Healthcare costs are dropping, not rising, thanks to Obamacare.

[LogikAndReazon]

That statement is pure delusional idiocy........

 

[tjvh]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/business/slowdown-in-rise-of-health-care-costs-may-persist.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1368015220-dbH/6LXDiR17SSVANZi/PA&

WASHINGTON — One of the economic mysteries of the last few years has been the bigger-than-expected slowdown in health spending, a trend that promises to bolster wages and help close the wide federal deficit over the long term — but only if it persists.

Major new studies from researchers at Harvard University, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and elsewhere have concurred that at least some of the slowdown is unrelated to the recession, and might persist as the economy recovers. David M. Cutler, the Harvard health economist and former Obama adviser, estimates that, given the dynamics of the slowdown, economists might be overestimating public health spending over the next decade by as much as $770 billion.
=====================================================

Thank you Obama, thank you Democrats, thank you liberals.

Conservatives, Republicans, Tea Partiers, Libertartians, thanks for nothing. You were no help at all. Your hostility to the sick and the poor and the elderly shocks most Americans.

And your predictions of skyrocketing costs was baloney. Weren't you guys already wrong enough on WMD in Iraq, or the recession that was supposed to follow Clinton's tax increases in the 1990s? You have to continue being wrong on other issues too?

Tell you what, Conservatives. Just let us know what will happen in the future so we can prepare for the exact opposite thing happening in future.

I guess you wouldn't know about the rising costs of health care, being on public assistance and all.

 

[Pete7469]

As of Jan my premiums went up $40 a month.

If you think obamacare is going to make anything better, you probably enjoy standing in lines at the social security office and DMV.

 

[Greenbeard]

Not dropping (deflation in the health sector isn't particularly likely or desirable), just experiencing the slowest health care price inflation since 1998 (virtually the only time in the last half century that the cost curve actually bent), the slowest health spending growth in the 52 years that data has been tracked, and the lowest group health insurance premium increases since, again, 1998 according to Mercer. We've also seen literally hundreds of billions of dollars of Medicare and Medicaid obligations melt away over the next few years as health cost growth has slowed--Medicare per beneficiary cost growth last year was nearly zero.

Indeed, every time the CBO updates its budget numbers it has to lower the price tag for Medicare, improving the deficit picture. Including this week in its updated projections:

In particular, additional data on spending in 2013 caused CBO to reduce projected spending by about 1 percent for Medicare benefits this year and over the 2014–2023 period.

Compared with amounts in the February 2013 baseline, estimated spending for Medicare benefits over the 2014–2023 period is lower for all major components of the program—Part A (hospital insurance), Part B (medical insurance), and Part D (outpatient prescription drug
benefits).

Or put simply:

The reductions in CBO’s projections of spending for Medicare and Medicaid continue a recent trend. During the past several years, health care spending has grown much more slowly both nationally and for federal programs than it did historically and more slowly than CBO had projected. As a result, in 2012, federal spending for Medicare and Medicaid was about 5 percent below the amount that CBO had estimated in March 2010. In response to the observed slowdown, CBO has made a series of downward adjustments to its projections of spending for Medicare and Medicaid. From the March 2010 baseline to the current baseline, CBO has lowered its estimates of federal spending for the two programs in 2020 for technical reasons by about $225 billion—in particular, by $138 billion for Medicare and by $89 billion for Medicaid—or by roughly 15 percent for each program. Those reductions mostly reflect the slower growth in the programs’ spending in recent years.

 

[Rozman]

I now have to pay a deductible for prescriptions. $125.00 per year.
I now have to pay more for prescriptions in addition to having to pay the deductible.
I now have to pay more for office visits to my Doctor's office.
I now have to pay more for procedures done at the Doctor's office...

And am I supposed to thank Obama....

I think I will pass on that

 

[francoHFW]

Obamacare hasn't started yet, chump. Costs went up 13%/year on average under Bush- prices aren't going to go down, just rise more slowly, DUH.

 

[squeeze berry]

Obamacare hasn't started yet, chump. Costs went up 13%/year on average under Bush- prices aren't going to go down, just rise more slowly, DUH.

wanna take this up with an actual HC professional?

 

[Papageorgio]

Health care lower during a recession? Who would have thought?

Also insurance has gone up while medical cost go down. Looks like insurance companies come out the winner, while the middle class pays more.

Thanks Obama and your mindless democrats.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Obamacare hasn't started yet, chump. Costs went up 13%/year on average under Bush- prices aren't going to go down, just rise more slowly, DUH.

is the "chump" the guy who started the thread?......co-pay for a Colonoscopy went up $200 bucks in a year.....thats a slow rise?.....

 

[Crackerjaxon]

Let me know when insurance premiums fall.

Who will pay higher premiums under Obamacare? Young men - May. 14, 2013

Let me know when they ever fell. But the ACA will help bring insurers and providers to heel on their decades-long, indefensible price increases.

Sure they will.

Oh yeah.

 

[francoHFW]

Obamacare hasn't started yet, chump. Costs went up 13%/year on average under Bush- prices aren't going to go down, just rise more slowly, DUH.

wanna take this up with an actual HC professional?

