 50%.

Of course, New Yorkers aren’t the only ones who will be saving money. He also noted that 8.5 million insurer rebate checks are set to go out this summer to people whose insurance companies have not maintained the minimum medical loss ratio.  These checks are expected to average $100 per family.  Even without getting rebates from their insurers, most folks are saving more money in medical costs thanks to the Affordable Care Act – $3.4 billion last year alone.

The benefits of the ACA indeed seem to be coming to fruition, something which even naysayers of the law will find difficult to deny.  The President boiled the effects of the ACA down to three things for all Americans: Better benefits, stronger protections, and more bang for their buck when it comes to buying insurance.  It’s hard to argue with that, yet today’s speech came on the heels of last night’s move by the House to postpone implementation of the ACA for the 38th time.

Keeping the Administration’s positive momentum going, just minutes after the speech ended, the Department of Health and Human Services released a report stating that prices on the new health insurance exchanges will be 20% lower than previously expected.  You can click here to read the new report, titled “Market Competition Works: Proposed Silver Premiums in the 2014 Individual and Small Group Markets are Nearly 20% Lower than Expected.”

Good news and positive national attention – I tell ya, that almost makes this heat wave bearable!