tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8054521671768779399.post2550943476798075823..comments2023-10-30T12:22:17.806-04:00Comments on Liberty Takes Effort: Getting past healthcare noiseLiberty Takes Efforthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13398225334133635697noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8054521671768779399.post-87753840207325322572017-03-20T07:34:02.239-04:002017-03-20T07:34:02.239-04:00This opinion piece in the Washington Post on March...This opinion piece in the Washington Post on March 20, 2017 by Robert J. Samuelson provides insight into Medicaid and an alternative path that is worthy of debate. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/medicaid-is-out-of-control-heres-how-to-fix-it/2017/03/19/05167e9e-0b2e-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.htmlLiberty Takes Efforthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13398225334133635697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8054521671768779399.post-23321776957536055362017-03-19T15:02:29.119-04:002017-03-19T15:02:29.119-04:00The Congressional Budget Office and the staff of t...The Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (CBO and JCT) have evaluated the impact of the Ryan plan. The CBO is a non-partisan organization of the Congress that evaluates the impact of legislation. <br /><br />The CBO estimates that enacting Ryan’s legislation would reduce federal deficits by $337 billion over the 2017-2026 period. The net $337 billion savings results from a combination of $1.2T in reduced outlays (e.g. Medicaid costs and ACA insurance subsidies) and $.9T in reduced revenues (e.g. reduced taxes and fees collected through ACA changes in the IRS code). <br /> <br />The estimate also predicts that in 2018 14 million more people would be uninsured under the legislation than under current law. Most of that decrease would result from people choosing to not buy insurance who now buy it because of the individual mandate penalty.<br /><br />Further, in 2026, an estimated 52 million people would be uninsured. That 52 million includes 28 million who would be uninsured under current Obamacare law, the 14 million who will chose to drop insurance, and in large part the remaining 10 million would result from “changes in Medicaid enrollment.”<br /><br />ObamaCare did reduce the number of uninsured from about 40 million to about 28 million, but not for the reasons predicted. The reduction came primarily from the expansion of Medicaid and the inclusion of children to the age of 26 in parental policies.<br /><br />Some have chosen to minimize the CBO report for various reasons, but the CBO cannot and should not be ignored. Their present and near term projections are often very accurate. As with all predictive assessments the longer term projections decrease in accuracy because straight line long term projections are always inaccurate due to unintended consequences or disruptive events, behavior or technology. <br /><br />That said, 2026 is not that far away and even if one adds a 20% error factor to the CBO estimate it is still a lot of people uninsured.<br />Liberty Takes Efforthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13398225334133635697noreply@blogger.com