Report: Obamacare To Cost 'Billions Of Dollars Less Than Originally Projected'
Last edited Tue Dec 3, 2013, 08:55 AM - Edit history (1)
Source: TPM
TOM KLUDT DECEMBER 3, 2013, 6:59 AM EST
Among the GOP's myriad criticisms of the Affordable Care Act, one of the loudest has centered around the law's price tag. But it turns out Obamacare won't be as costly as expected.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that "the government is expected to spend billions of dollars less than originally projected on the law."
The adjusted estimate is a result of the law's Medicaid expansion and the subsidies for private insurance plans proving less costly than initially anticipated. According to the Times, economists say that the law has also benefitted from a weak economy over the last half-decade, during which time health spending has slowed dramatically.
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Roughly 100,000 people signed up for insurance last month using the troubled online federal health exchange HealthCare.gov.
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/report-obamacare-to-cost-billions-of-dollars-less-than-originally-projected
So the web site is working and it will cost less then was expected so what
will "they" find to complain about the ACA now?
Warning! Video not safe for work or kids.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)Prof. Paul Krugman
Follow the bending cost curve and you will find that the slowdown in health costs has been dramatic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/29/opinion/krugman-obamacares-secret-success.html
Laelth
(32,017 posts)The ACA is costing less because some states are refusing to implement it. The point was to expand access to health care. I'd prefer that all states implement it. I would rather have the ACA cost us a lot more.
-Laelth
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)I understand your reluctance, I'm a bit concerned myself about the ACA supporters declaring victory over what is basically a first inning score. None the less, one can't fault them for sticking it to the republicans considering how it works against the GOP talking points. No need to rain on their parade.
Yes, some of these "savings" are due to the fact that some states basically "won't take the money", but not all of it. The rate of health care inflation is down. And not just down, at historically low levels, althought so is inflation in general. Health care spending is down as well, which has alot to do with the economy, and maybe a small bit to the ACA. This fact is a bit disturbing because really unless you think people aren't as sick, it probably means that predominately people aren't getting treated, because they don't have the money. If this keeps going down well after the exchanges have insured alot of people, that will be good news.
These "savings" though are entirely to the federal government. The copays don't go down. The premiums aren't going down, nor are the out of pocket caps and deductibles. You do have the feature that insurance companies will have to refund some money if their costs go down so much that the 85% kicks in.
No one, not even the White House, is suggesting these rates are sustainable. It is almost entirely due to the recession (market forces do affect health care costs even if they don't always seem to be controlled by them). Once the economy picks up, the costs of health care will begin to rise again. ACA is going to attempt to moderate that a bit through structural changes, but it isn't clear that any really large impacts are possible. Government can do alot to control their costs to themselves. They are limited (intentionally so on the part of the authors of ACA) in their ability to directly control the costs to the individual. They can only accomplish this through some form of single payer/nationalized health CARE system. This approach that tries to control individual costs through regulation of the insurance market is limited. It's why the Heritage foundation dreamed up this approach to begin with, and why the insurance companies ultimately signed on (until they thought they could kill it).
Laelth
(32,017 posts)I want the ACA to succeed. Various Republican governors, aided by a questionable SCOTUS decision, are preventing the law from accomplishing some of its primary goals.
I can't celebrate the fact that the law is not working as it should due to Republican obstruction, and it's clear that the "savings" described in the OP are purely the result of Republican obstruction. I'd rather "save" less and have a working law that covers the poor, as it was designed to do.
-Laelth
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)I see it as a huge improvement.
malthaussen
(17,217 posts)Hey, the ACA would cost even more less if we didn't have it at all!
-- Mal
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
marshall
(6,665 posts)The problem was many uninsured people. Where does the money come from to pay for folks who can't pay it all themselves, for whatever reasons?
If it costs less that can be used in the short run to generate good will, but in the long run it indicates a failure to protect the unprotected.
OneCrazyDiamond
(2,032 posts)Freddie Stubbs
(29,853 posts)Paladin
(28,276 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)If somehow every state could be made to expand Medicaid would be even more of a savings. All that Federal money should be out of state control totally.
karynnj
(59,504 posts)- leaving these folks uninsured or paying themselves more than people making slightly more.
Not to say that the plan is not really bending the curve - as it was suppose to according to most supporters.
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,145 posts)but opt to vote for those who won't expand. It may well be their wake-up call and the answer to Thomas Frank's great question "What's the Matter with Kansas?". Hopefully the ACA will heal Kansas and others states like it.
Gore1FL
(21,152 posts)Saying it "cost less" isn't accurate; it's saving more.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)happyfunball
(80 posts)...if all the money went to health care and administration and none went to corporate share holders.