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From Forbes no less!

A new Congressional Budget Office report out last week has the healthcare world scratching its head over the possibility that Obamacare might—in part—be responsible for what is being described as a significant slowdown in the growth of healthcare costs in America.

According to the report, hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending for Medicare and Medicaid are being removed from government projections as federal healthcare spending is now expected to be full 15 percent less than what had been initially budgeted for 2012. The surprisingly low spending projections come as the growth in healthcare spending has hit a new low for the fourth consecutive year.

To be sure, a big part of the decline in healthcare spending is the result of the recession’s impact on people’s ability to lay out cash on health related expenditures. Indeed, up until this point, most analysts have agreed that the poor economy was pretty much the sole cause for the improvement we have seen in containing the explosion of healthcare spending.

Now, experts are beginning to recognize that the Affordable Care Act may, in fact, be contributing to the good news—a significant development as bending the cost curve was a primary goal of Obamacare.

Douglas Elmendorf, Director of the CBO, noted that while much of the savings are the result of a loss of wealth due to the recession. But, for the first time, Elmendorf was willing to say that a ‘significant part’ of the savings are the result of structural change in how healthcare is now being delivered.

While the new data suggests that some of the changes in how providers are paid for delivering healthcare began—and were having a positive impact—prior to passage of Obamacare, the ACA codifies these changes in payment procedures for physicians and hospitals, taking what now appears to be programs that are slowing the growth in costs and applying them to all providers throughout the nation.

Importantly, the slowdown in the cost of care is happening in both the overall rate of spending and government spending. Writes Annie Lowrey in the New York Times—

“The slowdown has occurred in both government and overall health spending. From 2009 to 2011, total health spending grew at the lowest annual pace since the government started keeping records 52 years ago, a trend that seems to have continued last year. In the 2012 fiscal year, Medicare spending per beneficiary grew just 0.4 percent. The new Congressional Budget Office data said that overall Medicare outlays grew 3 percent in 2012, the slowest rate since 2000.”

The multi-billion dollar question is whether this positive trend will continue as we have seen slowdowns in the past only to see the curve explode upwards after a pause.

The answer to that question matters as Lowrey reports—

“Slower cost growth would have ramifications far beyond the deficit. According to calculations by White House economists, slowing the annual growth rate of health care costs by 1.5 percentage points might increase economic output by 2 percent in 2020 and 8 percent in 2030. It might also lead to higher wages for workers and more room for productive investments in the budget.”

While we can expect the Obamacare bashers to pour cold water on this good news, there is no denying that the law is paying some dividends in the critically important effort to bend the cost curve in healthcare delivery.

Could this be enough to open people up to contemplating that there may just be other good news to come thanks to health care reform?

Douglas Elmendorf, Director of the CBO, noted that while much of the savings are the result of a loss of wealth due to the recession. But, for the first time, Elmendorf was willing to say that a ‘significant part’ of the savings are the result of structural change in how healthcare is now being delivered.

FIFY. You highlighted the wrong part. Plus the structural changes are about Medicare and Medicaid which were further underfunded and as a result, those costs are shifted onto premium payers.

From Forbes no less!

You failed to notice this:

Rick Ungar, Contributor

Writing from the left on politics and policy.

Which of course is why he would title it that way and then proceed to show that there is no bending whatsoever for those who actually have to pay. Obamacare was sold to us as reducing premiums by an average $2500 in Obama's first term. Instead, they've actually risen by $3000 since then.

FIFY. You highlighted the wrong part. Plus the structural changes are about Medicare and Medicaid which were further underfunded and as a result, those costs are shifted onto premium payers.

Are you seriously this dumb? I highlighted the part that needed to be recognized for my point to be made. You ignore it like you do every valid point, and then highlight something irrelevant that doesn't do anything to change that point. And now you're continuing this lie about Medicare being underfunded. You really need to get with the program, burst that bubble of yourse, and get up to speed with what's been refuted for months now.

You failed to notice this:

I did notice it, but so what?
How does that change the facts as they were laid out in the article? I doubt you would have any problem admitting your ubiquitous posts are positions from the Right, right? Does that mean they should be dismissed on that basis alone?

Obamacare was sold to us as reducing premiums by an average $2500 in Obama's first term. Instead, they've actually risen by $3000 since then.

No, that isn't how it was sold. It was sold on the basis that millions of Americans would have health insurance. Eventually premiums will go down but insurance companies are using this as an excuse to jack up premiums just like they did back in 2010 when it was proved their increased rates had nothing to do with AFA. Besides, the CBO had already projected increased premiums before it was passed, but they haven't gone up nearly as much as you and your idiot sources are predicting/asserting, and they aren't attributable to the ACA anyway. I've already refuted that Right Wing piece of nonsense in the other thread.