HHS Chief Actuary on ObamaCare: Total Health Care Spending Will Go Up, Not Down

Richard Foster, Chief Actuary for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, released this week to several Congressional offices a financial analysis of HR 3200, the House version of ObamaCare. He reached some inconvenient conclusions for President Obama and Congressional Leadership:

-“Total national health expenditures under this bill would increase by an estimated 2.7 percent in 2019…”

 -“The additional demand for health services could be difficult to meet initially with existing health provider resources and could lead to price increases, cost-shifting, and/or changes in providers’ willingness to treat patients with low-reimbursement health coverage.”

-More than half of the expansion in coverage (18 million out of 34 million) would be from increased Medicaid coverage.

-12 million people would lose employer-sponsored coverage.

-The productivity adjustments to Medicare are “unrealistic” and providers “might end their participation” because the cuts would make serving Medicare beneficiaries unprofitable.

-Medicare Advantage enrollment would decrease by 64 percent (from a projected level of 13.2 million to 4.7 million under the proposal).

As of today, HHS still hadn’t published the analysis on their website, even though it was written by its own staff. We have a feeling it may never find a home there. So, we’ve brought it to you directly. Full financial analysis below.  

CMS OACT – Memo on Financial Impact of H R 3200 09-10-21 –

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Tags: actuary, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, employer converage, health care spending, HHS, Medicare Advantage, ObamaCare, Richard Foster, uninsured
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 at 1:31 pm in Exclusives, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 2028220 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2009/10/23/hhs-chief-actuary-on-obamacare-total-health-care-spending-will-go-up-not-down/HHS+Chief+Actuary+on+ObamaCare%3A+Total+Health+Care+Spending+Will+Go+Up%2C+Not+Down2009-10-23+20%3A31%3A49Capitol++Confidential