CVS Beats Wall Street Expectations, Plans to Withdraw From ACA Business

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Not even close. Uninsurance hit all-time lows, relative health care cost growth essentially stopped for more than a decade (which, needless to say, is unprecedented),

You're shifting the goalpost. That wasn't the stated goal.

Cumulative savings since 2010 have been several trillion dollars at this point. Divide that across family units however you like, it'll come out to be a decent number.

Which would be?

 

[Greenbeard]

You're shifting the goalpost. That wasn't the stated goal.

Expanding coverage, bending the cost curve, and improving care delivery/quality were definitely the goals.

Which would be?

Back of the envelope calculation puts the savings at about a cumulative $4 trillion from 2011 to 2023 (the most recent year for which final health spending data is available so far). Divided by 127 million household units, that's about $31,000. Or ~$2,400/household on average over that 13-year period.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Expanding coverage, bending the cost curve, and improving care delivery/quality were definitely the goals.



Back of the envelope calculation puts the savings at about a cumulative $4 trillion from 2011 to 2023 (the most recent year for which final health spending data is available so far). Divided by 127 million household units, that's about $31,000. Or ~$2,400/household on average over that 13-year period.

That wasn't the goal and the stated goal was not met.

Obameter: | PolitiFact

www.politifact.com

 

[EvilCat Breath]

After 15 years, might be time to reevaluate the "it was supposed to fail" thing.

It has been kept alive largely because Americans do not believe in killing others for financial gain. Criminals do, but Americans not so much.

 

[Greenbeard]

That wasn't the goal and the stated goal was not met.

Obameter: | PolitiFact

www.politifact.com

That's a 13-year-old article that basically says "it's too early to know what's going to happen."

Here in 2025, we know what happened. Health care cost growth fell to all-time lows, such that health care on average stopped growing as a share of the economy for the first sustained period ever. Saving trillions of dollars over the past decade and a half.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

That's a 13-year-old article that basically says "it's too early to know what's going to happen."

Here in 2025, we know what happened. Health care cost growth fell to all-time lows, such that health care on average stopped growing as a share of the economy for the first sustained period ever. Saving trillions of dollars over the past decade and a half.

Again, the promise wasn't to slow health care costs to an all-time low. Families were to see an IMMEDIATE decline of an average of $2500, which never materialized. Now, you're trying to claim they saw it over a 13-year period, which if true, wasn't the goal, and isn't possible seeing as how, as you just admitted, health care costs have continued to grow, even if they slowed. That would be paying MORE, not less.

How has U.S. spending on healthcare changed over time? - Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker

This chart collection explores National Health Expenditure (NHE) data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

www.healthsystemtracker.org

 

[Greenbeard]

Again, the promise wasn't to slow health care costs to an all-time low. Families were to see an IMMEDIATE decline of an average of $2500, which never materialized.

The goal was to bend the cost curve (i.e., slow the growth in costs over time)--the phrase was repeated ad nauseum. It's not as though even Obama didn't explain the concept contemporaneously, he did.

Remarks By The President In Town Hall On Health Care Grand Junction Colorado (August 15, 2009)

So what we want to do is to do this in Medicare and Medicaid, which will incentivize a lot of health systems around the country to start using some of the smart practices that you're using. Frankly, Medicare and Medicaid is -- they provide a lot of care for a lot of patients, particularly seniors, and so if they hear from Medicare, can you start doing things smarter, they have an incentive to do it, and once they put a smarter system in place, the benefits spill over to the private insurance market, as well. So we want to do it through Medicare and Medicaid, but we also want to see in the private insurance market that health providers start thinking smarter and providing better care, which often turns out to be lower-cost care.

Now, it's not going to happen overnight, because a lot of these systems have been put in place for a long time. And if you're in Grand Junction or Mayo Clinic or Geisinger or other of these really good health care systems, what they've done is each year they are continually comparing notes, they've got a peer review process where doctors are exchanging ideas, and they're continually making the system better and better, smarter and smarter, and over time what we can do is bend the cost curve so that instead of having inflation go up a lot faster on health care than everything else, it matches everything else.

