It may not do very much good now, but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued a report that seriously undermines claims that the ObamaCare medical overhaul will reduce U.S. health care costs.
According to the department’s analysis, “the law falls short of the president’s twin goal of controlling runaway costs, raising projected spending by about 1 percent over 10 years. That increase could get bigger, since Medicare cuts in the law may be unrealistic and unsustainable,” The Associated Press reported.
And just how “unsustainable” is “unsustainable”? Well, the report from Medicare’s Office of the Actuary “projected that Medicare cuts could drive about 15 percent of hospitals and other institutional providers into the red, ‘possibly jeopardizing access’ to care for seniors,” the AP reported. So in “expanding” care to the uninsured, ObamaCare may “reduce” the availability of care to senior citizens.
The analysis found virtually no hope that trillion-dollar ObamaCare will slow the increase in health care costs in its first decade, 2010-2019. That is especially alarming because while taxes for ObamaCare are starting almost immediately, most of the coverage it is supposed to provide to tens of millions of the uninsured does not begin for a few years. If 10 years of taxes can’t really provide enough money for roughly six years of coverage, what happens when taxpayers must fund a full 10 years of ObamaCare coverage? Obviously, either taxes will be raised or there will be more borrowing to cover the shortfall. Our nation cannot afford either of those options.
When you add in the fact that many of the millions of newly “insured” Americans will struggle even to find a doctor to treat them, it should be clear that ObamaCare is no bargain.