Health Reform Won't Save Money

I said it back then and will say it again here, the math never jived with health care reform. What the politicians were saying simply didn't comply with basic plus-minus financial measures. It was based, from what I could see, on too many ifs and assumptions. One of those was that GDP had to outpace health care costs. With unemployment worsening in the States, I don't see how that's gonna happen. If costs pull ahead of growth, how can there be any savings?


Health care reform was introduced at the worst possible time. Post WWII was the time to do it when the economies of North America (thanks to net savings, healthy spending and growth) were able to absorb welfare expansions.

From the NYT:

In signing the measure last month, President Obama said it would “bring down health care costs for families and businesses and governments.”


But Mr. Foster said, “Overall national health expenditures under the health reform act would increase by a total of $311 billion,” or nine-tenths of 1 percent, compared with the amounts that would otherwise be spent from 2010 to 2019.

Point out all you want about the benefits of health care reform but saving money (whatever that meant in the first place) ain't one of them. It isn't here in Canada (as far as government expenditures go) so why should it be in the States?