^that video is good, and on his webpage he's got some links to some really good stuff. I really enjoyed reading through some of the stuff on The Incidental Economist today.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...cost-curb.html
"The four-year slowdown in U.S. health-care spending will end next year, and there is no sign the Affordable Care Act will significantly curb the acceleration in costs, government actuaries said in a report.
President Barack Obama has said the 2010 health-system overhaul helped curb national medical spending, which that year rose 3.9 percent, or about half pre-recession levels. Actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who don’t answer to the White House, said yesterday in the journal Health Affairs that costs eased because of the economy, not Obamacare.
The Affordable Care Act has never been popular. The bill passed through a Democratic-controlled Congress with no support from the Republican Party and only 37 percent of Americans surveyed said they currently support it, according to an August poll by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.
This report won’t be good news for those who have argued that the Affordable Care Act would reduce costs. It provides strong evidence that the slowdown in spending isn’t related to the health law..."
Last edited by WFU71; 09-21-2013 at 09:58 AM.
LOL. This should be a good position to defend: Either Obamacare is lowering costs and working, or the economy is kicking so much ass that prices are going down and the Obama economic plan it working...Originally Posted by WFU71
Last edited by ONW; 09-21-2013 at 11:27 AM.
When in doubt, rub one out -BiffTannen
That's about government spending not about how much private insurance costs.
That rate also includes more people being old enough for Medicare that weren't counted the previous year.
It's national medical spending, rj. All sources, not just government
So is Obamacare working or is Obama economy working?
When in doubt, rub one out -BiffTannen
At the moment, neither is working too well. The article says that as the economy recovers, medical spending will increase. CMS predicts that will be next year.
So why are costs easing?
When in doubt, rub one out -BiffTannen
Because there's a recession. Read the article
There isn't a recession. The economy has been growing slowly for several years.
OK, I was wrong. There was a recession and the recovery has been weak. Unemployment is still high and household incomes are still suffering.
Has little to do prices. Has a lot to do with utilization. When the economy is down, people use less services. Price per unit still going up.
I read the article. Unemployment is at the lowest level it's going to be for the remainder of time. The days of 5% hell even 15-20% are going to be a distant benchmark in 2025.
http://www.technologyreview.com/view...mputerization/
When in doubt, rub one out -BiffTannen
What?
When in doubt, rub one out -BiffTannen
Makes sense to me. Medicine isn't fully recession proof. People won't necessarily seek medical care even if they need to or are supposed to (e.g. Mammograms, colonoscopies) when money is tight. I can't speak to the per unit price data, but the concept of decreased medical utilization during hard times is empirically true.
This is the part I was whating.
When in doubt, rub one out -BiffTannen
Simply out...Medical trend has 2 parts...The amount of health care we consume and the cost of it per unit (a unit being a doc visit, Rx, inpatient day, test, outpatient procedure, etc). These cost increases haven't really slowed but the # of them used has...Keep in mind, we still have medical trend above CPI, its just not as high as it was.
Lets not also forget that Obamacare added two big costs since 2011, fees taxes (around 6% of premium costs) and "free" preventive benefits. We see lower increases without these.
So Obamacare has added two big costs and still managed to half the amount of spending?
I do get what you are saying mathematically cost per unit btw.
Last edited by ONW; 09-21-2013 at 08:18 PM.
When in doubt, rub one out -BiffTannen
Im pretty sure it didn't half the amount of spending. Actually, I don't think there is any evidence that Obamacare did anything other than add some costs, cover a more adult kids and add subsidy $ to PDP.
The exchanges should be interesting.
Last edited by CHDeac; 11-04-2013 at 07:26 PM.
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