Thursday, August 04, 2011

Obamacare Update & Charts of the Day

From the July 28, 2011, Washington Times:
Despite President Obama’s promises to rein in health care costs as part of his reform bill, health spending nationwide is expected to rise more than if the sweeping legislation had never become law.


source: Actuary Report, Exhibit 3



source: Actuary Report, Exhibit 4

Total spending is projected to grow annually by 5.8 percent under Mr. Obama’s Affordable Care Act, according to a 10-year forecast by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released Thursday. Without the ACA, spending would grow at a slightly slower rate of 5.7 percent annually.

CMS officials attributed the growth to an expansion of the insured population. Under the plan, an estimated 23 million Americans are expected to obtain insurance in 2014, largely through state-based exchanges and expanded Medicaid eligibility.

The federal government is projected to spend 20 percent more on Medicaid, while spending on private health insurance is expected to rise by 9.4 percent.
As reported by the Economist:
A new report, published in Health Affairs on July 28th, paints a daunting picture. Health spending will rise by 5.8% each year from 2010 to the end of 2020, according to actuaries at the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In 2020 health care will account for one-fifth of America’s economy. The federal government will pay for a greater share than ever before.

Hawks have long warned that it would be impossible to curb government spending without curtailing spending on health. Democrats claimed that their health law would lower costs. Barack Obama assembled grey-haired sages to recommend changes to entitlement programmes. Paul Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, offered his own reforms. And yet spending on health care continues to climb.
Reaction from White House staffer Nancy-Ann DeParle:
[T]he report doesn’t tell the whole story.

The Affordable Care Act creates changes to the health care system that typically don’t show up on an accounting table. We know these new provisions will save money for the health care system, even if today’s report doesn’t credit these strategies with reducing costs.
Conclusion: What are "changes. . . that typically don't show up on an accounting table"? If you can't count the savings, do they exist? I agree with Bruce McQuain at Hot Air:
Bottom line, we were sold a lemon, a bill of goods, snake oil. All the ACA does is give the government a legal ability to intrude deeper and deeper in a market it really has no business being in at all and to distort that market even further. And that’s precisely what is going to happen. We all know that when government gets in as deep as it will be in this market, nothing ends up "costing less".
(via Heritage Foundation)

7 comments:

Warren said...

Simple fix. Just call it the Less-Affordable Care Act.

Warren said...

Those changes "that typically don’t show up on an accounting table" are the warm fuzzy feelings libs gets when they think of ObamaCare.

OBloodyHell said...

>> The Affordable Care Act creates changes to the health care system that typically don’t show up on an accounting table.

Q:
> What are "changes. . . that typically don't show up on an accounting table"?

A: Quality of care, availability of care. If you don't get to have it, it's not going to show up on an accounting table, is it?

Accounting tables don't generally cover the "That Which is Not Seen" part of the equation, n'est-ce pas?


DUH?

;-)

Not the kind of "savings" that anyone with a brain would consider A Good Thing, but, then, Libtards and Greens aren't about "Good Things"... at least not where people are involved.

suek said...

Speaking of Health Care...

How are you doing???

A_Nonny_Mouse said...

"We know these new provisions will save money for the health care system ..." {...even if we can't quite point to old-fashioned things like, uh, "numbers", to prove it}.
========

Because for a Liberal, "Thoughts are things", "Intentions have real-world effects", and "Feelings are sufficient proof of Truth".

Or something.

OMG are we screwed....

@nooil4pacifists said...

Sue: Thanks for asking. Answer--not great, but not bad enough to prevent me from traveling back to the M.E. this coming weekend.

Anonymous said...

Good health for everyone! Single payer system! Get the profiteers, e.g., insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, out of control of the health system. They are blinded by their greed. They forgot about promoting good health in their narrow money-making interest.