The Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee (via Daniel Halper) released a nifty little chart showing the progressively more dire estimates for the cost of ObamaCare over a decade.
President Obama promised a joint session of Congress in 2009 to spend $900 billion over ten years on his health care law: “Now, add it all up, and the plan that I’m proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years.” Adding up all the different spending provisions in the health care law, however, (including closing the Medicare ‘donut hole,’ implementation costs, and other spending) total gross spending over the FY 2010–19 period is about $1.4 trillion, based on CBO estimates,” the Senate Budget Committee Republican staff explains. “And most of the major spending provisions in the law do not even take effect until 2014. Congressional Democrats delayed these provisions in order to show only six years of spending under the plan in the original 10-year budget window (from FY2010-19) used by CBO at the time the law was enacted. Therefore, the original estimate concealed the fact that most of the law’s spending only doesn’t even begin until four years into the 10-year window. A Senate Budget Committee analysis (based on CBO estimates and growth rates) finds that that total spending under the law will amount to at least $2.6 trillion over a true 10-year period (from FY2014–23)—not $900 billion, as President Obama originally promised.
I know that no one reading this is surprised in the least. The question in my mind is how best to punish those — the president especially — for being such incredible liars. The Democrats in Congress knew exactly what they were doing when they based their projections of ObamaCare’s cost on 10 years of revenue and only 6 years of expenditures. Both the president and congressional Dems aren’t idiots when it comes to history either. No entitlement in history has ever met expectations as far as its cost is concerned. Social Security, Medicare, social welfare programs like food stamps — all far exceeded their original estimated cost. In the case of Medicare, as this Reason article from 1993 points out, the difference in estimated to real costs between 1965 and 1990 either makes one giggle uncontrollably or makes one want to put his fist through the wall:
At its start, in 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee estimated that Medicare would cost only about $ 12 billion by 1990 (a figure that included an allowance for inflation). This was a supposedly “conservative” estimate. But in 1990 Medicare actually cost $107 billion.
There is also no guarantee that in the next decade — assuming ObamaCare survives — subsidies won’t be increased, coverage won’t be expanded, or other little goodies won’t be added to make this black hole of a program even more expensive. In fact, given the rate at which the cost of health insurance is rising, it is likely that an increase in subsidies will be needed almost immediately.
This isn’t the last increase in the estimated cost for ObamaCare we will see before 2014.
At some point the Obamedia will tumble to this and report it like Charlton Heston screaming, “Soylent Green is people!”
As if the recipe hadn’t already been found and exposed in the New Media years ago: Nothing Washington ever does costs only what they say it will when it’s debated in Congress.
In full campaign mode, ‘Soylent Green is people is the rich. Eat the rich so we can avoid starving for awhile longer.’ This may also define the intentions of the Green agenda. It would be madness were it not so criminal.
We are going to put 30 M people on insurance to lower the cost of health care. They bought it. Step into the tanks.
Are you sure?
Not only will costs explode, but the 21 new taxes contained within Obamacare will have to be raised as well to keep up with the costs. This is going to make Social Security AND Medicare look like a joke, primarily because the doctors, the hospitals, and the pharmaceutical companies are all going to need to re-negotiate their agreements because of skyrocketing costs. And once this all collapses, the only solution will be a single-payer system, or complete socialized medicine.
I curse the day Obama was elected. He, Pelosi, and Reid have singlehandedly brought our once great health care system down to its knees and are about to completely destroy what’s left of it. And notice, too, that Obama and the Democrats are NOT doing one of the most important things that would help bring down health care costs, and that’s tort reform. These are shabby little people who will stop at nothing when it comes to exploding the size of government, and like all socialists they must be run out of Congress and the White House. We here are all on a mission to make this happen and if the Democrats still think that we’re not motivated to do our best to make sure they’re defeated, all the have to do is wait for election day. They are about to have the surprise of their lives.
