Obama's health care law would raise deficit

[Nova78]

Study: Obama's health care law would raise deficit | Comcast

Reigniting a debate about the bottom line for President Barack Obama's health care law, a leading conservative economist estimates in a study to be released Tuesday that the overhaul will add at least $340 billion to the deficit, not reduce it.
Charles Blahous, who serves as public trustee overseeing Medicare and Social Security finances, also suggested that federal accounting practices have obscured the true fiscal impact of the legislation, the fate of which is now in the hands of the Supreme Court.

Officially, the health care law is still projected to help reduce government red ink. The Congressional Budget Office, the government's nonpartisan fiscal umpire, said in an estimate last year that repealing the law actually would increase deficits by $210 billion from 2012 to 2021.

The CBO, however, has not updated that projection. If $210 billion sounds like a big cushion, it's not. The government has recently been running annual deficits in the $1 trillion range.

The White house dismissed the study in a statement late Monday. Presidential assistant Jeanne Lambrew called the study "new math (that) fits the old pattern of mischaracterizations" about the health care law.

Blahous, in his 52-page analysis released by George Mason University's Mercatus Center, said, Taken as a whole, the enactment of the (health care law) has substantially worsened a dire federal fiscal outlook.

Wonder how long before United States goes the way of Greece ?

 

[starcraftzzz]

ROTFL so Republicans claim Obaamcare will raise the deficit because they decide that half the deficit reducing measures in Obamacare shouldn't be counted. Its nice to know that the Oringal poster is a gullible dumbass

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Screw dem Hispexicans - let `em buy their own health insurance...

Millions still uncovered with health law expansion
5/23/12 - Advocates say it may be increasingly difficult to care for the undocumented.

The health law, if upheld by the Supreme Court, will help up to 33 million Americans get coverage over the next decade. Around 26 million to 27 million will remain uncovered. And roughly one in four of the uninsured will be illegal immigrants, the Urban Institute has estimated. And as more tax dollars go toward subsidizing low- and middle-income Americans so they can get health coverage, advocates for immigrants say it may be increasingly difficult to care for the undocumented, who are excluded from the law’s coverage expansion and the new insurance exchanges.

A few communities are testing solutions. In Los Angeles, a nonprofit clinic and a restaurant workers’ group this month announced a cooperative to provide low-cost primary and preventive care. Washington officials this month voted to spare a health insurance pool for illegal immigrants from the budget chopping block. But those are exceptions. In many communities, advocates for immigrants fear that access to care will erode. And debates about preserving, let alone strengthening, the safety net for the undocumented can be divisive.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, opposes a push to insure the undocumented. The whole debate, he said, reminds him of the fights about whether to give undocumented immigrants driver’s licenses. “It has the consequence of sending a very clear and explicit message,” he said. “They’re not really that illegal.” Sonal Ambegaokar, a health policy attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, worries that even if illegal immigrants can get emergency care, it’s going to get tougher to get follow-up or preventive care. “I think the instinct is to just restrict, to further restrict what’s available for undocumented immigrants,” she said.

Under the health law, hospitals that treat a disproportionate share of uninsured people will see federal payments for that care shrink. But they will still be required by law to provide emergency treatment to anyone who needs it. Community clinics won a five-year $11 billion infusion in the Affordable Care Act, in addition to $2 billion in the 2009 stimulus law, to expand care in medically underserved communities. But they can’t plug all the gaps in the system. And primary-care doctors, already overstretched in many regions, will be absorbing millions of newly insured patients. “It’s just going to be really hard,” said Doug Curran, a primary-care physician in private practice in Athens, Texas. “We’re taking care of them now,” he said of the uninsured and undocumented. “I think we’re going to be busier. I think we’re just going to have to step up and do more.”

Read more: Millions still uncovered with health law expansion - Kyle Cheney - POLITICO.com

See also:

Real federal deficit dwarfs official tally; Four times higher
18 May`12 - The typical American household would have paid nearly all of its income in taxes last year to balance the budget if the government used standard accounting rules to compute the deficit, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Under those accounting practices, the government ran red ink last year equal to $42,054 per household — nearly four times the official number reported under unique rules set by Congress. A U.S. household's median income is $49,445, the Census reports. The big difference between the official deficit and standard accounting: Congress exempts itself from including the cost of promised retirement benefits. Yet companies, states and local governments must include retirement commitments in financial statements, as required by federal law and private boards that set accounting rules.

The deficit was $5 trillion last year under those rules. The official number was $1.3 trillion. Liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other retirement programs rose by $3.7 trillion in 2011, according to government actuaries, but the amount was not registered on the government's books. Deficits are a major issue in this year's presidential campaign, but USA TODAY has calculated federal finances under accounting rules since 2004 and found no correlation between fluctuations in the deficit and which party ran Congress or the White House.

