The government’s Medicare actuaries determined that national health spending would increase under ObamaCare, with families paying an average of $265 more annually. This is assuming Congress allows hundred of billions in Medicare spending cuts to be enacted, which they have consistently voted to repeal. “Factoring in the law, Americans will spend an average of $13,652 per person a year on health care in 2019, according to the actuary’s office. Without the law, the corresponding number would be $13,387. That works out to $265 more with the overhaul. The big picture numbers are $4.6 trillion with the overhaul in 2019, and $4.5 trillion without it. The nation will spend $2.6 trillion on health care this year.”
“Actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported today in Health Affairs that overall health spending will constitute 20 percent of the economy by 2019, up from 17 percent now. An Associated Press article about the report says that ‘factoring in the law, Americans will spend an average of $13,652 per person a year on health care in 2019. . . . Without the law, the corresponding number would be $13,387. That works out to $265 more with the overhaul.’That hardly ‘bends the cost curve down,’ as Mr. Obama and his allies in Congress repeatedly promised the law would do. And it does not take the burden of rising health-care costs off the backs of struggling consumers or businesses — again, as they promised.”
ObamaCare’s new mandates and regulations are causing insurers to significantly raise premiums or drop out of the market and cancel existing policies. This directly contradicts promises by supporters that if you like your plan, you can keep your plan. “In the letter sent to the Alcantaras and other customers, Grand Prairie-based National Health Insurance Co. said it could no longer offer individual accident and health insurance policies. It blamed its decision on the company’s inability to meet requirements of the health care overhaul signed into law this year.”
ObamaCare was supposed to have “bent the cost curve” and lowered health spending in family budgets and the federal budget. But it does nothing to lower costs, and Instead the huge new government program will accelerate spending growth.
“Health insurers say they plan to raise premiums for some Americans as a direct result of the health overhaul in coming weeks, complicating Democrats’ efforts to trumpet their signature achievement before the midterm elections. Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1% and 9% to pay for extra benefits required under the law, according to filings with state regulators. These and other insurers say Congress’s landmark refashioning of U.S. health coverage, which passed in March after a brutal fight, is causing them to pass on more costs to consumers than Democrats predicted.”
“As part of the run up to the November elections, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, has established an “action arm” to push for repeal. Much of the focus involves tapping into what it perceives is significant grassroots backing. The group has enlisted the help of 74 conservative organizations to talk to lawmakers. The effort, which is being led by Michael Needham, also has a form letter available on its website for voters to send to their representatives in Congress. The ultimate goal is to have lawmakers vote up or down on repealing the health reform law. With 170 Republican signatures currently on a discharge petition to bring a repeal bill to the House floor – 218 is the necessary number – Heritage Action is now eyeing Democrats who voted against passage of the health law. And, despite the long odds against repealing the law anytime soon, Needham says the prospects of success are good, even if it takes another four years and a new Congress.”
“To counter this election-year ruse, my colleagues and I at Docs4PatientCare are enlisting thousands of doctors in an unorthodox and unprecedented action. Our patients have always expected a certain standard of care from their doctors, which includes providing them with pertinent information that may affect their quality of life. Because the issue this election is so stark—literally life and death for millions of Americans in the years ahead—we are this week posting a ‘Dear Patient’ letter in our waiting rooms.”
Despite a summer-long campaign from ObamaCare supporters, their own polling demonstrates the public is still opposed to the new law. “The August Health Tracking Poll finds that support for health reform fell over the course of August, dipping from a 50 percent favorability rating in July to 43 percent, while 45 percent of the public reported unfavorable views.”
“They now understand that the public has not, and will not, buy the argument that a government takeover of American health care will somehow lower costs. Americans have long understood that Obamacare is a massive new spending commitment, piled on top of the unaffordable ones already on the federal books. That’s a recipe for financial disaster, not deficit cutting. The solution is repeal coupled with a reform that puts consumers, not the government, in charge of controlling costs. That’s the way to fix health care — and the budget too. And, yes, it can be done.”
“The notion that ‘if you like your health plan you can keep it’ under Obamacare has already been proven a lie. Just ask the 200,000 Massachusetts residents enrolled in Medicare Advantage who will be forced to switch, with the elimination of that popular program. Now a new analysis by a private research firm estimates that more than 3 million Medicare beneficiaries nationwide will be forced to find a new prescription drug plan, thanks to an expected culling of the plans offered in each state. Gee, nobody mentioned that!”