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We’re Spending Less on Health Care than We Thought We Would before Obamacare

imyoda

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We're Spending Less On Health Care Than We Thought We Would Before Obamacare
We’re Spending Less on Health Care than We Thought We Would before Obamacare

“Twenty million or so more people have health insurance now than they did before Obamacare, and yet the American health care system is on track to spend $2.6 trillion less from 2014 to 2019 than before the Affordable Care Act became law. That’s right — $2.6 trillion, which is equivalent to about 15 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. That’s the conclusion researchers at the Urban Institute came to when comparing health care spending projections made in 2010 before Congress passed the ACA, and projections made later that year after President Barack Obama enacted the statute, with more recent findings…………

….. At a minimum, however, a combination of factors has resulted in a moment when the uninsured rate has reached a historic low even as the amount the nation spends on health care is turning out to be much lower than anticipated……
……. But historical patterns don’t quite account for the fact that growth hasn’t reverted to the levels before Obamacare and before the Great Recession, when annual increases could reach into the double digits, even though health care inflation has started to increase again. Instead, spending is expected to rise by about 5 or 6 percent a year from 2014 to 2019, a bit faster than the roughly 4 percent annual increase from 2010 to 2014.


SEE:
20 Million Gained Health Insurance From Obamacare, President Says
The Widespread Slowdown in Health Spending Growth: Implications for Future Spending Projections and the Cost of the Affordable Care Act: An Update | Urban Institute
The Widespread Slowdown in Health Spending Growth: Implications for Future Spending Projections and the Cost of the Affordable Care Act: An Update | Urban Institute
National Health Care Spending Is Up For A Really Obvious Reason
http://www.gallup.com/poll/190484/uninsured-rate-lowest-eight-year-trend.aspx


Golly gee Obamacare works……… Must be disappointing to the detractors…….. to be WRONG AGAIN
 
We're Spending Less On Health Care Than We Thought We Would Before Obamacare
We’re Spending Less on Health Care than We Thought We Would before Obamacare

“Twenty million or so more people have health insurance now than they did before Obamacare, and yet the American health care system is on track to spend $2.6 trillion less from 2014 to 2019 than before the Affordable Care Act became law. That’s right — $2.6 trillion, which is equivalent to about 15 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. That’s the conclusion researchers at the Urban Institute came to when comparing health care spending projections made in 2010 before Congress passed the ACA, and projections made later that year after President Barack Obama enacted the statute, with more recent findings…………

….. At a minimum, however, a combination of factors has resulted in a moment when the uninsured rate has reached a historic low even as the amount the nation spends on health care is turning out to be much lower than anticipated……
……. But historical patterns don’t quite account for the fact that growth hasn’t reverted to the levels before Obamacare and before the Great Recession, when annual increases could reach into the double digits, even though health care inflation has started to increase again. Instead, spending is expected to rise by about 5 or 6 percent a year from 2014 to 2019, a bit faster than the roughly 4 percent annual increase from 2010 to 2014.


SEE:
20 Million Gained Health Insurance From Obamacare, President Says
The Widespread Slowdown in Health Spending Growth: Implications for Future Spending Projections and the Cost of the Affordable Care Act: An Update | Urban Institute
The Widespread Slowdown in Health Spending Growth: Implications for Future Spending Projections and the Cost of the Affordable Care Act: An Update | Urban Institute
National Health Care Spending Is Up For A Really Obvious Reason
http://www.gallup.com/poll/190484/uninsured-rate-lowest-eight-year-trend.aspx


Golly gee Obamacare works……… Must be disappointing to the detractors…….. to be WRONG AGAIN

A huffpo piece and some left wing garbage.

Obamacare is a certifiable disaster unfolding, as usual the site "Real Conservative" is on the wrong side of history. Have fun with that cheer leading, when reality asks for the bill lets see how much you own up to being wrong....
 
A huffpo piece and some left wing garbage.

Obamacare is a certifiable disaster unfolding, as usual the site "Real Conservative" is on the wrong side of history. Have fun with that cheer leading, when reality asks for the bill lets see how much you own up to being wrong....
The questions not addressed here might be: What are the overall patient quality aspects vs asserted lower costs, innovation levels both practice, medicine and technological, doctor/medical worker provision, education/training, recruitment, prospects for increasing the supply of such into our future?