And if we could do that, if we could just get health care inflation to match the inflation on food and other items, all of our deficit -- long-term deficit problems would be solved. Just that alone.

Here, as one prominent example from that era, is a Dec. 2009 brief whose lead author was the Obama campaign's health policy advisor and a co-author of the 2007 campaign memo that famous $2,500 number sources to: Why Health Reform Will Bend the Cost Curve. (Worth noting that as it turned out, actual health costs came in below what's projected in that brief--projections that were considered rosy at the time.)

It was all the rage back then. And after.

Now, you're trying to claim they saw it over a 13-year period, which if true, wasn't the goal, and isn't possible seeing as how, as you just admitted, health care costs have continued to grow, even if they slowed.

As long as health care is a service provided by humans earning wages and wages increase over time, the amount we spend on it is virtually always going to go up. The question of whether it continues to become more costly over time depends on how that spending grows relative to incomes and GDP (i.e., individuals' and society's ability to afford it).

In the decade-plus after the ACA passed, did per capita health spending rise faster than per capita personal income or GDP, as in the previous century or rising costs? Astonishingly, no. And breaking that streak saved a lot of money.

 

[debbiedowner]

It's all good. Trump is going to repeal ACA.

This is the repeal, lol

1. New Republican Bill in Congress re: ACA
2. Preserves popular ACA protections with added penalties to encourage continuous coverage: The proposed bill retains key Affordable Care Act provisions, such as the ban on medical underwriting that prevents insurers from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions. However, it introduces a 20% late-enrollment penalty for individuals who sign up without prior coverage for at least 12 months, aiming to discourage people from waiting until they become ill to purchase insurance and promoting continuous enrollment in health plans.
3. Expands state flexibility and introduces Roth HSAs for broader coverage options: The bill promotes greater state-level innovation by supporting the creation of association health plans and high-risk pools to help cover individuals with significant health risks. It also proposes replacing current tax-deductible Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) with "Roth HSAs," which would allow consumers to contribute after-tax income in exchange for the ability to pair the account with lower-deductible, more flexible health insurance plans—potentially broadening access to more affordable coverage.

 

[dblack]

This is the repeal, lol

1. New Republican Bill in Congress re: ACA
2. Preserves popular ACA protections with added penalties to encourage continuous coverage: The proposed bill retains key Affordable Care Act provisions, such as the ban on medical underwriting that prevents insurers from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions. However, it introduces a 20% late-enrollment penalty for individuals who sign up without prior coverage for at least 12 months, aiming to discourage people from waiting until they become ill to purchase insurance and promoting continuous enrollment in health plans.
3. Expands state flexibility and introduces Roth HSAs for broader coverage options: The bill promotes greater state-level innovation by supporting the creation of association health plans and high-risk pools to help cover individuals with significant health risks. It also proposes replacing current tax-deductible Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) with "Roth HSAs," which would allow consumers to contribute after-tax income in exchange for the ability to pair the account with lower-deductible, more flexible health insurance plans—potentially broadening access to more affordable coverage.

Where did you get that?

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

Trump supports ACA and SS.

 

[dblack]

Trump supports ACA and SS.

He'll put the mandate back in there. He'll try to pass if off as something else, but the insurance lobby wants it. It'll happen.

 

[debbiedowner]

Where did you get that?

I don't believe it's actually a bill yet but being considered. It on insurance forums. It probably will soon be on Becker's Payer or Becker's Hospital news letters that keeps up with the healthcare and insurance industry and really dam reliable.

 

[marvin martian]

Trump supports ACA and SS.

And you don't? Or, are you with Trump on this?

 

[debbiedowner]

He'll put the mandate back in there. He'll try to pass if off as something else, but the insurance lobby wants it. It'll happen.

Maybe, but doubtful.

If what I posted does become reality you have a penalty if:

20% late-enrollment penalty for individuals who sign up without prior coverage for at least 12 months, aiming to discourage people from waiting until they become ill to purchase insurance and promoting continuous enrollment in health plans.

 

[Anathema]

Too many Americans eat junk food and abuse drugs and alcohol. Eat healthy and exercise.

And die anyway. I’d rather enjoy a 60 year lifespan than live 90 doing the “right” things.