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CBO: ObamaCare premiums and healthcare spending will rise by less than expected, becauseā€¦
Hotair ^ | 04/15/2014 | Erika Johnsen

Posted on 04/15/2014 4:58:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

The Congressional Budget Office released a report this morning that has received a lot of attention from ObamaCare’s many staunch media advocates because it essentially concludes that the cost of expanding coverage through the exchanges will be billions less than the CBO was predicting just a couple of months ago. That’s great news for the president’s crowning legislative achievement, right?

Health-insurance premiums for plans sold on the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges will be lower than previously expected, according to a report released Monday by the Congressional Budget Office.

The findings, by Congress’s nonpartisan spending analysts, result largely from the fact that insurance companies have redesigned plans on the government-run exchanges to shave costs. CBO found that individual policies on those marketplaces have narrower networks of doctors and lower reimbursement rates for health-care providers than is typical of employer-sponsored health plans.

As a result, CBO expects the federal government to spend about $165 billion less over the next decade on subsidizing health-insurance plans for lower earners than the office projected two months ago. Total spending on those subsidies is projected at $1.032 trillion between 2015 and 2024. The report was part of a broader federal spending update released Monday.

Did you catch that? Let’s go straight to the report for a closer look:

A crucial factor in the current revision was an analysis of the characteristics of plans offered through the exchanges in 2014. Previously, CBO and JTC had expected that those plans’ characteristics would closely resemble the characteristics of employment-based plans throughout the projection period. However, the plans being offered through the exchanges this year appear to have, in general, lower payment rates for providers, narrower networks of providers, and tighter management of their subscribers’ use of health care than employment-based plans do. …

The lower exchange premiums and revisions to the other characteristics of insurance plans that are incorporated into CBO and JCT’s current estimates have small effects on the agencies’ projections of exchange enrollment. Although lower premiums will tend to increase enrollment, narrower networks and more tightly managed benefits will tend to reduce the attractiveness of plans and thereby decrease enrollment. The net effect on projected enrollment in the exchanges is small.

In a nutshell, the CBO initially made its projections under the assumption that the plans offered through the exchange would be largely similar in terms of benefits to the sorts of plans being offered by employers — but that definitely isn’t going to be the case. The narrowed networks that insurers are using to keep costs down and the lower reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals are things that neither consumers nor providers tend to like in the long run — which will likely mean more strain on the system and higher costs further down the road.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cbo; cboobamacare; deductibles; obamacare; obamacarepremiums; premium

1 posted on 04/15/2014 4:58:26 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

In other words, prices will go down because a lot of people won’t have access to a doctor.


2 posted on 04/15/2014 5:02:33 PM PDT by kevao (Biblical Jesus: Give your money to the poor. Socialist Jesus: Give your neighbor's money to the poor)
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To: SeekAndFind

rates will be lower because Obama is selling you crap insurance and limiting your access to doctors,hospitals, and treatment regimes

In other words JUST GO AHEAD AND DIE!!!!!!


3 posted on 04/15/2014 5:03:28 PM PDT by Nifster
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To: SeekAndFind

Well then, all the lies are forgiven.


4 posted on 04/15/2014 5:04:08 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (At no time was the Obama administration aware of what the Obama administration was doing)
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To: SeekAndFind

Let me narrow this down in even simpler terms: Healthcare is going to get worse.


5 posted on 04/15/2014 5:04:22 PM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: SeekAndFind

“The findings, by Congress’s nonpartisan spending analysts,”

This is the funniest line in the whole piece.


6 posted on 04/15/2014 5:06:13 PM PDT by stockpirate (Only a tidal wave of tyrants blood will return our tree of liberty......)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Die suckers,, die”


7 posted on 04/15/2014 5:07:03 PM PDT by stockpirate (Only a tidal wave of tyrants blood will return our tree of liberty......)
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To: SeekAndFind

This reminds me of something I read long ago. A newspaper editor says: “I don’t care who writes the stories. I want to write the headlines.”


8 posted on 04/15/2014 5:07:10 PM PDT by OldPossum ("It's" is the contraction of "it" and "is"; think about ITS implications.)
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To: kevao
ObamaCare premiums and healthcare spending will rise by less than expected, because…

... of the same reason murder rate statistics are going down in Chicago.

In other words, prices will go down because a lot of people won’t have access to a doctor.

Watch for a new Federal Statistic: Health Care System Participation Rate.

9 posted on 04/15/2014 5:11:09 PM PDT by Steely Tom (How do you feel about robbing Peter's robot?)
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To: SeekAndFind

We had a chance to kill this snake and defund this communist transfer of wealth but weakness and quivering seized republicrats like Boo Hoo ner and Senator John Corn*&^% and Bitch McConnell. It was sickening to watch their flee. I blame it on them.


10 posted on 04/15/2014 5:11:10 PM PDT by SADMILLIE
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To: SeekAndFind

Tighter controls on members use of health care metaphorically means death panels.


11 posted on 04/15/2014 5:11:24 PM PDT by Sasparilla
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To: SeekAndFind

Tighter controls on members use of health care metaphorically means death panels.


12 posted on 04/15/2014 5:11:25 PM PDT by Sasparilla
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To: SoFloFreeper
Let me narrow this down in even simpler terms: Healthcare is going to get worse.

"But at least more people have access to health insurance!" /moonbat
13 posted on 04/15/2014 5:14:13 PM PDT by LostInBayport (When there are more people riding in the cart than there are pulling it, the cart stops moving...)
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To: SoFloFreeper

That upside is many small hospitals will go bankrupt.


14 posted on 04/15/2014 5:56:45 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: kevao

Exactly,don’t worry,your premiums are going to cost less,just don’t get sick and try to find a doctor,especially cancer at specialized cancer hospital,off limits to Obamacare policy holders.
In a few years Obama’s prediction of healthcare costs going down will be realized because all of the seniors will be offed,and all sick people will be dead


15 posted on 04/16/2014 4:45:46 AM PDT by ballplayer
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To: kevao

Exactly,don’t worry,your premiums are going to cost less,just don’t get sick and try to find a doctor,especially cancer at specialized cancer hospital,off limits to Obamacare policy holders.
In a few years Obama’s prediction of healthcare costs going down will be realized because all of the seniors will be offed,and all sick people will be dead.
Funny Have not heard ANYONE ask Obama about his appointments to the IPAB,(Independent Payment Advisory Board),better know as the Death Panel.This board was supposed to be seated by last January,who is he going to appoint to this board,who’s decisions you CAN’T appeal? I guess we will find out after the election


16 posted on 04/16/2014 4:49:12 AM PDT by ballplayer
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