One thing that cannot be ameliorated without repeal is a supposedly Constitutional government establishing this new power to force Americans to buy a product, any product, they would not otherwise. No matter the benefit of this particular plan as that may not be the case in the future. But this foul precedent has now been established.

Where did this new power of government come from? Those who value actual freedom and its concept, simply are unwilling to allow government that much power over self... how is that liberty?

I ask you this as replying to the OP I don't imagine, unfortunately, that I would get much more than the usual apparatchik mutterings.
 
A huffpo piece and some left wing garbage.

Obamacare is a certifiable disaster unfolding, as usual the site "Real Conservative" is on the wrong side of history. Have fun with that cheer leading, when reality asks for the bill lets see how much you own up to being wrong....

By calling it left win g garbage you suggest the facts of the report are n o good........lies

Saying so and attacking the messenger does not prove anything but your bias..........

BTW

If wrong I always admit so...............Do you?
 
We could have accomplished the same with just the recession and slow recovery.. .Obamacare was hardly needed for this "victory" - unless Obamacare is (at least) partially responsible for the slower than typical recovery. From the OP:

The biggest factor is the economy itself. The damage wrought by the Great Recession squeezed down health care spending as people lost their jobs, incomes and health insurance, and subsequently had less access to care. The slow recovery in the years following the recession kept spending from quickly rebounding.

This is consistent with the pattern seen during previous economic downturns, which is why the Medicare actuaries continue to point to larger economic factors as the main cause for the slowdown in health care expenditure growth in recent years.
 
Last edited:
We could have accomplished the same with just the recession and slow recovery.. .Obamacare was hardly needed for this "victory" - unless Obamacare is (at least) partially responsible for the slower than typical recovery. From the OP:

Prove what you claim..........
 
Prove what you claim..........

I provided a direct quote from your biased source indicating that the recession and subsequent slow growth is the biggest contributor and that the medicare actuaries confirm the same. It's also been pointed out many times in these threads that health care economists predominantly blame the economy and slow recovery for the slowing of health care spending.

Feel free to ignore it, but that is what most of the experts indicate and that is not at all changed in the OP you chose to post.

More from your own op:

To be clear, the Office of the Actuary has always been extremely reluctant to attribute much, if any, of this trend to the cost-containment provisions of the Affordable Care Act, apart from the funding cuts for hospitals and other medical providers. And the Urban Institute authors don’t go that far, either.
 
A huffpo piece and some left wing garbage.

Obamacare is a certifiable disaster unfolding, as usual the site "Real Conservative" is on the wrong side of history. Have fun with that cheer leading, when reality asks for the bill lets see how much you own up to being wrong....

You know the lower costs are pretty firmly rooted in reality, right?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...han-expected-before-obamacare-study-projects/

Facts are stubborn things. I guess you've had a lot of practice ignoring them for years tho.
 
I provided a direct quote from your biased source indicating that the recession and subsequent slow growth is the biggest contributor and that the medicare actuaries confirm the same. It's also been pointed out many times in these threads that health care economists predominantly blame the economy and slow recovery for the slowing of health care spending.

Feel free to ignore it, but that is what most of the experts indicate and that is not at all changed in the OP you chose to post.

More from your own op:

BIASED?

Prove it so........what facts in there reports were lies? How did these so-called biased sources "spin" the facts?

I am confident you never even knew these sources existed until today............

Yet you think you have the right to say they are biased just because you do not want to believe yall may have been wrong..........?

If there is any bias here.......Go look in the mirror friend........

BTW

I heard the same damn lame excuse on Faux stated by one of those airhead talking heads..........

These statement you cite are not proven facts but suggestions to explain some of the savings..........You forgot to mention that......

Ever hear of out of context.......

I guess you were listening too
 
I heard the same damn lame excuse on Faux stated by one of those airhead talking heads..........

So, now you've heard the same "lame excuse" on Fox News and in your Huffington Post OP. Two very different sides saying much the same.

Most health care economists and medicare actuaries say the same. It's predominantly the economy.
 
So, now you've heard the same "lame excuse" on Fox News and in your Huffington Post OP. Two very different sides saying much the same.

Most health care economists and medicare actuaries say the same. It's predominantly the economy.


