Fix Health Care Policy

Spending in the U.S. health care system is growing too fast to ignore. Yet, the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (PPACA), also known as Obamacare, does nothing to “bend the cost curve.” Containing health spending requires engaging consumers in their health care expenditures, and one way to achieve this is through high-deductible health plans paired with Health Savings Accounts (HSA), which a recent report shows are gaining in popularity.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: bend the cost curve, health savings accounts, high-deductible health plans, HSAs, ObamaCare

Obamacare will force health care spending to rise faster and higher over the next decade than if Congress had just left the nation’s health system unchanged. That’s according to a recent report from the Office of the Actuary at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The report projects the new law will inflate national health expenditures by an additional $88.8 billion in 2019 alone. So much for the President’s promise that Obamacare would bend the cost curve down.

The White House tried to put a happy face on the unwelcome CMS report. It just goes to show, the Administration claimed, that spending under Obamacare will decrease by $1,000 per insured person. (more…)

Tags: bend the cost curve, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, health care costs, ObamaCare, Side Effects

At the signing of the Senate health bill today, President Barack Obama said: “In a few moments, when I sign this bill, all of the overheated rhetoric over reform will finally confront the reality of reform.” Let’s review some of the “overheated rhetoric” that is about to get tested by reality.

Over the past months, the President and Congress have promised: that premiums would drop by $2500 per family; that if you like what you’ve got, you can keep it; that it would bend the cost curve down; that it would decrease the federal deficit. The fact of the matter is, none of these things will become reality once the bill is implemented—these claims are nothing but the rhetoric attached to an unpopular piece of legislation in the hopes of creating support that has yet to materialize.

The truth about the bill is already becoming evident as effected parties become vocal with their concerns. Some highlights just from today’s headlines include: (more…)

Tags: bend the cost curve, higher health premiums, Medicaid Expansion, ObamaCare, ObamaCare promises, rising federal deficits, Senate Health Bill, Sunday vote

Each time a new study or report sheds light on the Obamacare’s true effects on Americans’ health care, the left fights back with tiresome accusations that the source is disreputable, partisan or “sides” with the insurance companies, ad nauseum.

How many professional experts are going to have to find fault with the House and Senate health bills before the Left and their allies in Congress stop repeating the age-old adage: “Everyone else is crazy, I alone am sane”? The terrible truth, of course, is that these reports are right.

In study after study, a few things about Obamacare stand out. Both the House and Senate bills will impose new taxes to pay for health care reform, many of which will affect low and middle income Americans, not just the rich. Both bills expand coverage by adding millions of Americans to Medicaid, one of the lowest-quality government health programs. Despite the President’s promise that “if you like it, you can keep it,” millions of Americans will lose the private insurance they currently have. And, no matter how you slice it, neither bill will “bend the cost curve” in health care spending; to the contrary, both bills increase national health expenditures above official projections under current law. It’s no surprise, then, that the majority of Americans oppose the big Congressional health bills , with 57% of Americans believing Obamacare will cause health care costs to go up, and 52% expecting the quality of care to decrease as well.

(more…)

Tags: bend the cost curve, CMS, Medicaid Expansion, ObamaCare

In his latest column in Roll Call, Morton Kondracke asserts that while the health care reform legislation — if it passes — may reduce the number of uninsured, it likely won’t reduce skyrocketing health care costs.

“There’s reason to fear that, even with reform, the nation’s total outlays for health care — currently 17 percent of gross domestic product — will continue to soar, and so will federal health spending and insurance premiums,” he writes.

While the Obama administration has pledged to bend the cost curve in health care spending, Kondracke notes that none of the bills in Congress would contain “guaranteed cost-containment measures” like a global budget, or national lid, on health spending.

“No bill currently in Congress contains anything that will significantly bend that growth curve… The fact is, extending insurance coverage to 30 million to 50 million new people, which Congress should do, is going to increase usage of health care services.”

Tags: bend the cost curve, health care reform, health insurance premiums