Hello!
1. Cost of Health Insurance:
PRO: "[M]ost people will pay more for health insurance next year. That's true whether you get coverage from a job, on your own through an exchange or directly from an insurer, or from Medicare...
The good news is that available information indicates the doomsayers were wrong, and premiums under President Barack Obama's health care law aren't going through the roof.
The average increase for Obamacare plans will be 8.2 percent next year in 29 states and the District of Columbia where data about health insurance premiums for 2015 are available... That's significant, but it's a little lower than the 10 percent annual rate hikes typical before the Affordable Care Act."
CON: "[T]here can be no doubt that health care today is more costly than it would have been without Obamacare...
Measured over two years, Obamacare's rate hikes remain toxic. And further increases are on the horizon in 2017, when some of the law's subsidies to insurance companies are set to expire...
I and my colleagues at the Manhattan Institute looked at the actual, finalized rate filings in 2014 and compared them to what was available in 2013. The average U.S. county saw a rate increase of 49 percent."
2. Impact on Federal Deficit:
PRO: "In keeping with the President's pledge that reform must fix our health care system without adding to the deficit, the Affordable Care Act reduces the deficit, saving over $200 billion over 10 years and more than $1 trillion in the second decade. The law reduces health care costs by rewarding doctors, hospitals and other providers that deliver high quality care and making investments to fund research into what works.
Rising health care costs are a major driver of our long-term deficits, and getting them under control is crucial if we want to grow the economy, create jobs and compete in the world economy."
CON: "[T]he Democrats' health care law [Obamacare] will increase the budget deficit by $131 billion over the current 10-year budget window (FY 2015–2024). This estimate is arrived at by taking the $180 billion in projected deficit reduction from the CBO 2012 extrapolation and then accounting for the lower net cost of the coverage provisions ($83 billion), the lower estimated federal health care savings under the plan ($132 billion), as well as the lower projected revenue levels when including the labor market effects of the legislation ($262 billion). The difference between the 2012 extrapolation and the current estimate of the cost of the Democrats' health law amounts to a $311 billion change in its net deficit impact."
3. Improved Medicare?:
PRO: "The Affordable Care Act includes a series of Medicare reforms that will generate billions of dollars in savings for Medicare and strengthen the care Medicare beneficiaries receive. The new law protects guaranteed benefits for all Medicare beneficiaries, and provides new benefits and services to seniors on Medicare that will help keep seniors healthy. The law also includes provisions that will improve the quality of care, develop and promote new models of care delivery, appropriately price services, modernize our health system, and fight waste, fraud, and abuse."
CON: "To partially offset the ACA's new spending, the law contains spending cuts to Medicare that amount to $716 billion from 2013 to 2022. The Medicare Trustees have warned since the law's passage that if these cuts are implemented as the law requires, they will significantly impact seniors' access to and quality of care. For example, the law reduces payments in the Medicare Advantage (MA) program, the private insurance option under Medicare, by $156 billion from 2013 to 2022. These cuts are already causing MA plans to adjust their benefit packages by restricting provider networks. The end result of course is that seniors have fewer provider options and in some cases are forced to find new doctors."
Hope this ALL Helps! Took me Time! :)
