Among the many – and still growing number of – lies the President and his fellow Democrats have told us about ObamaCare, is the absolute BS that it is lowering health care costs.
I could write about this, but I would be re-inventing the wheel, since Paul Mirengoff at powerlineblog.com has done such a terrific job of it.
Click here to read his full commentary. But, meanwhile, let me give you just a taste (the bold print is mine):
One of the supposed benefits of Obamacare was that, somehow, it would “bend the cost curve” for health care cost – in other words, slow the rate of growth of these costs. Just how providing subsidized health care to millions would accomplish this feat was never clear. But the claim, nonetheless, was part of the sales pitch.
…most economists attribute the “bent”cost curve, which predates the passage of Obamacare, primarily to theimpact of the recession. As the NewYork Times explains, the more that workers lost their jobs andhealth coverage, the less their families spent on health care.
But now, employment is rising steadily (albeit slowly). Thus, the New York Times reports that health care costs are surging:
“Following several years of decline, 2013 was striking for the increased use by patients of all parts of the U.S. health care system,” Murray Aitken, executive director of the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, said in a statement. . . .
The annual pace of spending growth on health care increasing to 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, from 1.3 percent in the first quarter. That 5.6 percent growth rate is the highest since 2004. . . .
Many. . .analysts said they had long expected health spending to increase. “If we are seeing an uptick, it\’s the beginning of the uptick,” said Drew Altman, the president of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. “We\’ve expected to see a lagged effect, both when the economy declines and when it improves.”
The uptick that began in 2013 can be expected to continue, and probably accelerate, as (1) millions of previously uninsured Americans (how many millions remains to be seen) obtain health insurance as a result of Obamacare and (2) previously insured Americans are forced to replace catastrophic-type plans with plans that cover virtually everything.
Both of these developments will mean more visits to doctors\’ offices, more hospital stays, and more purchases of prescription medication. In some cases, the spending will be beneficial to the patient; in others, it will be wasteful. In all instances, it will contribute to higher health care costs.
In other words, it is probable that we have had a temporary drop in health care costs because the Obama economy has been so bad for so long. But now, the combination of a recovery – an anemic one, but a recovery nonetheless – formerly uninsured people utilizing ObamaCare coverage, and people who had “disaster insurance” now being forced to buy “everything” insurance whether they want it or not, is going to push insurance premiums up – probably by plenty.
Is some of this good (e.g. formerly uninsured people obtaining coverage)? Yes it is. But instead of coming up with innovations which would provide health care for the relatively small percentage of uninsured, ObamaCare has ruined it for just about everyone who had been satisfied with their coverage…with a major soaking of taxpayers as an extra-added attraction. Which is disastrous.
Anyone who believes this will result in cost savings instead of significantly higher insurance premiums, better wake up and smell the ObamaCare.
