Posted on 04/09/2012 10:08:43 PM PDT by Steelfish
Health-Care Law Will Add $340 Billion To Deficit, New Study Finds
By Lori Montgomery April 9
President Obama’s landmark health-care initiative, long touted as a means to control costs, will actually add more than $340 billion to the nation’s budget woes over the next decade, according to a new study by a Republican member of the board that oversees Medicare financing.
The study is set to be released Tuesday by Charles Blahous, a conservative policy analyst whom Obama approved in 2010 as the GOP trustee for Medicare and Social Security. His analysis challenges the conventional wisdom that the health-care law, which calls for an expensive expansion of coverage for the uninsured beginning in 2014, will nonetheless reduce deficits by raising taxes and cutting payments to Medicare providers.
The 2010 law does generate both savings and revenue. But much of that money will flow into the Medicare hospitalization trust fund — and, under law, the money must be used to pay years of additional benefits to those who are already insured. That means those savings would not be available to pay for expanding coverage for the uninsured.
“Does the health-care act worsen the deficit? The answer, I think, is clearly that it does,” Blahous, a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, said in an interview. “If one asserts that this law extends the solvency of Medicare, then one is affirming that this law adds to the deficit. Because the expansion of the Medicare trust fund and the creation of the new subsidies together create more spending than existed under prior law.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I think hey are low-balling it by an order of magnitude
It will be at least ten times that...
It will be at least ten times that...
But it’s all for a good cause, right? /s
$340 billion! And that’s just to hire more IRS agents to administer Barry’s “healthcare” program. How ‘bout that “hope and change”!
Reeeeeeeehhhhly!
In order to predict the future, you must remember the past.
1. My kids are covered through age 26.
2. Insurance can not be canceled due to pre-existing conditions.
Your kid stopped being a kid at 18.
not being able to cancel people means EVERYONES rates are higher.
Before you go off on me..
My wife is a type 1 diabetic with a laundry list of health issues related to it.
Shes currently covered ONLY because our state has a high risk pool.
Seems like it’s not an issue if you have a pre-existing in this state. I suspect many other states have the same types of programs.
it is amazing that anybody can report this and not think they are off by a factor greater than 10
idiots
in 2009 the US spent $2.4 trillion for the bandaids and aspirin. in order to cover ‘healthcare for everyone’ , the US would have to cover AT LEAST the cost from 2009 (which was before they told everyone it’s free)
only problem is... how much do we bring in for tax revenues now? just under $2 trillion.
help me here... if we bring in $2 trillion... and need another $2.4 trillion to cover the bandaids... exactly how much will they need to raise taxes to cover it?
simple me with my math background seems to think it’ll require taxes to at least DOUBLE to come close to covering the bill
Bookmark.
My kids are full time students in college. I want them to focus on studies (both on Dean’s list every quarter) and not get distracted with a minimum wage job to pay for mandated, full feature loaded expensive health insurance which they do not need. Only need they have is coverage for a catastrophic health situation such as accident or appendicitis etc.
Both my kids plan on pursuing post-graduate degrees so they will have no income to speak of through age 26.
Can’t you already cover them while they are in school? Can’t they get coverage through the school (wasn’t fluck griping about that?). Can’t you already buy them their own plan?
Glad your taking care of your kids. Don’t use laws to force others to help pick up the tab for covering your adult off spring.
The University offers health insurance but it is not cheap.
The point you are missing is...the kids do not require the “EXPENSIVE” full feature mandated insurance by Obamacare covering free contraception, free treatment for drug addiction etc. If a catastrophic hospital cost only insurance policy was available, I would pay for it myself for their policies.
So, relax, the added cost to everyone’s premiums is very small because most people under 26 are a very small portion of healthcare cost, probably under 2%. Lion’s share of healthcare costs are incurred by people over 60.
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