Special report: Trends in health care cost growth and the role of the affordable care act (Nov 2013) Health care spending growth lowest on record at 1.3% Health care price inflation at lowest rate in 50 years at 1% Forced the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to reduce its projections of future Medicare and Medicaid significantly representing about a 10% reduction in projected spending. Around 1.5% of people buying will pay more. Prof Johnathan Gruber MIT economics, Romneycare co-architect and Whitehouse advisor on the ACA: About 80% unaffected 15% uninsured 2.5% can get a similar plan 1.3% must buy better plan with subsidies 1.5% must buy better plan with no subsidies Changes are happening in the Medicare program where economic conditions and higher co-pays dont affect people. SO the change has got to be beyond just economic conditions, and something beyond higher deductibles for individuals. Its the ACA having some effect. How much is hard to ascribe. But remember this is just the effect of the ACA essentially changing the way health care is being practiced and this is early. There are a number of exciting changes the ACA brings in to play to help control health care costs that havent even gone into play yet. If you look forward to the projections by the CBO, more than 100% of our ongoing budget deficit, more than 100%, is due to health care costs. The whole rest of the government absent health care, actually their deficit prosition improves over the next 20 years. Its all health care spending. The only way we are going to improve our deficit is controlling health care spending. The only way to control health care spending is not to sit with the existing status quo, but to actually be inovative and to try to force providers and consumers to take steps to control health care costs. The ACA ... just by raising the attention to the issue, just as the Clinton law in the early 90s, got providers and consumers to sit up and say We need to think about the way were doing this. This is why we have to make the ACA work. Going back isnt an option.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 03:29:23 +0000
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