The CEA report acknowledges that the ACA will cause health care spending “to grow at an elevated rate for a few years” because of the massive coverage expansion at the core of the law. CEA argues that this burst of health care spending will eventually be followed by cost reductions. Given the countless problems that have arisen with ACA implementation so far, this is far from a reliable bet, much less a demonstration that the ACA is successfully bringing costs down already.
Public confidence in the ACA took a beating when it was revealed that millions would lose health coverage that they had been told they could keep. Now the public is being told that the ACA is responsible for government actuaries’ improved health spending projections, when an examination of those projections clearly shows that not to be so. If the supporters of the ACA want to win back public support and confidence, they will need to find a stronger case for the virtues of the law. (emphasis added)
Well actually the supporters don’t need to do any such thing. They simply meed to ask their reliable friends in the mainstream media to broadcast the false Obamacare lowers cost assertions. No doubt this is an easy sale.
