A fairly constant argument of the
conservatives is that our current health care program (Obamacare) is just too
expensive and that private plans would be far more effective. If that were true
it would seem that the U.S. would be leading the world in affordable health
care rather than lagging behind it. But money arguments hold a powerful sway
over the voting public, and scare tactics of the cost of the Heathcare Program
is often used and seems effective.
Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the
constitutionality of the our Healthcare program the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office
has issued a new report concerning
their financial impact. They estimate that President Obama’s health care law
will save the government $84 billion over the next 11 years. That’s a lot of
money. The CBO believes that fewer states will enroll in the program. It also
predicts it will leave 3 million more Americans uninsured.
The CBO also looked at H.R. 6079 (A repeal
of the Healthcare program) on behalf of John Boehner that Mitt Romney said he would seek
of elected president. They said that would increase the deficit by $109 billion
dollars; "In total, CBO and JCT estimate that
H.R. 6079 would reduce direct spending by $890 billion and reduce revenues by
$1 trillion over the 2013–2022 period, thus adding $109 billion to federal
budget deficits over that period."
The popular myth is
that Democrats are the tax and spend party and that Republicans are the tax
reducing and lower government spending party, when nothing seems to back up
those claims. This is a good example.
"They estimate that President Obama’s health care law will save the government $84 billion over the next 11 years."
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of points to be made on this.
1) This savings amount really means nothing. The agency putting forth these numbers has no idea what they are talking about and has a very bad track record at predicting.
2) This same agency predicted a huge wild imaginary "savings" when Obamacare was proposed. This figure was used to help sell the idea.
3) The recent Supreme Court decision did indeed kick one of the fangs off the Obamacare monster. (much as Bart Stupak did during its passage when he forced Obama to remove from the plan vicious provisions designed to harm children). It is this making it "kindler and gentler" that has resulted in the predicted savings. Which means that if the Supreme Court had left the the plan entirely intact, it would be predicting a big loss, not savings,
dmarks I am curious as to why you think the CBO is bad at its job. What organizations do you trust?
ReplyDeleteRemember the CBO's predictions about Obamacare and the debt initially? Nothing like that came to pass. That is just one example.
ReplyDeleteThere are things the CBO is good at. But they are not good at predicting. No one is.