“The most noteworthy characteristic of the new law is that it is the largest entitlement expansion since the 1960s… How then does a new law which increases spending by nearly $1 trillion over the period 2010 to 2019 reduce the federal deficit (by about $130 billion over ten years according to the Congressional Budget Office and by a modest amount in the decade after that)? The only way is by raising taxes and cutting spending by amounts in excess of the new spending commitments. According CBO’s estimate of the final legislation, spending reductions will bring the net increase in spending down to about $430 billion over the next decade. The tax hike to pay for this spending will total about $560 billion over the same period.”
“Compared to last year’s report, the new CBO figures predict faster growth of healthcare spending in terms of GDP. The 2010 outlook predicted healthcare spending in 2020 would represent 6.8 percent of the GDP… The CBO report also projects faster growth in Medicaid enrollment in light of the healthcare reform law. The 2010 report projected that 76 million people will be enrolled in Medicaid in 2020, while the new report predicts the number will be closer to 97 million in 2021.”
“It will become clearer in the next few years that the costs and revenues of health reform are seriously out of whack, even if the new reform law survives repeal efforts. Exploding deficits and debt will force huge strategy changes and a choice between three politically difficult roads.”
“If Congress is serious about reducing the deficit and controlling spending, lawmakers should set aside easily manipulated rules like PAYGO and require scoring that reveals the true long-term impact of legislation. This would make it more difficult for legislation like PPACA, which increases the size of government and creates unsustainable new spending, to become law. To reduce the deficit, PPACA must be repealed.”
“The problem is that the board is prohibited by law from proposing real structural reforms. The only cuts it is allowed to make would be cutting providers’ reimbursements—including administrative costs and profit margins of Medicare Advantage plans, which are already slated for a payment freeze and future cuts under the new law.”
“Roughly half of the anticipated gains in insurance coverage from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) are achieved through a massive expansion of Medicaid, the joint federal–state health insurance program for the poor. The Medicaid program, with its soaring price tag and dubious level of care for recipients, is in serious need of reform, not expansion. Increasing enrollment in this program by a third is a major flaw of the new health care law.”
“If liberals and Democrats want to make the fight over Obamacare about taxes, spending, and the budget deficit, Republicans should allow them to do so. The public has already taken sides in this fight. Taxpaying Americans are never going to be convinced that the government has found a way to give away new benefits to millions of people, with no cost to them or anyone else.”
“In the congressional floor debate leading up to the repeal vote, Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) highlighted a point that has generally gone under the radar: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that Obamacare would increase the national debt. The CBO writes that, by the end of 2019 alone, Obamacare ‘would amount to a net increase in federal deficits of $226 billion.’ Elsewhere, in a conclusion that only the truly credulous could accept, the CBO says that Obamacare would decrease deficits. But, as the CBO notes, that’s before ‘factoring in that the [Medicare Hospital Insurance] trust fund would hold more than $358 billion of additional government debt by the end of 2019 compared with its holdings under current law.'”
“The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is an impediment
to economic growth and federal fiscal balance, threatening
nearly 700,000 jobs and increasing the deficit by nearly
$300 billion in the near term. At a time when too many
Americans remain unemployed and the country faces a
daunting budgetary outlook, alternative approaches to
health care reform would be preferable.”
“When assumptions are broadened to include more realistic scenarios, it’s clear that, despite the CBO calculations, the health care law is a costly entitlement that America cannot afford. Repealing the law would shrink the deficit, not increase it.”