2.6T every YEAR will be closer to the actual result.
and with the new taxes, you don’t mention that my understanding is that none of the them are linked to inflation, so people will keep paying more, and plans that are excluded will eventually be caught up in the problem.
Tks Liberty very well stated. This is part that gulls me to no end. The Democrats voted a health care system (I’m being charitable) for us that they don’t want for themselves. And we’re supposed tp accept that? Our Pres is so fond of fairness. That’s fair??? No that’s not fair, that’s grossly unfair.
do you mean…..oh it can’t be….you can’t rally mean….that the president is a….I can hardly imagine the words…a liar?
Say it isn’t so.
Mr Romney says he is such a nice guy. Surely such a nice guy can’t be a liar.
I think somehow it must just depend on what the meaning of “is” is.
That “nice guy” meme is grating on me, too. He is not a nice guy, he is totally malevolent.
Relax my friends — there is no need to get excited about these numbers. They will be reworked every time the sun rises the coming months, and before you know it, the current $2,600,000,000,000 Obama/Robertscare estimates will look like a rounding error.
What’s the revenue? Also MA has seen less of a rise in Health insurance costs per person since Romneycare and I suspect that will not be factored. The other factor and more to the point is that now Insurance Companies have to spend 85% of their revenue on health care costs and we are seeing some people get checks back or premiums reduced. I live in MA and my premium went up by $20 from 1356 to 1376 as self employed buying insurance for my family from the MA Health Exchange. Much less expensive than when first implemented.
Problem, “That’s the spending”…Massachusetts had already implemented guaranteed issue and community rating back in the 1980s, so premiums had priced that in from way back. Your insurers were unable to aggregate risk from that point on.
It’s like your entire house was on fire, but you were able to douse the flames in a single room. Yeah, there’s improvement, but not much.
In spite of that, Obamacare does things that “RomneyCare” could not do, such as impose affirmative action quotas in medical and dental schools, create 159 new boards and commissions, including the unreviewable Independent Payment Advisory Board, and create more than $500 billion in new taxes.
the Freeloader tax I’m all for it. Why should people who could afford health insurance pass their bill onto people who do purchase health insurance.
I’d like to know where the assumption comes from that “people who could afford health insurance pass their bill onto people who do purchase health insurance.”
You do know, don’t you, that a lot of “those” people you’re talking about are self-insured? Which means they’re paying their medical expenses OUT OF POCKET.
They’re paying for their care themselves, not billing you for it. Or they were — thanks to Obama nd Roberts now they’re paying for your care too, which was the real idea behind the law. It’s an entitlement scam.
This may be true for a number of people but unfortunately there are those who do seek & get care for which they never, ever pay. This is why everything associated with the delivery of health care, right down to that last Band Aid is charged to the patient at a level that is many times that of inflation. If health care facilities do not charge these grossly inflated prices, they would go out of business.
Gov’t intrusion into the health care industry has done more to grow the expense of its operation than any other thing (technology, liability, etc.).
Heh, global warming people, we’ve found your graph.
Now, THAT’s funny!
NOOOOOOO; REEEEEALY?
Have you vetted your facts with Obama? Biden? Pelosi? Debbie SEWERMOUTH Schultz?
I believe even this new cost of 2.6 trillion is probably a low ball estimate, and the true cost is most likely multiple trillions more, this money pit needs to be repealed.
Historically the CBO has had a habit of underestimating, not all its fault because legislation keeps being changed after the estimate, as well as being augmented with additional provisions as it “grows”.
That said, the underestimates have typically been to fractions of the final costs, one-fourth not being unusual, and sometimes the error has been almost a whole order of magnitude. Anyone who expected PPAACA to be the first exception in decades could be equated with one who believes that: “Yes, this weekend, I will win the lottery. Gonna start buying stuff today. Why wait.”
Gee, and yesterday PJM reported that 83% of doctors were thinking of quitting over Obamacare. What next?!?!