There are more Pub dupes in HC than anywhere else lol, especially administrators and doctors...the longer O-care is on, the more the cost curve will bend down. The only cost cutting so far is the % they must spend on care, and the beginnings of the fraud investigators and online cost transparency...

 

[LeftofLeft]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/business/slowdown-in-rise-of-health-care-costs-may-persist.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1368015220-dbH/6LXDiR17SSVANZi/PA&

WASHINGTON — One of the economic mysteries of the last few years has been the bigger-than-expected slowdown in health spending, a trend that promises to bolster wages and help close the wide federal deficit over the long term — but only if it persists.

Major new studies from researchers at Harvard University, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and elsewhere have concurred that at least some of the slowdown is unrelated to the recession, and might persist as the economy recovers. David M. Cutler, the Harvard health economist and former Obama adviser, estimates that, given the dynamics of the slowdown, economists might be overestimating public health spending over the next decade by as much as $770 billion.
=====================================================

Thank you Obama, thank you Democrats, thank you liberals.

Conservatives, Republicans, Tea Partiers, Libertartians, thanks for nothing. You were no help at all. Your hostility to the sick and the poor and the elderly shocks most Americans.

And your predictions of skyrocketing costs was baloney. Weren't you guys already wrong enough on WMD in Iraq, or the recession that was supposed to follow Clinton's tax increases in the 1990s? You have to continue being wrong on other issues too?

Tell you what, Conservatives. Just let us know what will happen in the future so we can prepare for the exact opposite thing happening in future.

The problem with you economic/insurance ignorant people is this:
Obamacare’s insurance exchanges were originally designed to subsidize the purchase of regulated, private-sector insurance for those with incomes between 138 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level: based on 2012 guidelines, that amounts to between $31,809 to $92,200 for a family of four.

Insurance Analysts: Obamacare to Increase Out-of-Pocket Premium Costs, Despite Lavish Subsidies - Forbes

AND the problem was NEVER the 18 million people under age 34 making $50k/year but didn't want or NEED insurance but the FACT they will NOW be paying
MORE in forced insurance then they WANTED! ALL because idiots like you won't admit that your masters the Lawyers cause $850 billion a year in wasted duplicate tests out of FEAR of lawsuits!
Of all the people you defend millionaire lawyers could have been taxed LIKE tanning salons 10% and that $20 billion a year would fund an insurance program for
the truly 4 million Uninsured ! When these 4 million go into hospitals and are taking care under EMTALA (A term YOU have NO idea which shows your total ignorance!)
the uninsured is registered and all claims of service sent to this insurance program funded by the $20 billion!
NO MASSIVE interference with existing insurance programs. NO disruptions corrections,etc. of 1/6th the GDP!
BUT idiots like you totally ignorant of how health insurance etc. works you think that's the issue!
Stupid!!!

Wow, what a rant. Almost unreadable.

What did the poor who need medical care do to you to make you so angry at them?

Anytime you throw government stats and economic principals into the mix, Liberals call it a rant.

 

[healthmyths]

Why has this not been moved to healthcare???
Is there bias on the message board monitors part????

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/business/slowdown-in-rise-of-health-care-costs-may-persist.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1368015220-dbH/6LXDiR17SSVANZi/PA&

WASHINGTON — One of the economic mysteries of the last few years has been the bigger-than-expected slowdown in health spending, a trend that promises to bolster wages and help close the wide federal deficit over the long term — but only if it persists.

Major new studies from researchers at Harvard University, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and elsewhere have concurred that at least some of the slowdown is unrelated to the recession, and might persist as the economy recovers. David M. Cutler, the Harvard health economist and former Obama adviser, estimates that, given the dynamics of the slowdown, economists might be overestimating public health spending over the next decade by as much as $770 billion.
=====================================================

Thank you Obama, thank you Democrats, thank you liberals.

Conservatives, Republicans, Tea Partiers, Libertartians, thanks for nothing. You were no help at all. Your hostility to the sick and the poor and the elderly shocks most Americans.

And your predictions of skyrocketing costs was baloney. Weren't you guys already wrong enough on WMD in Iraq, or the recession that was supposed to follow Clinton's tax increases in the 1990s? You have to continue being wrong on other issues too?

Tell you what, Conservatives. Just let us know what will happen in the future so we can prepare for the exact opposite thing happening in future.

Tell me something, fat ass. What does this have to do with ObamaCare??

Economists concur that the deep recession and sluggish recovery are the main reasons for slowing growth in spending. During the recession, millions of Americans lost their jobs, and thus their insurance coverage; millions more struggling families were reluctant to see a physician or undergo a procedure. But the slowdown in health costs proved steeper than forecast. It also occurred in populations whose health spending was mostly sheltered from the economic gyrations, like Medicare patients.

That led economists to surmise that other factors were at play. In new research, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that the recession accounted for about three-quarters of the lower spending trajectory, with the rest attributed to other factors not directly related to the economy. Professor Cutler of Harvard calculates that the recession accounted for about 37 percent.

