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

[Greenbeard]

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.

Cost-sharing refers to what you have to pay out of pocket when you access services (e.g. co-pays, deductibles, co-insurance). That's what we were just talking about and those are what can potentially discourage utilization. Premiums are paid regardless of whether you use a service so they matter less in figuring out whether you want to access a benefit.

And before you suggest that perhaps it has to do with people losing coverage, we've actually seen uninsurance start to decline over this period, reversing a trend.

The closely-watched census report found that 48.6 million Americans were uninsured during all of 2011, compared to 49.9 million in 2010. The rate of uninsured dropped to 15.7 percent from 16.3 percent, the biggest percentage drop since 1999.

 

[lynn63]

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.

During your time frame, the federal government reduced funding to states for their Medicaid and other health funding so many of these states had to reduce their medicaid members population and/or benefits.

 

[Greenbeard]

During your time frame, the federal government reduced funding to states for their Medicaid and other health funding so many of these states had to reduce their medicaid members population and/or benefits.

Both the stimulus and subsequently the ACA contained maintenance of effort requirements, preventing states from narrowing eligibility standards to cull the Medicaid rolls.

 

[Smilodonfatalis]

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.

really?......my co-pay for a Colonscopy was $50 last year.....this year $250.....my co-pay for an office visit has doubled.....

What kind of hypochondriac gets a colonoscopy?

Sticking a camera up your ass is worse than cancer.

 

[Smilodonfatalis]

BTW, having to pay $250 for a colonoscopy seems reasonable, if you actually want one.

 

[Political Junky]

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.

really?......my co-pay for a Colonscopy was $50 last year.....this year $250.....my co-pay for an office visit has doubled.....

What kind of hypochondriac gets a colonoscopy?

Sticking a camera up your ass is worse than cancer.

Folks battling colon cancer would differ with you.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

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.

The only way to bring down the cost of health care is for you and I, the consumers, to bear more of the burden of its cost. We've had third parties picking up the tab for far too long and that has taken the free market out of the equation, thus contributing to the massive rise in costs.

 

[lynn63]

If people really want to know the real cost of healthcare, get all of the fee schedules of Medicare, Medicaid and all of the other health insurance companies and compare them to each other. Then review the average charges the medical providers charge and you will be shocked!

The mark up is off the chart and it doesn't make sense if everyone is now forced to buy coverage. The reimbursement levels are so low that you soon realize that high costs is an illusion to fool the public. People would fight for lower premiums with less out of pocket costs if they only knew what the real costs were in healthcare.

This is the biggest scam on the public and it should be criminal!

 

[LoneLaugher]

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.

really?......my co-pay for a Colonscopy was $50 last year.....this year $250.....my co-pay for an office visit has doubled.....

What kind of hypochondriac gets a colonoscopy?

Sticking a camera up your ass is worse than cancer.

Now this is one brilliant dude.