Savings from Obamacare?

By Kevin J. Price

The Obama administration has continually boasted about the huge savings that the American people would receive from it sweeping health care legislation. What kind of savings is it claiming? The National Center for Policy Analysis states that the Obama government is arguing that the "reform" will reduce "the federal budget deficit by $100 billion over 10 years and 10 times that amount in the second decade of implementation. They cite the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) cost estimate to back their claims." These are dream numbers that do not line up with reality according to many policy experts.

Obama and Congressional Democrats only want to discuss the CBO numbers, but that agency is not the only one monitoring the fiscal and economic impact of Obamacare. The chief actuary of Medicare has an opinion on Obama's health law too. His assessment is that the gap between the CBO's numbers and reality is quite significant.

For example, Obama says that the law will slow drive down the increase in costs. However, the chief actuary of Medicare says it will not have such an effect. In fact, any person who has taken high school economics know that this cannot be the case. With tens of millions more added to the health care demand and as many as 33 percent of doctors saying they will get out as a results of the legislation, the pull on the costs will explode.

Obama argues that people will get to keep their work related plans if they want, while the actuary says that as many as 14 million people will lose their employer coverage. Many, if not most, of these people would prefer the company plan rather than going to one that resembles the Department of Motor Vehicles. I believe 14 million to be a very conservative number. Obama's plan is modeled after the state of Massachusetts and they have seen an exponential increase in companies killing their private plans because they know they can get on a cheaper government plan. This shift from private to government is among the reasons Obamacare will not lower the deficit over time.

Finally, Obama says that his health care agenda will improve the budget outlook. I doubt it and so does the chief actuary. The Joint Tax Committee has chimed in with estimates of its own, noting that the tax provisions missing from the chief actuary's study shows approximately $50 billion of deficit reduction alleged in the CBO report will not hold up in reality, notes James Capretta of the Heartland Institute.
Obama may not know much about economics, but he is very proficient when it comes to smoke and mirrors. Unfortunately, these do not hold up over time.
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Kevin Price
Host, Price of Business, M-F at 11 am on CBS Radio News
Frequently found on Strategy Room at FoxNews.com
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