Among other factors, the studies found that rising out-of-pocket payments had played a major role in the decline. The proportion of workers with employer-sponsored health insurance enrolled in a plan that required a deductible climbed to about three-quarters in 2012 from about half in 2006, the Kaiser Family Foundation has found. Moreover, those deductibles — the amount a person needs to pay before insurance steps in to cover claims — have risen sharply. That exposes workers to a larger share of their own health costs, and generally forces them to spend less.

 

[April]

Moved

 

[Greenbeard]

Tell me something, fat ass. What does this have to do with ObamaCare??

In short, things are beginning to change.

Early responses to the Affordable Care Act may have contributed to the decline in per enrollee spending since 2010 (Kronick and Po 2013). Relevant provisions of the law include provisions intended to foster coordinated care, improve primary care, reduce preventable health complications during hospitalizations, and promote the adoption of health information technology.

The decline in the hospital readmission rate, coinciding with the introduction of the Partnership for Patients program in 2011, also may point to early effects of the Affordable Care Act on spending. The Act’s Medicare hospital readmissions reduction program, introduced in October 2012, should reinforce these effects. Likewise, infrastructure investments and care process changes, either funded directly by the Affordable Care Act or stimulated through the Affordable Care Act’s payment reform, are other possible sources for the recent declines in spending growth.

In addition, spending declines may reflect early changes in medical care delivery made in anticipation of impending Medicare payment reform. The Affordable Care Act moves providers towards savings-based payment models in Medicare that encourage improved coordination of care. Hospitals seeking new ways to reduce costs and increase bargaining power with suppliers and insurers may respond by consolidating their operations. Recent years have seen a continued consolidation and integration of physicians into provider networks.

If there's a path toward sustaining for the long haul what's been achieved, this is it.

 

[lynn63]

High deductibles is the main driver for reduced spending in healthcare. 78% of employee covered healthplans now have high deductibles. The reduced spending for medicaid is due to the fact that 90% are capitated which is a fixed amount paid for each member regardless of what they may rack up in medical fees.
Yeah the ACA will now cover most with getting them enrolled in healthcare coverage but most still will not be able to afford to use it.

 

[Wyatt earp]

High deductibles is the main driver for reduced spending in healthcare. 78% of employee covered healthplans now have high deductibles. The reduced spending for medicaid is due to the fact that 90% are capitated which is a fixed amount paid for each member regardless of what they may rack up in medical fees.
Yeah the ACA will now cover most with getting them enrolled in healthcare coverage but most still will not be able to afford to use it.

great point....glad you posted it in this thread.

 

[Greenbeard]

High deductibles is the main driver for reduced spending in healthcare.

That's part of it, but it doesn't explain the bulk of the slowdown. For instance, see The Slowdown In Health Care Spending In 2009–11 Reflected Factors Other Than The Weak Economy And Thus May Persist in this month's Health Affairs (an issue dedicated entirely to costs and exploring the slowdown).

Cost sharing as measured by out-of-pocket payments rose during the study period, and the rate of decline in generosity increased in 2010 (Exhibit 2). Our observed acceleration of growth in out-of-pocket payments in that year, with a subsequent deceleration of overall out-of-pocket payment growth in 2011, was consistent with the findings of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2012 annual survey of employer health benefits and the Health Care Cost Institute’s cost and utilization reports.

However, even when we held benefit generosity constant, the pattern of spending growth in large firms remained the same: no slowdown in 2008 and 2009, a rapid slowdown in 2010, and a slight acceleration of growth in 2011. But the magnitude of spending growth was affected by increasing out-of-pocket spending: When we did not adjust for changes in out-of-pocket spending, overall spending growth fell to 1.4 percent in 2010 and 2.13 percent in 2011 (Exhibit 3). The corresponding figures when we held out-of-pocket spending constant were 2.5 percent in 2010 and 3.0 percent in 2011.

These differences suggest that a change in benefit design that resulted in higher out-of-pocket expenses for enrollees partially accounted for slower spending growth. However, even when the effects of benefit design were removed, spending growth still fell substantially.

We could not determine whether the decline in benefit generosity was a result of the recession or of other factors, such as a long-term trend toward less generous benefits. However, at some point, benefit generosity is likely to stabilize, either because of unwillingness on the part of employees to accept worse coverage or because of the Affordable Care Act’s actuarial value rules, which limit insurers’ ability to shift costs to patients.18 If generosity stabilizes, spending growth may rise again. Yet even when we held out-of-pocket spending constant, we found that spending growth in 2010 and 2011 was much slower than earlier in the decade. This slowdown may be a reflection of broader trends toward slower diffusion of technology or more fiscally conservative practice patterns by health care providers.

In other words, if you want to put all your eggs in the increased cost-sharing basket (through changes in benefit designs or coverage lost during the recession), you're still left having to explain the blue line:

Something else is going on.

 

[Wyatt earp]

yea people not going to the doctor because they dont want to pay the high premuims. I swear this is just another example of the Democrat policy of trickle down "fuck you in the ass" poor.