No sense trying to make sense with you is there?

Believe as you wish.....even if wrong..........

You will get no objections from me......
 
We're Spending Less On Health Care Than We Thought We Would Before Obamacare
We’re Spending Less on Health Care than We Thought We Would before Obamacare

“Twenty million or so more people have health insurance now than they did before Obamacare, and yet the American health care system is on track to spend $2.6 trillion less from 2014 to 2019 than before the Affordable Care Act became law. That’s right — $2.6 trillion, which is equivalent to about 15 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. That’s the conclusion researchers at the Urban Institute came to when comparing health care spending projections made in 2010 before Congress passed the ACA, and projections made later that year after President Barack Obama enacted the statute, with more recent findings…………

….. At a minimum, however, a combination of factors has resulted in a moment when the uninsured rate has reached a historic low even as the amount the nation spends on health care is turning out to be much lower than anticipated……
……. But historical patterns don’t quite account for the fact that growth hasn’t reverted to the levels before Obamacare and before the Great Recession, when annual increases could reach into the double digits, even though health care inflation has started to increase again. Instead, spending is expected to rise by about 5 or 6 percent a year from 2014 to 2019, a bit faster than the roughly 4 percent annual increase from 2010 to 2014.


SEE:
20 Million Gained Health Insurance From Obamacare, President Says
The Widespread Slowdown in Health Spending Growth: Implications for Future Spending Projections and the Cost of the Affordable Care Act: An Update | Urban Institute
The Widespread Slowdown in Health Spending Growth: Implications for Future Spending Projections and the Cost of the Affordable Care Act: An Update | Urban Institute
National Health Care Spending Is Up For A Really Obvious Reason
http://www.gallup.com/poll/190484/uninsured-rate-lowest-eight-year-trend.aspx


Golly gee Obamacare works……… Must be disappointing to the detractors…….. to be WRONG AGAIN

I don't have health insurance....and I haven't had health insurance since the PPACA took effect. I was at my last company for three and a half years as a temp. No benefits, no nothing. Companies don't want to hire you if you're fairly close to retirement age. They don't want the added burden of health care costs. As a single person, I can't afford to buy insurance on the open market and I'll bet there are a lot of people out there, just like me. Nobody knows about us and nobody cares to know about us, especially the Democrats. Maybe that's why you're seeing a slight tick down in health care spending. People like me who normally would have insurance, aren't inducing health care spending.

But hey, if you think more people are insured; that health care spending is down because of the brilliance of PPACA; and that insurance is more affordable, by all means, live in your delusion.
 
I think the biggest problem with our system is it is employment based. And we need a real universal healthcare plan every one of us participate in. We aint doing it right right now.
I don't have health insurance....and I haven't had health insurance since the PPACA took effect. I was at my last company for three and a half years as a temp. No benefits, no nothing. Companies don't want to hire you if you're fairly close to retirement age. They don't want the added burden of health care costs. As a single person, I can't afford to buy insurance on the open market and I'll bet there are a lot of people out there, just like me. Nobody knows about us and nobody cares to know about us, especially the Democrats. Maybe that's why you're seeing a slight tick down in health care spending. People like me who normally would have insurance, aren't inducing health care spending.

But hey, if you think more people are insured; that health care spending is down because of the brilliance of PPACA; and that insurance is more affordable, by all means, live in your delusion.
 
I don't have health insurance....and I haven't had health insurance since the PPACA took effect. I was at my last company for three and a half years as a temp. No benefits, no nothing. Companies don't want to hire you if you're fairly close to retirement age. They don't want the added burden of health care costs. As a single person, I can't afford to buy insurance on the open market and I'll bet there are a lot of people out there, just like me. Nobody knows about us and nobody cares to know about us, especially the Democrats. Maybe that's why you're seeing a slight tick down in health care spending. People like me who normally would have insurance, aren't inducing health care spending.

But hey, if you think more people are insured; that health care spending is down because of the brilliance of PPACA; and that insurance is more affordable, by all means, live in your delusion.

I am sorry for where you are......Not a good place to be for sure..........

Yes I know there are many folks in the same boat........

But you may be able to fix the problem.......

Have you checked how much ACA HCI would cost........?

