Impact of Affordable Care Act: Health Care Costs Down -

"According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), often referred to as "Obamacare," will cut the federal budget deficit by a $100 billion. That despite adding health coverage for about 10 million people, by federal estimates. Paul Van de Water, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, says the reform has been able to do this because it's had real success at one of its key goals: holding down the cost of health care." This statement fails to mention that one of the factors that make up "cost" are the premiums that consumers pay as well as co-pays. Yes, many of the Obamacare plans have lower premiums and have forced insurance companies to keep their premiums artificially lower for the last 2 years. Starting in 2015 we will see the insurance companies defy the Obama administration and raise the rates to reflect the actual market conditions. Premiums reflect the cost of keeping people insured. If more people are insured that would normally not get coverage, due to their condition that the insurers would consider "risky" or "expensive", then rates in a free market would naturally rise to offset this cost. That's what will happen in 2015. So this statement is a bit premature since it only factors in the results of the last 2 years. Let's compare those 2 years to the next 2 years. Premiums will continue to rise as well as deductibles. As subscribers to Obamacare plans learn that more doctors will be refusing to serve them the backlash will be seen more readily.