Dan, that House Budget Committee hearing you cite below was a great example of the power of getting the facts out—a power House Republicans will now be able to exercise by holding hearings on the Democrats’ health-care law. We will no doubt be getting a much clearer sense from CBO of how plausible the assumptions they were forced to score last year really are, and hearing from employers and insurers about where this law is taking us. That process started today with questions posed to the chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at Obama’s HHS, Richard Foster.
As the Associated Press aptly
summarized it, Foster told the committee that “the landmark legislation probably won’t hold costs down, and it won’t let everybody keep their current health insurance if they like it” (he said the Democrats’ claims on that front are “false, more so than true.”)
Foster also had an amusing exchange with ranking committee Democrat Chris Van Hollen, in which Van Hollen tried to get him to say that the cost controls in Paul Ryan’s Roadmap proposal would not work, while those in the Democrats’ bill would. Foster instead offered a lengthy explanation about how incentives can help keep certain kinds of costs down and then said “the Roadmap has that potential. There is some potential for the Affordable Care Act price reductions, though I’m a little less confident about that.”
In that exchange (and even more so in several others), Foster reinforced the basic argument of conservative health-care reformers: that moving toward a defined contribution model is much more likely to keep costs down than the kind of top-down price controls that are in the new health-care law.
Transcripts and video links will probably be available in a few hours.
Mr. Foster is a wise and honest man. My preferred provider health insurance plan was gone before the President's signature was dry on Obamacare, my annual deductible rose from $250 to $3000 and my coverage was reduced. And I don't work for a small business; I work for city government.
Here's one of the "benefits" of Obamacare Democrats promised we would love once we found out about it. Before Obamacare, we could use our Health Savings Accounts to purchase over-the-counter medications like aspirin and cold medication. Now we have to pay $75 for a doctor appointment to obtain a prescription to buy a $3 bottle of aspirin. How's that for keeping down the cost of healthcare?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYour conclusions are bit misleading. Costs are estimated to go up because more people will be using the system which results in short term increases but long term savings due to early detection of treatable diseases.
"Foster says analysis by his office shows that the health care law will raise the nation's health care tab modestly because newly insured people will be getting medical services they would have otherwise gone without."
Seniors with MedAdvantage, government run Med Sup plans, will have to buy Med Sup on the open market if they choose. That is also a good thing since it saves us money, and it is a free market solution.
"As for people getting to keep their health insurance plan, Foster's office is projecting that more than 7 million Medicare recipients in private Medicare Advantage plans will eventually have to find other coverage, cutting enrollment in the plans by about half."
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