A little Health Care reminder

An email correspondent wrote me:

You still believe that ACE [sic- he means ACA] is going to rein in health care costs??? Knowing that one can make numbers do anything one wants them to, and that all the ACE calculations are based on hypothesis and not fact, I find it unbelievable that you keep espousing the party line. Granted ACE will be affordable for those who don’t pay taxes and who don’t have healthcare, but for those of who do and have to pay for those who don’t????

Here's my response:

I think it's reasonable to be suspicious of any numbers, but just because a study (or, studies) by the CBO supports a liberal position doesn't mean it's necessarily wrong either.


Here's what is indisputably true: the ACA does something to slow the growth of health costs in Medicare. It may not be enough. It may be overturned by a future congress. It may be swamped by unrelated increases from a now-unthought of corner. But it will definitely introduce cost controls that would not be there without it. That's why the Republicans were able to gin up senior citizens with misleading stories about how their Medicare would be cut- because there actually are Medicare cuts.

I'm continually frustrated by the Right's refusal to understand something: they reason that because the ACA raises health care spending by extending it to the uninsured, it can't possibly reduce the deficit. But for those of us who took 1st grade Math, I would point out that spending can be offset by increases in revenue- the ACA raises revenues through various taxes that pay for the increased benefits. So to criticize the ACA for raising our taxes is perfectly legit- it does. To criticize it for increasing the deficit is just wrong- it doesn't.

It's like conservatives have decided that spending and deficits are the same thing. Similarly, they scream about out of control spending even though the current deficits were largely caused by the Bush tax cuts, not spending.