If your situation is dire as you say.......the cost should be within your budget to pay.......

There are many inequities in our country.......and they need fixing.......so someone as you can live without fear of getting sick........

Best wishes to you
 
I think the biggest problem with our system is it is employment based. And we need a real universal healthcare plan every one of us participate in. We aint doing it right right now.

Any kind of universal system is no different, in principle, from an employer based system. The difference is that all the participants in the employer based system contribute, whereas contribution and participation in the universal system is not proportional. In other words, freeloaders, and that's really what we're paying for with all these increased costs. It never used to be like this. You got a decent job and you had health insurance. Just another reason to get one's act together and learn a profession, trade or skill that will get you that job. But now, we have a lot of people that think they're entitled to everything and Liberal Progressives foster that attitude. I despise Liberal Progressives and everything they stand for. I have nothing but contempt for them.
 
We have always had freeloaders and we have always paid for them, in the least efficient system possible.
Any kind of universal system is no different, in principle, from an employer based system. The difference is that all the participants in the employer based system contribute, whereas contribution and participation in the universal system is not proportional. In other words, freeloaders, and that's really what we're paying for with all these increased costs. It never used to be like this. You got a decent job and you had health insurance. Just another reason to get one's act together and learn a profession, trade or skill that will get you that job. But now, we have a lot of people that think they're entitled to everything and Liberal Progressives foster that attitude. I despise Liberal Progressives and everything they stand for. I have nothing but contempt for them.
 
No sense trying to make sense with you is there?

Believe as you wish.....even if wrong..........

You will get no objections from me......

Dude, the quotes i provided were taken directly from the Huff Po article you chose to post. They are simply quoting the experts that are predominantly attributing the slower than expected growth to the recession and slow recovery. You choose to believe something different, despite what those experts are actually saying.

Again, from your OP - certainly not a right wing cite:

The biggest factor is the economy itself. The damage wrought by the Great Recession squeezed down health care spending as people lost their jobs, incomes and health insurance, and subsequently had less access to care. The slow recovery in the years following the recession kept spending from quickly rebounding.
 
Dude, the quotes i provided were taken directly from the Huff Po article you chose to post. They are simply quoting the experts that are predominantly attributing the slower than expected growth to the recession and slow recovery. You choose to believe something different, despite what those experts are actually saying.

Again, from your OP - certainly not a right wing cite:

The findings are the costs of medical spending is down..........You cannot deny that.........And that is all the really matters
 
The findings are the costs of medical spending is down..........You cannot deny that.........And that is all the really matters

"Costs of medical spending" are not down. In fact, medical spending is up, just not as quickly as first projected. You don't even understand that simple concept. The cause, according to most experts not named imyoda, is the economy and slow recovery. Not Obamacare, as you really-really want to believe.
 
We're Spending Less On Health Care Than We Thought We Would Before Obamacare
We’re Spending Less on Health Care than We Thought We Would before Obamacare

“Twenty million or so more people have health insurance now than they did before Obamacare, and yet the American health care system is on track to spend $2.6 trillion less from 2014 to 2019 than before the Affordable Care Act became law. That’s right — $2.6 trillion, which is equivalent to about 15 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. That’s the conclusion researchers at the Urban Institute came to when comparing health care spending projections made in 2010 before Congress passed the ACA, and projections made later that year after President Barack Obama enacted the statute, with more recent findings…………

….. At a minimum, however, a combination of factors has resulted in a moment when the uninsured rate has reached a historic low even as the amount the nation spends on health care is turning out to be much lower than anticipated……
……. But historical patterns don’t quite account for the fact that growth hasn’t reverted to the levels before Obamacare and before the Great Recession, when annual increases could reach into the double digits, even though health care inflation has started to increase again. Instead, spending is expected to rise by about 5 or 6 percent a year from 2014 to 2019, a bit faster than the roughly 4 percent annual increase from 2010 to 2014.