Key findings:

•Social Security had the biggest financial slide. The government would need $22.2 trillion today, set aside and earning interest, to cover benefits promised to current workers and retirees beyond what taxes will cover. That's $9.5 trillion more than was needed in 2004.

•Deficits from 2004 to 2011 would be six times the official total of $5.6 trillion reported.

•Federal debt and retiree commitments equal $561,254 per household. By contrast, an average household owes a combined $116,057 for mortgages, car loans and other debts.

"By law, the federal government can't tell the truth," says accountant Sheila Weinberg of the Chicago-based Institute for Truth in Accounting.

Jim Horney, a former Senate budget staff expert now at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, says retirement programs should not count as part of the deficit because, unlike a business, Congress can change what it owes by cutting benefits or lifting taxes. "It's not easy, but it can be done. Retirement programs are not legal obligations," he says.

Source

 

[francoHFW]

To review-Congratulations to deluded dupes for continuing to cut off their noses to spite their face...OH noze, not affordable guaranteed care and starting to control costs. Keep supporting greedy Big health, whose costs doubled just under Booosh (like Public college). Read something positive, not Pub propaganda...

As for illegals, pass the Schumer/not Graham anymore Bill. As it is, most will be signed up at work, where 65% already pay taxes.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Study: Obama's health care law would raise deficit | Comcast

Reigniting a debate about the bottom line for President Barack Obama's health care law, a leading conservative economist estimates in a study to be released Tuesday that the overhaul will add at least $340 billion to the deficit, not reduce it.
Charles Blahous, who serves as public trustee overseeing Medicare and Social Security finances, also suggested that federal accounting practices have obscured the true fiscal impact of the legislation, the fate of which is now in the hands of the Supreme Court.

Officially, the health care law is still projected to help reduce government red ink. The Congressional Budget Office, the government's nonpartisan fiscal umpire, said in an estimate last year that repealing the law actually would increase deficits by $210 billion from 2012 to 2021.

The CBO, however, has not updated that projection. If $210 billion sounds like a big cushion, it's not. The government has recently been running annual deficits in the $1 trillion range.

The White house dismissed the study in a statement late Monday. Presidential assistant Jeanne Lambrew called the study "new math (that) fits the old pattern of mischaracterizations" about the health care law.

Blahous, in his 52-page analysis released by George Mason University's Mercatus Center, said, Taken as a whole, the enactment of the (health care law) has substantially worsened a dire federal fiscal outlook.

Wonder how long before United States goes the way of Greece ?

1. With each passing year new taxes will be imposed. As disclosed on the attached chart from the
California Hospital Association:
• 2011: A 2.5% excise tax is imposed on pharmaceuticals. (This is part of the plan to pay for the
reform law.) This cost – which will be in the billions of dollars - will be passed on to health care
providers, primarily hospitals, who already operate with very thin margins, and will be under
great financial pressure to raise their rates to pay for it, with resulting price pressure on health
insurance premiums.
• 2012: That excise tax increases to 3%.
• 2013: A separate 2.9% excise tax on medical devices will begin. The same pass-through will take
place, creating the same pressures on providers and on insurance premiums.
• 2014: An $8 billion fee on health insurance premiums kicks in. Obviously consumers will bear
this tax and their premiums will rise.
Because of all these costs, Obamacare is generally unsustainable. Here is one study that addresses that
issue:
Obamacare: The Real Price Tag is a Moving Target


2. ObamaCare reduces the number of tax-paying Americans while increasing unemployment and adding to the personal and government costs of providing medical insurance. It’s not just the 800,000 fewer workers seeking jobs under ObamaCare, as the CBO Director admitted last week to Congress, because the law will reduce “the propensity to work” in order to get medical insurance. With subsidized guaranteed issue of medical insurance, there will be less incentive to find a job with benefits. At the same time, medical insurance premiums will increase for all as ObamaCare’s guarantee issue creates an incentive to wait until ill to obtain insurance. Review & Outlook: 800,000 Fewer Workers - WSJ.com

 

[PoliticalChic]

To review-Congratulations to deluded dupes for continuing to cut off their noses to spite their face...OH noze, not affordable guaranteed care and starting to control costs. Keep supporting greedy Big health, whose costs doubled just under Booosh (like Public college). Read something positive, not Pub propaganda...

As for illegals, pass the Schumer/not Graham anymore Bill. As it is, most will be signed up at work, where 65% already pay taxes.

"...starting to control costs."


In a galaxy of franco posts...this is one of the most franco.

fran-ko
Adjective:
Lacking intelligence or common sense.