Good news everybody: ACA cost edition
CBO: #ACA subsidies increase 11%, overall costs are 25% less than first projected https://t.co/zqCL17yHa5
— MB (@baxterdc) March 25, 2016
So under budget and on projection for the target uninsured rate even with Chief Justice Roberts enabling sociopaths and assholes to stop Medicaid Expansion in 20 states.
Not bad at all….
UPDATE 1: The next time there is a massive social program passing Congress with uncertain costs, we need to put in mechanisms to take advantage of success instead of safeguards against massive cost overruns. The ACA has triggers where if the total federal cost of the advanced premium tax credit and the cost sharing reduction subsidies were more than .504% of GDP, future year individual shares would increase and the thresholds for federal subsidies would decline.
There were no mechanisms in place to say if subsidies were significant below budget that either subsidies for currently qualified individuals would get richer so their out of pocket premium expense would decline OR more people would become eligible for subsidies.
This is just a note to self to find again in 20 years.
Quick question: What would the overall uninsured rate be if Medicaid expansion were nationwide?
Hooray!
We need some talking points we can use to call our elected sociopaths and assholes about medicaid expansion.
We could also use these talking points to write letters to our local papers.
Which also suggests the sheer staggering greedy-pockets waste of the previous system.
Thanks for the report of good news.
Edit: Might be interesting to get Mayhew’s take on SCOTUS oral arguments earlier this week, where reactionary GOP hack justices revealed that they have no clue how health insurance, or medical care, works. But, might be like shooting fish in a barrel.
@MomSense:
You know what would really impress the hell out of me? If Sanders made Medicaid expansion part of his health care rant, and address the fact that the reason it hasn’t been expanded in red states is because “those people” would benefit. I wonder if it’s ever even something that’s occurred to him.
@Tom Levenson: whatever survey you are using minus 1% or so… Realistically 8.0 to 10% depending on exactly what question is asked
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Yes! I have been saying this since he launched his ridiculous single payer plan. If he and his revolution really want to help the working people, the poor people who need it most they would be agitating in every non-expansion state for medicaid coverage.
It really doesn’t make any sense unless the real goal is to destroy/exact vengeance on the insurance industry.
This is making me crazy! We are working so hard to get some kind of Medicaid expansion here in Maine and I haven’t seen boo from the Sanders campaign and his supporters. He won our caucus handily, I might add.
@jl: I have nothing interesting to say on this besides go read Kevin Drum:
http://www.motherjones.com/kev.....ally-works
He hits the high points and we owe Susan Sto Helit’s grandpa a beer
Wow. Talk about burying the lede at The Hill. That article by Sarah Ferris is titled “CBO: Cost of ObamaCare subsidies climbs by 11 percent” reads like an indictment, spending 12 paragraphs and over 400 words about the various reasons the increase has occurred before getting to the final paragraph with these two sentences:
About like FREE BEER!!!*
*Actual beer not actually free.