All you 40+ Obama lovers...way to go!!!
Not to worry...long as VAT is 'worth looking at'.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100423/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_law_costsWASHINGTON – President Obama's health care overhaul law will increase the nation's health care tab instead of bringing costs down, gov't economic forecasters concluded Thurs in a sobering assessment of the sweeping legislation.
A report by economic experts at the Health & Human Services Department said the health care remake will achieve Obama's aim of expanding health insurance...
But the analysis also found that the law falls short of the president's twin goal of controlling runaway costs. It also warned that Medicare cuts may be unrealistic and unsustainable, driving about 15 percent of hospitals into the red and
"possibly jeopardizing access" to care for seniors.
The mixed verdict for Obama's signature issue is the
first comprehensive look by neutral experts....
The report acknowledged that some of the cost-control measures in the bill...could help reduce the rate of cost increases beyond 2020. But it held out little hope for progress in the first decade.
"During 2010-2019, however, these effects would be outweighed by the increased costs associated with the expansions of health insurance coverage,"...
...Starting in 2014, most Americans would be required to carry health insurance except in cases of financial hardship...Insurers would be required to accept all applicants, regardless of their health.
A separate Congressional Budget Office analysis, also released Thurs, estimated that 4 million households would be hit with tax penalties under the law for failing to get insurance...
...At the outset of the health care debate last year, Obama held out the hope that by bending the cost curve down, the US could cover all its citizens for about what the nation would spend absent any reforms.
The report found that the president's law missed the mark, although not by much. The overhaul will increase national health care spending by $311 billion from 2010-2019, or nine-tenths of 1 percent. To put that in perspective, total health care spending during the decade is estimated to surpass $35 trillion...
The report's most sober assessments concerned Medicare.
In addition to flagging the cuts to hospitals, nursing homes and other providers as potentially unsustainable, it projected that reductions in payments to private Medicare Advantage plans would trigger an exodus from the popular program. Enrollment would plummet by about 50%, as the plans reduce extra benefits that they currently offer.
Seniors leaving the private plans would still have health insurance under traditional Medicare, but many might face higher out-of-pocket costs.In another flashing yellow light, the report warned that a new voluntary long-term care insurance program created under the law faces "a very serious risk" of insolvency.
