
The new line is that the health-care law will save money. That's also not true.
Supporters of President Obama are working overtime to backtrack from his promise that "If you
like your health-care insurance, you can keep it. Period." While the
president has conceded that this statement was inaccurate, the
administration doesn't seem to have learned its lesson. The damage
control plan is to spread another falsehood about the Affordable Care Act.
The
claim this time is that the health-care "cost curve is bending, and the
ACA is a significant part of the reason." That was what David Cutler—an influential Harvard economist and senior health-care adviser
in Mr. Obama's 2008 presidential campaign—wrote in a Washington Post
op-ed on Nov. 10.
The president
jumped on this theme in his press conference on Nov. 14. "I'm not going
to walk away from something that has helped the cost of health care grow
at its slowest rate in 50 years," he said. On Wednesday, the White
House Council of Economic Advisers published a report claiming that "the
ACA is contributing to the recent slow growth in health care prices and
spending."
These assertions border on nonsense.
National
spending on health care is projected to reach a record $2.9 trillion in
2013, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This
is more than 25% above pre-recession spending levels in 2007.
Health-care expenditures per capita and as a percentage of GDP are also
at record highs, expected to top out this year at $9,216 and 18%
respectively.
The only apparent bright
spot is that the average annual rate of health-care spending increases
has slowed. Over the past three years, growth in health-care spending
averaged 3.9% year-over-year, considerably slower than the historical
average.
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