ObamaCare Won’t Actually Lower Costs, Says Report

Which, of course, the New York Times tries to spin away

A new government study says President Obama’s health care law will have negligible effects on total national health spending in the next 10 years, neither slowing nor fueling the explosive growth of medical costs.

Yet, time and time again, we were all told that the still incredibly unpopular legislation would lower costs. Guess it won’t. If only some people had spoken out over the 8 months it was debated.

About 32.5 million people will gain coverage, and health spending will grow slightly faster than projected under prior law – at an annual rate of 6.3 percent, rather than 6.1 percent, the report said.

Not surprising, when more people are added, and mandates will force private insurers to raise premiums.

Cuts in Medicare spending, which start in the next few months, and a tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health plans, which takes effect in 2018, will largely offset the cost of expanding Medicaid and subsidizing private insurance for low-income people, said the report, being published online Thursday by the journal Health Affairs.

Question: what happens when companies dump their “high-cost” health plans? Which essentially include most large corporation sponsored plans.

Yet, throughout the Times’ attempt to say “see, it’s not that bad. It doesn’t do what they said it would do, but, it’ll be OK. In a decade.” But, as Fox News points out from the report

Factoring in the law, Americans will spend an average of $13,652 per person a year on health care in 2019, according to the actuary’s office. Without the law, the corresponding number would be $13,387.

A White House blog post from health reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle said that by 2019 overall health care spending per insured person would average $14,720 under the law, compared with $16,120 if Congress and the president had not acted, or $1,400 less.

The entire point, at least as it was laid out in public by Obama and the Democrats, was to lower health insurance and health care costs. Mission fail.

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