It's Official: Americans Spent All Their "Gas Savings" On Obamacare

Zero Hedge ^ | 03/27/2015 | Tyler Durden

[SeekAndFind]

Last quarter, when we showed what was "The Reason For The "Surge" In Q3 GDP", some were shocked to learn that in the quarter in which US GDP posted a 5% surge, it was none other than Obamacare - a mandatory tax according to the Supreme Court which has the benefit of flowing through the US income statement - which contributed the bulk of this upside.

 

We are happy, and we use the term loosely, that history has just repeated itself, and now that the final number is available, what we wrote a month ago in "Here Is What Americans Spent Their "Gas Savings" On" has just been confirmed, and as the chart below shows, in the final revision of Q4 GDP, while virtually every other category of household spending was largely unchanged or revised lower, it was Healthcare, of which Obamacare was the biggest contributor on the margin, which saw an unprecedented surge in total spending, from $1.858 trillion to $1.871.9 trillion just between the second and final GDP revisions: a bump of $13.9 billion, without which Q3 GDP would have grown well below 2%!

 

It gets better, because in the fourth quarter total spending on healthcare in chained-dollars was a whopping $35.3 billion. An all time record!

And the absolute shocker: of the $89.1 billion increase in Q4 GDP in chained-dollars, healthcare was $35.3 billion of that, or 40% of the total.

Yes, healthcare spending accounted for 40% of GDP growth in Q4!

With that we are happy to have unmasked the two great mysteries of the US economy in recent history: the first being why there is no wage growth, which as we showed previously is because all the wage growth was going to the 20% of the workforce that is supervisors and bosses. For everyone else: better luck in a next life where you too get to "supervise."

 

... and now we have solved the mystery of why US households did not spend all those billions in "dropping gas price" windfalls - the answer is that they did in fact spend all this money.

On Obamacare.

[Zeneta]

Before to long GDP will be measured by Tax receipts alone.

[Doogle]

"..first I've heard of it"

[Render]

I spent all of mine trying to keep up with the increased cost of food. No Obamacare for me. In fact, no health insurance for me anymore. Premiums are too expensive and the deductibles suck. If I need to see a doc I’ll be paying cash.

I miss the days of a $90 a month premium, $1,500 deductible, $4 prescriptions, etc... I had great health care at one time.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: No Obamacare for me. In fact, no health insurance for me anymore

You realize you have to pay a fine ( or as Justice John Roberts calls it, a tax ) for not having health insurance, don’t you?

[Render]

I do. The fine is much cheaper than actually buying the insurance.... At least for now.

[KC_Lion]

It’s all “part if the plan”

They finally found a way to tax you on just being alive.

[vetvetdoug]

My health insurance went from $800/month to $1200 a month and I have no major health issues. Thanks to the Communist in chief.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: My health insurance went from $800/month to $1200 a month and I have no major health issues.

But do you get to keep your doctor?

[ealgeone]

my health care costs increased 26% this year and with a higher deductible.

[SpaceBar]

The language has been distorted right under our noses. There no longer exists something called ‘health insurance’ in the US. The term is simply an archaic holdover from a quaint bygone era when private companies could pick and choose their customers, and make a profit based on actuarial tables and the law of averages. We now only have socialized medical care, compartmentalized into various ‘packages’ like gold, silver, and bronze, depending on the size of the mandatory compliance fee you pay to avoid a penalty. It may look superficially like ‘health insurance’ but it has no resemblance to the strict definition. Obama effed this country good.

[tbw2]

We kept our health insurance for the family the same only by dramatically increasing the deductible.

[nascarnation]

because all the wage growth was going to the 20% of the workforce that is supervisors and bosses.

Teeing it up for Squaw Warren....

[txrefugee]

Be sure to send this to Joe Kernan at CNBC’s “Squawk Box” because he’s still looking for the big retail sales boost from the gas prices going down. He just can’t figure out that it’s going to Obamacare and paying back the thousands of dollars on credit card bills that the Middle Class have used to buy groceries with while Wall St. was living large the past six years.

[EternalVigilance]

Americans Spent All Their "Gas Savings" On Obamacare

We got the old double-whammy here in Iowa. A few weeks back the Republicans jacked up our gas tax by 45%. They ganged up with their fellow Uniparty Democrats and rammed it through in a breathtakingly quick six days. Amazing how fast they can move when it involves extracting billions more out of the taxpayers.

[vetvetdoug]

But do you get to keep your doctor?
I had to change physicians as the one that had been taking care of me for the past 20 years quit due to Obamacare. I also had to raise my deductible significantly. The average person has no idea what self employed people have to do to remain insured.

[Secret Agent Man]

And gas prices are going back up.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Mark.