The CBO says the cost of Obamacare subsidies will be slightly lower than predicted. Obamacare will still lower the deficit. Good news right? You will be hearing more about all this, but I wanted to provide a heads up.
Read the following from Dailynews.com think about what they are saying from a patients and citizens point of view. The only really good news about Obamacare so far is that some number of Americans have health insurance they did not have before. The consequences of that and the rest of the law on the vast majority of Americans will not be known for many years, except if you are hit by the higher taxes, lower employer benefits and higher costs.
CBO said the 8 percent cut results largely from tighter cost controls by insurance companies offering plans on health care exchanges. Generally speaking, the plans offered on the exchanges pay health care providers less and have tighter management of patients’ treatment options, and that means lower premiums and taxpayer subsidies…
Medicaid adds almost $800 billion in costs over the decade. Overall, however, the health care law reduces the deficit because of tax hikes, penalties paid by people and businesses that forgo insurance, and curbs on Medicare.
The report also predicts that premiums won’t skyrocket next year as some fear. Insurance companies are no longer allowed to reject people for pre-existing health conditions. But CBO does say that premiums will rise moderately from an average of $3,800 in 2014 to an average of $3,900 for 2015, which would be good news for the Obama administration if the projections panned out.
Presumably CBO is talking about exchange premiums, but an increase in premiums overall of only 2.6% seems a real stretch given health care spending is starting to accelerate.
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