Obama healthcare law could sharply worsen deficits: study

Shocking:

B...B....But I thought it was deficit neutral?

Note... couldn't paste link... but you'll find it on the MSNBC home page...

the idea that any federal program can be deficit neutral was created by the Easter Bunny

This report was released by the Mercatus Center, which is located at George Mason University and essentially funded by the Koch brothers. I certainly won't be heartbroken if all or part of the law is declared unconstitutional by the SCotUS, but the credibility of this report is next to nil.

Yeah, because there are dozens of government programs that operate within/under budget...

I never said that the claim made in the report is false. It may or may not be. What I'm saying is that a think tank funded by the Koch brothers has a clear political agenda and allegiance to the Kochs. I view it with skepticism and doubt its credibility. As a political moderate, I would hold the same skepticism for anything I saw as attempting to advance any sort of far-left agenda.

So you believe in the Easter Bunny. That explains your stupidity!

You believe that federal programs are deficit neutral, that's worse than believing in the Easter Bunny

Yet msnbc posted the Reuters article on their homepage...

And? Anything ACA-related is newsworthy at the moment. MSNBC is in the game to make money and increase hits to its website. That doesn't change the fact that the report was released by a Koch-run think tank.

Where did I say " I believe in deficit neutral programs " ????????????????????????????? Don't put words in other peoples mouths.

SO a partisian report says it will add to the deficit and 2 non partisan reports say it will not. Ill take the word on the non partisan reports.

Of course you will

BTW - Link to that report?

MSNBC usually buries these stories... but they can't let the regime who has a firm control over the country toppel the very next morning

So we will just let the emergency room continue to provide free health care. Sounds like a plan.

I don't like it much either, but I don't want to let people die, while also not wanting them to take advantage either. I'm up for suggestions. Give it your best shot.

You don't see the big picture, we need to completely deregulate the insurance industry, allow them to deny more care and kill more people so the rates come down .....allow the free market to work.

Who's surprised to hear that Blahous manipulated data to misrepresent the effect that the ACA will have on future budget deficits? Anyone? Anyone?

Bueller?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...nts-are-using/2012/04/10/gIQAu3de8S_blog.html

Ezra Klein is one of Obamacare's major cheerleaders... no one should be surprised he doesn't like the Blahous study... find someone neutral, a Klein blog won't cut it.

Medicare does what insurance companies do for less. The satisfaction with medicare is high. We could put everyone on medicare and tax accordingly. That would free business from that expense and they would pay you more, offsetting the amount of additional taxes paid into medicare.
The plan would not be quite so generous as it is right now. I would have enough of a co-pay to bite a little to keep people from going to the doctor with the sniffles. If people wanted a more generous amount of coverage they could buy it from a private company, but everyone would be covered by a basic plan.

Have you read his post? It's not about whether or not he likes the Blahous study. It details how Blahous changed the "equation" (for lack of a better word) used to examine a law's impact on the deficit. Can you refute it?

I'll stick by the CBO's estimate, which they actually revised last month to bump up savings projections.

Comparing medicare to private insurance companies is ludicrous. Medicare only does for less becuase providers subsidize medicare patients by inflating prices to others. As it is there are too few medicare providers, and doctors can't subsist on medicare patients alone.

Not only is medicare not ideal, it is actually creating a market distortion. Covering everyone by medicare would result in an implosion of the system.

And let Obama decides who gets to live and who is allotted a couple of pain pills so they can loop out and die?



No thanks.

Chris, they're gonna provide it anyway..

"I ain't buying no insurance and I ain't paying no fine, and when I get sick, the hospital has to treat me anyway".......is the mentality of millions..

look at the percentrage of people driving around w/o car insurance, which if you don't have, can get you thrown in jail in some locations....

but the administration thinks people are going to line up to buy health insurance?

what a dumb idea the mandate is, Republicans don't have a better plan but this one sucks..

Have you read his article? Klein's article is really aimed at people who haven't actually read the Blahous study, and therefore won't judge his article on whether or not there is merit.
Blahous actually goes through each part of the law, and offers to the readers 3 scenarios that could play out: if all goes well, if all goes poorly, and a middle case.

What Blahous really points out is that Obamacare used cost saving provisions like medicare cuts (that are extremely unlikely to actually be cut) to save money, thus resulting in major costs that aren't accounted for. Even the CBO said as much though they were powerless to score differently.

See, Klein gets the analysis of Blahous incorrect. He suggests that Blahous believes "by cutting Medicare spending, is cutting spending that would never have happened". This is incorrect, and what Obamacare actually relies on for budgeting is the belief that Medicare can be cut so that cutting it will result in savings. The problem is that Medicare won't be cut because Democrats won't allow it. We can't just will Medicare to need less money because we can't afford it or because it runs out of money. People won't stop needing care just because we overspent, which is why Medicare savings based on cuts should never be counted in the first place.

BTW, here is a Washington post article on it that isn't a Klein blog:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...-study-finds/2012/04/09/gIQAti1o6S_story.html