By FITSNews || It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a $2.5 trillion expansion of government health care programs isn’t going to reduce the federal deficit – which was already soaring to ridiculous heights even before the U.S. House of Representatives passed “Obamacare” on Sunday.
But how much will “Obamacare” add to the growing taxpayer-funded tab?
Obviously, factoring in the true cost of just one facet of the legislation – the Medicaid physician’s “Sustainable Growth Rate” increase – adds $208 billion to Obamacare’s price tag, making it a deficit-buster by around $59 billion (and thus ineligible to be passed using the “reconciliation” ruse).
But we thought that another, more historic comparison was worth noting.
Back in 1965 – when Congress passed Medicaid – government bureaucrats estimated that the hospital insurance cost of the program would total $9 billion. How close were they? Not even. When 1990 finally rolled around, the total cost of the hospital insurance program was $63 billion.
Even after adjusting for inflation, that figure is more than twice what the government economists originally forecast.
Translation?
Ruh-roh …
By lars March 22, 2010 at 11:12 am
SHHHH!
Obama said last week Obamacare will decrease insurance premiums 3,000%!
We all know Obama and Pelosi are infallible—how dare you question them!
You must be an anti-government radical tea-bagger!
By Rick March 22, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Not to worry, after all, only the wealthy high earners will be impacted. Since there is no connection between high earners, job creation, middle class earners, educated workers etc…it’ll all be ok. The wealthy will continue to pay increased taxes, won’t pass them down to the middle class that will pass them to the working poor….naw, San Fran Nan will pass a law forbidding the normal economic progression that accompanies small insignificent increases in the tax base. After all,….it be free, gimme mo’
By Lynn Bailey March 22, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Medicare (Title XVIII of the Social Security Act) covers seniors, all folks over 65, the disabled and those with end stage renal disease, approximately 45 million folks. Its rules are the same across the country, regardless of which state you live in. It is a social insurance program because it doesn’t underwrite you based on your health or lack there of. Most participants pay a premium for their physicians services and their prescription drugs. Only hospital services are paid for by all taxpayers.
Medicaid (Title XIX of the Social Security Act) covers the poor, mostly pregnant women, children, the disabled and the elderly in nursing homes, approximately 47 million folks across the country. It is a joint state and federal program. Rules vary from state to state on eligibility and what providers, hospitals, doctors, and nursing homes receive.
Your screed confuses the two. Sustainable growth rate “fix” refers to MediCARE physician reimbursement and NOT MediCAID.
By Gillon March 22, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Rick, under Reagan, we tried supply-side economics–reduce taxes on the wealthy and let them keep more of their income. That will boost the economy and prosperity will “trickle down’ to the middle class and working poor. How’d that work out for us?
By Elmo March 22, 2010 at 4:23 pm
I have been hiding under my bed at home all day long. The TV pundits have told me for days the world would come to an end if the health care bill passed.
I wasn’t told to be this afraid when Bush gave the fat cats the tax breaks that busted our budget or pushed us into the unnecessary wars fought for the wrong reasons that have stripped us of a lot of blood and treasure, or even when Bush,McCain and Obama stood up and made the hard choices to bail us all out of dire straits by giving our money to the fat cat bankers.
Please tell me how long I need to remain scared. I sure hope I am told I can come out from under the covers in November so I can be a real American and help re-elect the republicans to balance the budget and save us all.
By Rick March 22, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Gillon….seems to me, people went to work, and paid taxes unlike under Carter where the economy tanked and I was laid off for 3 years. But then again….I was a grown adult with children to feed, so my memory may be more focused than yours.
By JR March 22, 2010 at 7:32 pm
SGR rates, though a Medicare payment boondoggle, double down on medicaid because all states use medicare payments as a benchmark. Medicare rates go down 21%…. so does medicaid. (ms bailey) FITS did put the caid instead of the care in that statement, but it is really neither here nor there in its overall effect of physician payments or taxpayer obligations.
Either way, people are constantly confusing cost and price. It costs X for your physician to see you in his office. X is a number based on his employees, their benefits, rent, utilities, fees, taxes, and insurance. If Medicare ( and in SC 86% = medicaid rate) thinks they can control costs by cutting payment to P<X, then that means either doctors will lose money for every patient they treat, or medicare/caid patients can keep on moving down the road to the next place they can find care. And now that doctors who treat the sickest( and who consume the most health care dollars) now face penalties if they treat them appropriately, good luck in finding a doc who will not only lose money caring for medicare/caid patients, but be penalized as well.