Health Care Reform Will Lower Long Term Medical Costs

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This image from The Washington Post

There has been a lot of blathering about how the new estimates from the CMS actuary show that health care reform will increase the cost of health care.   In fact, the Wall Street Journal's headline is "Health Outlays Still Rising".

Here's the commentary in the WSJ:

The report by federal number-crunchers casts fresh doubt on Democrats' argument that the health-care law would curb the sharp increase in costs over the long term, the second setback this week for one of the party's biggest legislative achievements.


The graphic above is from a pithy post by Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, who points out that there is a cost spike from providing subsidies to cover 10% of the population.  It's striking that in the out years (and that's what counts), the costs are lower under health care reform even with the near-universal coverage.


The costs are lower because of diminished provider payments, which will extend the life of the Medicare trust fund, as well as make it possible to cover most of the currently uninsured while lowering the federal deficit.    The reform bill is far from perfect - but is looking like a very good deal indeed.