SEE:
20 Million Gained Health Insurance From Obamacare, President Says
The Widespread Slowdown in Health Spending Growth: Implications for Future Spending Projections and the Cost of the Affordable Care Act: An Update | Urban Institute
The Widespread Slowdown in Health Spending Growth: Implications for Future Spending Projections and the Cost of the Affordable Care Act: An Update | Urban Institute
National Health Care Spending Is Up For A Really Obvious Reason
http://www.gallup.com/poll/190484/uninsured-rate-lowest-eight-year-trend.aspx


Golly gee Obamacare works……… Must be disappointing to the detractors…….. to be WRONG AGAIN

Did we really save money or was the projection made in 2010 just that bad??

https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statis...onalHealthExpendData/Downloads/highlights.pdf

Looking at the annual data, we're still looking at the usual 4-6% annual increase in medical expenses, so I would hazard a guess that a prediction that was that far off was just a bad prediction. So comparing a bad prediction to what is really happening is pretty much a waste of time other than hopefully driving someone to look for answers as to why the prediction was so far off.
 
You know the lower costs are pretty firmly rooted in reality, right?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...han-expected-before-obamacare-study-projects/

Facts are stubborn things. I guess you've had a lot of practice ignoring them for years tho.

But healthcare costs are sitll increasing at pretty much a normal rate. We usually see a 4-6% annual increase in healthcare costs and that what we're still seeing. So if the rate of increase is within the normal range, then where's the story (other than a really bad prediction made in 2010)?

Also, while healthcare costs are holding at a normal rate of increase, healthcare insurance costs are rising far faster.
 
Did we really save money or was the projection made in 2010 just that bad??

https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statis...onalHealthExpendData/Downloads/highlights.pdf

Looking at the annual data, we're still looking at the usual 4-6% annual increase in medical expenses, so I would hazard a guess that a prediction that was that far off was just a bad prediction. So comparing a bad prediction to what is really happening is pretty much a waste of time other than hopefully driving someone to look for answers as to why the prediction was so far off.


Medical cost have been reduced over the years of ACA............and the prediction made for ACA was 4% and for the years of operation in insurance premiums paid..........
 
We're Spending Less On Health Care Than We Thought We Would Before Obamacare
We’re Spending Less on Health Care than We Thought We Would before Obamacare

“Twenty million or so more people have health insurance now than they did before Obamacare, and yet the American health care system is on track to spend $2.6 trillion less from 2014 to 2019 than before the Affordable Care Act became law. That’s right — $2.6 trillion, which is equivalent to about 15 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. That’s the conclusion researchers at the Urban Institute came to when comparing health care spending projections made in 2010 before Congress passed the ACA, and projections made later that year after President Barack Obama enacted the statute, with more recent findings…………

….. At a minimum, however, a combination of factors has resulted in a moment when the uninsured rate has reached a historic low even as the amount the nation spends on health care is turning out to be much lower than anticipated……
……. But historical patterns don’t quite account for the fact that growth hasn’t reverted to the levels before Obamacare and before the Great Recession, when annual increases could reach into the double digits, even though health care inflation has started to increase again. Instead, spending is expected to rise by about 5 or 6 percent a year from 2014 to 2019, a bit faster than the roughly 4 percent annual increase from 2010 to 2014.


SEE:
20 Million Gained Health Insurance From Obamacare, President Says
The Widespread Slowdown in Health Spending Growth: Implications for Future Spending Projections and the Cost of the Affordable Care Act: An Update | Urban Institute
The Widespread Slowdown in Health Spending Growth: Implications for Future Spending Projections and the Cost of the Affordable Care Act: An Update | Urban Institute
National Health Care Spending Is Up For A Really Obvious Reason
http://www.gallup.com/poll/190484/uninsured-rate-lowest-eight-year-trend.aspx


Golly gee Obamacare works……… Must be disappointing to the detractors…….. to be WRONG AGAIN

It must be exhausting conning up with this Garbage Propaganda. The anticipation and promise from Obama was that we would save $2500 a year. Instead the low income people get the same freebies they have always received and the people who actually pay, pay more than ever.
 
It must be exhausting conning up with this Garbage Propaganda. The anticipation and promise from Obama was that we would save $2500 a year. Instead the low income people get the same freebies they have always received and the people who actually pay, pay more than ever.

I can understand you being upset......... what being biased and all...... But your opinion does not change the items found in the article
 
I can understand you being upset......... what being biased and all...... But your opinion does not change the items found in the article

I assume you mean the article which states that Obamacare has very little (if anything) to do with the slower growth. Or does your opinion changes those items found in the article?
 
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