U.S. healthcare costs rising at slower pace
By Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — The relentless rise in healthcare spending — which had threatened government budgets and helped pave the way for President Obama’s health law — continued to moderate in 2012, the fourth year of a historic slowdown, newly released federal data show.
Overall spending on healthcare rose less than 4 percent in 2012, less than half the rate of a decade ago, independent economists at the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services concluded.
For only the third time in the last 15 years, health spending grew more slowly than the overall economy as measured by the non-inflation-adjusted U.S. gross domestic product. That meant that healthcare shrank slightly as a share of the U.S. economy, from 17.3 percent in 2011 to 17.2 percent in 2012.
The devil is in the details. ACA has had insignificant impact in 2012 because it was not implemented yet. The only thing we read about was rising health insurance rates, limitating of coverage by plans or cancellation of plans.
This is clearly a whitewash article written by a for hire “reporter”.
This article is a pile of Bull #%*#.
Did either of you read the article?
“In fact, the authors said that from 2010 to 2012, the Affordable Care Act on balance increased overall healthcare spending by about one-10th of a percent.”
Too bad you didn’t read the article.
Typical conservative shenanigans. Keep parroting those talking points.
Health Care Costs Drop! Wow! This is going to really “piss off” the doom and gloom crowd. Well, they can still keep hoping for the Rapture or 2012 Mayan Calendar end of the world stuff.