Thread: Government Health Tab to Hit $ 4.6 Trillion in 2020

Gov't: Health tab to hit $4.6 trillion in 2020 - Yahoo! News
AP – 24 mins ago.....
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's health care tab is on track to hit $4.6 trillion in 2020, accounting for about $1 of every $5 in the economy, government number crunchers estimate in a report out Thursday.

How much is that? Including government and private money, health care spending in 2020 will average $13,710 for every man, woman and child, says Medicare's Office of the Actuary.
By comparison, U.S. health care spending this year is projected to top $2.7 trillion, or about $8,650 per capita, roughly $1 of $6 in the economy. Most of that spending is for care for the sickest people.

The analysis found that President Barack Obama's health care overhaul would only be a modest contributor to growing costs, even though an additional 30 million people who would be otherwise uninsured stand to gain coverage.
The main reasons that health care spending keeps growing faster than the economy are the high cost of medical innovations and an aging society that consumes increasing levels of service.

The report found that health care spending in 2010 grew at a historically low rate of 3.9 percent, partly because of the sluggish economy. That will change as the economy shakes off the lingering effects of the recession.

Estimates from previous years had projected that the government share would already be at the 50 percent mark, but the actuary's office changed its method for making the complex calculations. Under the previous approach, some private payments such as worker's compensation insurance had been counted in the government column. Technical accuracy — not political pressure — was behind that change, said Stephen Heffler, one of the experts who work on the estimates. Thoughts?

Originally Posted by OP article

The analysis found that President Barack Obama's health care overhaul would only be a modest contributor to growing costs, even though an additional 30 million people who would be otherwise uninsured stand to gain coverage.
The main reasons that health care spending keeps growing faster than the economy are the high cost of medical innovations and an aging society that consumes increasing levels of service.

As many of the saner, more centered members of this forum know, the Health Care Bill's primary flaw was it didn't fix the costs of health care. It was a huge compromise to pass the bill which did little to the problem except slap some band-aids on it. When the Tea Party candidates took office, they wasted time on repealing a bill which could not be repealed instead of focusing upon fixing what parts they could.

For a bill that is supposed to address the oppressive rising costs of health care, the failure to address the cost problem isn't just a flaw. It makes the entire thing an epic failure.

Maybe it wasn't really intended to do the things its title might suggest.

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Originally Posted by Neomalthusian

For a bill that is supposed to address the oppressive rising costs of health care, the failure to address the cost problem isn't just a flaw. It makes the entire thing an epic failure.

And yet, as the article itself notes, adding some 30 million people to the rolls of the insured resulted in only a "modest" increase in costs.

Of course I'm sure you're description of "epic fail" would not have been the same even if there were no new cost increases. After all, those who are opposed to the ACA, are generally so logical and reasonable about their opposition.

Originally Posted by Neomalthusian

For a bill that is supposed to address the oppressive rising costs of health care, the failure to address the cost problem isn't just a flaw. It makes the entire thing an epic failure.

Maybe it wasn't really intended to do the things its title might suggest.

Maybe your on to something.

The rise in health care costs has been sluggish because of the economy. Obama has consistently failed at fixing the economy. Perhaps he's just trying to keep the rate of the rise of health care costs down.

Hmmm...he actually CARES about the people.

Of course costs are going to keep rising. Obama's attempt to "reform" healthcare from within the private corporatist system was doomed to failure.