WASHINGTON – Even as his health care law divided the nation, President Barack Obama’s first term saw historically low growth in health costs, government experts said in a new report Monday.
The White House called it vindication of the president’s health care policies, but it’s too early to say if the four-year trend that continued through 2012 is a lasting turnaround that Obama can claim as part of his legacy.
For the second year in a row, the U.S. economy grew faster in 2012 than did national health care spending, according to nonpartisan economic experts at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
That’s an important statistic. In most years, health care spending grows more rapidly than the economy, like bills that rise faster than your paycheck. That cost pressure steadily undermines employer insurance as well as government programs like Medicare and Medicaid. But the pattern slowed starting in 2009, and then appears to have reversed ever so slightly and tenuously.
“Have we turned the corner in a sustainable way? That’s still an open question,” said economist Robert Reischauer, who serves as a public trustee overseeing Medicare and Social Security financing. “But I am more optimistic than I have ever been that fundamental changes are under way.” For example, even though baby boomers are joining Medicare in record numbers, that program’s costs are basically stable when measured on a per-patient basis, Reischauer noted.