Bending the Health Care Cost Curve, Obama Style

The Office of the Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services just came out with their latest projection of National Health Expenditures. Since they also made a pre-Obamacare projection last February, we can easily find the cost savings of Obamacare. And here you have it:

"But Hey!" the liberal set opines, "at least Obamacare is insuring millions more people, so we're getting more for our money!!"

Har. Looking through their report you'll find that they have once again assumed that doctor's Medicare fees will be cut by 23% after 2010. You also find that while Medicaid enrollment in 2019 is supposed to go up by 1/3 as a result of the new policies, they only allow for a 10% increase in cost. And I particularly like their brave estimates of the Exchange plan costs, when those costs have never been priced out by the insurance companies that will underwrite it. Until they are actually priced, they serve as a great source of imaginary cost savings.

So our stalwart leader has done it once again. Having raged about the necessity of bending the cost curve, he has indeed bent it. Up. And as the years go by, I think we'll find that the CMS's cost projections were wildly optimistic.

posted by Geoff at 09:09 AM

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