{"id":8401,"date":"2013-02-18T05:57:03","date_gmt":"2013-02-18T13:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gasdetection.com\/?page_id=8401"},"modified":"2021-08-29T12:32:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-29T19:32:00","slug":"watching-affordable-care-act-unfold-maybe-unravel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gasdetection.com\/interscan-in-the-news\/magazine-articles\/watching-affordable-care-act-unfold-maybe-unravel\/","title":{"rendered":"Watching the Affordable Care Act Unfold (Or Maybe Unravel)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Health<\/a><\/p>\n

February 18, 2013<\/p>\n

Watching the Affordable Care Act Unfold (Or Maybe Unravel)<\/p>\n\"health\n

By\u00a0 Michael D. Shaw<\/p>\n

Narrowly passed by Congress, signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010, and then upheld on June 28, 2012 in a Supreme Court decision that can only be termed “bizarre,” provisions and promises of the ACA<\/a>\u2014also known as Obamacare\u2014are already being felt.<\/p>\n

You might remember the oft-repeated promise made by Obama in 2008, whereby health insurance premiums for American families would be cut by $2500, and this would occur within his first term. Presumably, he based this contention on a memo written for his campaign in May, 2007 by three well-regarded experts from Harvard: David Blumenthal, David Cutler, and Jeffrey Liebman.<\/p>\n

As they stated:<\/p>\n

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Combining all of these effects\u2014from improved health IT, better disease management, reduced insurance overhead, reinsurance, and reduced uncompensated care \u2014under our “best-guess” assumptions, we estimate that businesses will save $140 billion annually in insurance premiums. The typical family will save $2500 per year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In reality, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone whose premiums have decreased. Rather, according to the latest annual Kaiser Family Foundation employee health benefits survey, premiums for employer-provided family coverage rose $3065\u2014a 24% increase from 2008 to 2012. Looking only at the period after ACA became law, in 2011, premiums spiked 9.5%, and climbed another 4.5% in 2012.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, the Harvard dons fell for the ridiculous notion that deploying more health IT would be some sort of transformative and revolutionary process; as if putting medical records on computer instead of in file folders would somehow save billions of dollars all by itself. Quoting again from the memo…<\/p>\n

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Greater use of information technology is one key to a more efficient health care system, along with incentives to use that technology wisely. The RAND Corporation conservatively estimated that significant investment in health IT could save $77 billion per year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Harvard dons relied heavily on an article published in the September\/October 2005 issue of Health Affairs<\/em> entitled “Promoting Health Information Technology: Is There A Case For More-Aggressive Government Action?” This article was one of seven described as “related documents” in the now infamous RAND report I discussed in a recent column<\/a>. I say “infamous” since the report is now being disavowed by RAND itself, and was paid for by companies that stood to\u2014and did\u2014make billions off the health IT push.<\/p>\n

Notably, the same author names (including RAND stalwarts James Bigelow, Anthony Bower, and Roger Taylor) keep appearing in these documents, as these supposedly independent researchers cite themselves and each other. I don’t think that’s what we mean by “peer review.”<\/p>\n

Our Harvard Veritas<\/em> boys save the best for last, as they conclude their memo with this gem: “Thus, we believe that the Federal financing for the Obama health plan will be available using already-identified sources of revenue and without new taxes on the overwhelming majority of U.S. taxpayers.”<\/p>\n

Have you checked your pay stub recently? Moreover, Americans for Tax Reform lists the five worst of the 20 tax increases mandated by the ACA, with their estimates of the impact. Before you point out that ATR’s estimates could be as flawed as RAND’s, bear in mind that even if they are wildly inaccurate, it is undeniable that there will be tax increases\u2014contrary to the false promises of ACA’s cheerleaders.<\/p>\n