Health-care law will add $340 billion to deficit, new study finds
Source: Washington Post
President Obamas landmark health-care initiative, long touted as a means to control costs, will actually add more than $340 billion to the nations 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 Universitys 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.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/health-care-law-will-add-340-billion-to-deficit-new-study-finds/2012/04/09/gIQAti1o6S_story.html?wprss=rss_politics
Which would you trust more, this study or one by the CBO that found "a net cost of just under $1.1 trillion over the 2012-2021 period-about $50 billion less than the agencies' March 2011 estimate for that 10-year period."
cstanleytech
(26,282 posts)It's not the full story. . . yes it creates more spending but it also cuts waste, and prevents some illnesses that would cost more if left untreated until later. And the spending would be offset by savings in other areas included in the AFA. But now the GOP has a "talking point" that I'm thinking will be refuted but their minions won't hear those.
Pirate Smile
(27,617 posts)DallasNE
(7,402 posts)Expansion of the Medicare trust fund creates more spending.
What Blahous is saying here is that when revenue is used to purchase U.S Bonds for the trust fund it counts as spending because the money is no longer available. When you or I buy savings bonds we consider this as savings but in order for Blahous to be able to make his deficit claim he inappropriately claims putting money in savings for future use is actually spending.
msongs
(67,395 posts)Roselma
(540 posts)supported libertarian venture:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=George_Mason_University
Charles Koch sits on the board. They are also in the climate change denial business.
As a general rule, if Kochs pays for it, I am reluctant to accept it at face value.
primavera
(5,191 posts)I agree completely - commissioned studies, particularly those commissioned by activist foundations, should be subject to extremely close scrutiny. It's so easy to publish a misleading study that obscures reality by reporting only half truths, excluding offsetting factors, failing to take into account basic statistical corrections, defining terms poorly, etc..
killbotfactory
(13,566 posts)fasttense
(17,301 posts)If you wiped out Medicare today, the deficit would NOT go away.
What caused the deficit was:
1. The tax give aways to the uber rich.
2. Spending on the wars (which throughout history has bankrupted countries regularly).
3. The 2nd RepubliCON Great Depression (if people were working and making the same amount of money they were making before the bushes, they would be paying taxes and providing revenue for the government).
Take care of these 3 things and the deficit will practically disappear.
By the way, if we did away with the prescription drug plan that the bushes passed which does NOT allow the government to negotiate prices for medicines, Medicare would NOT be a problem.
Fearless
(18,421 posts)christx30
(6,241 posts)How much was added to the deficit by the Iraq war? And what did we get for that huge sum of money? Nothing? Higher gas prices? 4,000+ dead? At least if that $340 billion is an accurate number, we're actually getting something for our money.
I guess health care is a bad thing to spend money on, since it's not going to weapon contractors? Is that the problem?
Turbineguy
(37,319 posts)with statistics.
Aviation Pro
(12,150 posts)....nothing further to add to this splooge.
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)No, thanks!
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)Apparently the Post picked up on this new report by a Republican-leaning organization that finds that Obamacare would increase the deficit.
Luckily the entire article is fact-checked and debunked here:
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/04/bogus-obamacare-deficit-study.html
Will the so-called librul Post also address the gross inaccuracies and misstatements in this so-called report?
lovuian
(19,362 posts)and cut subsidies for the rich
there we paid for it
nanabugg
(2,198 posts)wipe out that deficit created by the healthcare act.
Myrina
(12,296 posts)... well, that tells me all I need to read.