10.02.2012

Health Care Costs Up in Past Four Years

From Investors.com:

"During his first run for president, Barack Obama made one very specific promise to voters: He would cut health insurance premiums for families by $2,500, and do so in his first term.

But it turns out that family premiums have increased by more than $3,000 since Obama's vow, according to the latest annual Kaiser Family Foundation employee health benefits survey."

Some people liked the healthcare reform legislation. Some (including, quite vocally, your humble author) did not. However, even many of those who didn't like the entire bill, the process by which it was passed, and the rifts it caused can acknowledge that it did some good things. It is just that cost savings isn't, and never should have been described as, one of those things.

It was just never logical to think that many, many more people being insured, particularly when some of them had pre-existing conditions, would reduce overall costs.

Part of the reason people didn't like Obamacare is that they were told that it would have to be passed before they would find out what it did. While that was bad enough, the continued obfuscations which proponents put forward are even worse, and mask the good which can be done by reform. This state of affairs makes it ever more likely that the bill will be overturned at some point.

While some will applaud such an outcome, it will also leave the system just as broken, if not more so, than it ever was before the bill. A mess indeed...

1 comment:

  1. Dear Readers-

    As I often do in posts quoting surveys or statistics, I would note that readers should be on edge and question the source and motivations behind the data discussed above.

    That said, I have yet to see anyone assert that costs have declined since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and strongly suspect I won't, at least for a significant period of time.

    JS

    ReplyDelete