CRAIG MELVIN (HOST): Plans set to rise by an average of 25 percent in the 39 states served by Healthcare.gov. MSNBC’s Ali Velshi is here to break down these numbers to help separate some fact from fiction, if you will. What can you tell us?
ALI VELSHI: Well, you're going to hear a lot of different, specific numbers so I want to give you a narrative, a sort of a sense of what’s going on. In 2017, they are expecting that 13.8 million Americans in total will be enrolled in America. This is not the number of people insured, obviously, because many people are insured through their work. This is the number of people insured through Obamacare. It’s a little increase over 2016. The silver plan, which is the benchmark plan they use -- there’s gold, silver, platinum, bronze, and other plans -- is going to be up an average of 22 percent. With a number you used, 25 percent, that's across 39 states. This will be the whole average, about 22 percent. And that will bring the premiums up to about $3,552 a year.
MELVIN: That doesn't include subsidies, correct?
VELSHI: That's correct. Right. Now, this is important, because this number, this level, is where the Congressional Budget Office, which is nonpartisan, said that the rates would likely be around 2017. The issue is the first two years, they felt the premiums had been set too low. So we're not actually -- it's a big jump, but it's actually where we were supposed to be. These are the forecasts.
