Obamacare not the monster Republicans had hoped it would be
Lewis DiuguidRepublicans’ faces have to be a bit longer this week after the Congressional Budget Office said the Affordable Care Act would shrink rather than add to the country’s federal deficits.
The Congressional Budget Office projected an $84 billion savings from 2012 to 2022 from what Republicans so lovingly call Obamacare because about 3 million fewer uninsured people will gain health coverage after last month’s Supreme Court ruling giving states more latitude.
Republicans, including presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, had bellowed that the Affordable Care Act would increase the deficits by trillions of dollars. Their scare tactic is now unfounded.
George Hunsucker
Northland
10 months agoearth to lewis #26…
great parody since this $84B was the savings from not expanding Medicaid. It in no way reflects the overall cost of 0’care! Of course, you didn’t say that, did you lewis???
Anyway, great early afternoon laugh from you lewis!!
Mark Hastert
10 months agoI think, George that you’re missing the point. It saves money over the current system. Romney’s assertion is false as are so many of the hysterical proclamations about O-care. You should watch the clip of Romney reciting all the things his replacement for O-care would have. Every one of them was already a part of O-care. The guy is shooting blanks.
Kent Mueller
10 months agoLewis….the cost reduction is due to fewer people being covered…..and you call that a positive thing? How does that make your point that Obamacare is a good thing?
John Smither
10 months ago“That change primarily effects a $4 billion increase in collections from such payments by employers, a $1 billion increase in such payments by individuals, and an increase of less than $500 million in tax revenues stemming from a small reduction in employment-based coverage, which will lead to a larger share of total compensation taking the form of taxable wages and salaries and a smaller share taking the form of nontaxable health benefits.”
Mark Robertson
9 months, 4 weeks agoObamacare saves money. Right, and Medicare will top out at around 10 billion.(Now approaching 600 billion a year) Obamacare will end this country, at least as we know it. Have there ever been as many lies told about any legislation. First of all we were told that it would cost less than a trillion its first ten years. Right. That lie was achieved by starting the taxes in 2010 but not starting the bulk of the “benefits” until 2014. However the costs start from 2010. Besides the fact that the 990 billion is a lie, the actual cost for the actual first 10 years, from 2014 to 2024 would be at least 2.5 trillion. And the way that government health care always spirals out of control, it would no doubt cost much more. Another total lie is that if we like our current health insurance we can keep it. If our current plans have virtually any changes at all after 2014, we would be pushed into complying with Obamacare mandates and whatever else the Kitty Kat Sebelius decides. About 90 percent of the people in the U.S. have health insurance, and about 90 percent of those are satisfied with their insurance. Yet, Obama wants to destroy health care for 300 plus million people so we can all supposedly be in equal misery. And now the CBO says that Obamacare will still leave 30 million without health insurance because of the Supreme Court ruling on the states and Medicaid, the same number that the left also says doesn’t have insurance. You can’t make this up. And there are so many hidden time bombs in this monstrosity. And more and more businesses are going to drop health care coverage for employees and just pay the fines. Obamacare would also drive private insurance out of business, because when they are mandated to cover preexisting conditions, they cease to be insurance companies. This has been Obama’s plan all along. He wants to pave the way for his utopian single payer scam. A disaster that would finish us off as a nation. Obamacare has to be relegated to the ash heap of history. Romney and a Republican Congress have to be elected so they can appeal this madness. In the meantime, governors should not allow implementation of the Stalinist state exchanges. It is sad and scary, and makes me so angry to see our country being destroyed before our very eyes. It can be stopped in November. Rational citizens, please think before you vote this time. Thank you. Mark Robertson Independence
Mark Robertson
9 months, 4 weeks agoThat would be: “repeal this madness.” Thank you Mark Robertson Independence
Phil Cardarella
9 months, 4 weeks agoWhy is it so hard to understand that — on balance — having a much larger insurance pool is a good thing, and saves money. Now, it is not as good as single payer. Medicare operates at about 1/5th of the overhead of private carriers. It costs a lot because it only includes the oldest, sickest in its pool. the Canadian system includes everyone, so it is more efficient.
And, since no business can have an advantage or disadvantage in such things, Canada has 7% unemployment. Jobs are easier to create without the health care tie-in to employment.
There are some things government does poorly. But, there are some things it does better than the free market. Basic health care is one of them.
Kent Mueller
9 months, 4 weeks agoPhil, you reference 7% unemployment as a good thing? It looks good next to Obama and much of Europe, but 7% is not a good thing.
And you miss something when you say jobs are easier to create when businesses don’t have to pay for insurance. Who do you think pays the taxes to pay for the government’s health care costs? That is pure folly, Phil, to assume no one pays for it.
JR Beillenhouser
9 months, 4 weeks agoPhil lives in an alternate universe.
Mark Robertson
9 months, 3 weeks ago“Why is it so hard to understand that”-government run health care is a disaster wherever it has been tried, which is most countries? You might want to read: Lives at Risk-Single Payer National Health Insurance Around the World, by John Goodman, Gerald Musgrave and Devron Herrick, with the foreword by the great Milton Friedman. John Goodman also wrote the highly acclaimed: Patient Power, and has just released his new book: Priceless-Curing the Health Care Crisis. He is also considedred the father of health savings accounts, which is an answer to high health care costs and inadequate care. John Goodman’s Health Policy Blog is a great resource for answers for solving health care problems. And Phil, you say that Medicare operates at about 1/5th the overhead cost of private carriers. According to a recent study by the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, the administrative costs of Medicare actually total around 5.2 percent. Meanwhile, the administrative costs of private sector health care is 8.9 percent. A similar study by Pricewaterhouse Coopers found that only 6 percent of private health care premiums go to administrative costs and 86 percent to actual medical care. Medicare, though, doesn’t account for many costs. For instance, the Medicare Trustee report doesn’t include things like salaries of managers and administrators or the marketing costs associated with advertising new policies. And Medicare passes off a great deal of its costs to private payers.(All info from: Top Ten Myths of American Health Care, by Sally Pipes. Medicare cost about a billion its first year in 1966. Supposedly it was going to top out at around 10 billion in 1990. It cost 67 billion then, and now is approaching 600 billion a year, and with Social Security, has an unfunded liability of over 100 trillion. Yet, it doesn’t adequately compensate doctors. That’s the way socialized health care always works, cost rise, service deteriorates. And Canadian health care is a disaster. According to the Fraser Institute, the average wait time from referral from a primary care doctor to treatment from a specialist is over 4 months. Suggested reading, Miracle Cure-How to Solve America’s Health Care Crisis and Why Canada isn’t the Answer, by Sally Pipes. And Canada’s economy is improving because of conservative policies from the more conservative Harper Administration. Thank you. Mark Robertson Independence
George Hunsucker
Northland
9 months, 3 weeks agoFor all u 0’care lovers, here is thr true CBO statement, versus our fair-minded lib lewis….http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/cbo-obamacare-cost-1930-trillion-leave-30-million-uninsured_649066.html