It would be quite ironic if Obamacare let to 100% user pays healthcare via economic collapse and the US dollar hyper-inflating away to infinity.
Hey it’s change…
And the CBO is ALWAYS accurate in its estimates of government costs? Really? When has government EVER brought in as much as predicted, or cost as little as predicted?
That would be never. So it’s even worse than this article says it is.
If I had been Paul Ryan at the negotiating table, I would have played some serious poker with the Pres. “Ok, let’s see you put your money where your mouth is. If you say this law won’t exceed $900 billion in 10 years, would you agree to a clause that either invalidates the law or freezes payments once it reaches $900 Billion as a condition for passing it? If not, then why not?”
Good point. Democrats talk Pay-as-you-Go and fiscal responsibility but always fail since it is never their intent.
Not to worry….. it’s the administrations way to get into the middle classes pockets. Ultimately, the working middle class who pay income tax will shoulder the burden of these costs when the entitlement crowd realizes it’s too expensive for them and we will get stuck holding the bag.
Do the calculations include the absorption of Medicare/aid cost into the system? Since Medicare/aid payments and funds are being used to fund ACA Obamacare and there is no intent to pay it back and this admin has intentionally created its demise, Medicare/aid will fold soon.
According to reports just today this will be the liberal line from here to the election. The American people are so tired of the bickering and continual debate over ObamaCare that they really care to hear no more about it. The Supreme Court has ruled it constitutional so it’s old news and the Republicans are such childish bores when they raise the issue. The American public is way ahead of the Republicans and have accepted it and are willing to live with it so let’s just move on. Just accept it as part of our lives and quit being so petty. Romney loses votes every time he mentions the subject so he should just forget about the whole thing. Who cares? ObamaCare is here to stay. The Supreme Court has made that perfectly clear.
That apparently is to be the liberal drill from now until November. Let’s see if the Republican leadership buys into it.
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Is anyone shocked that a DC program ends up costing 3-10x more than the CBO projects? If so, you need to check into the nearest psych ward, do it now before Obamacare comes into full affect.
The US owes more than the ENTIRE PLANET can pay back!
Another glittering example of the definition of insanity.
There are more and more state and municipal governments providing a glimpse of what is to come from the tax and spend mentality. Stockton, Vallejo, San Bernadino (or might as well just make it California), Scranton, N. Las Vegas and of course cities like Detroit are on life support and Chicago isn’t far behind. The dominos are beginning to fall and they are primarily long-term, liberal democrat enclaves that have been bastions of high taxes and heavy regulations; with anti-business, big union, entrenched democrats running the show.
Now compare that to Texas, N. Dakota, Oklahoma, etc. Even San Diego is turning things around by cutting entitlements.
We can argue liberal vs. conservative, Keynes vs. Hayek, big government vs. private enterprise all day. But when the cupboard is finally bare, the argument is over. How many more epic, liberal fails are required before people finally understand that the model doesn’t work?
Parasites have a way of evolving.
If cost overruns came out of the estimator’s pocket, the estimates would be more reliable. OTOH, people who believe democrat estimates on any subject from unemployment to the cost of their entitlements needs to have a reality check. Keep in mind they don’t believe in facts – it’s the feeling behind it that matters. “Everyone should have healthcare” is a feeling. The fact is that Obamacare is NOT the way they’ll get it. It was never about healthcare anyway.
Wow!
I sure didn’t see that coming!
Did you?
Washington has run out of money. If Obamacare is not repealed and is fully implemented in 2014, it will not be long before Washington is forced to default and the program, along with the other entitlements, disappears.
No worry, mates, we’ll just tax the rich to make up the difference. Of course once we tax the rich into oblivion why, then we will just have to redefine “rich”. Let’s see, what is it now? Anyone making over $250k a year? Well, let’s just lower that to say $150k. Wait, you say that won’t make up the deficit? Well how about $100k? No? Well how about…. uhh, wait, I’m in that bracket, now what do we do?