Fix Health Care Policy

What is President Obama’s plan for Medicare—Obamacare’s changes and beyond?

Heritage has a new Issue Brief, “Obama’s Medicare Plan: Seniors Will Pay More,” that details the future increases in out-of-pocket costs for seniors under current law and President Obama’s 2013 budget proposal.

Over the next five years, under current law, seniors in traditional Medicare are projected to face higher Part B and D premiums, along with other out-of-pocket cost increases. Instead of structurally reforming Medicare, President Obama’s 2013 budget proposal would raise premiums even further for upper-income enrollees in Parts B and D, while also imposing additional deductibles and co-payments (in certain cases) on newly joining baby boomers beginning in 2017.

“Obama’s latest budgetary scheme for cost-shifting to seniors is just another indication that the Administration and its allies on Capitol Hill are running out of options,” the authors write.

Read the full report here.

Tags: Medicare, out-of-pocket costs, pay more, plan, premiums, President Obama, Seniors, traditional program

While overall health care spending slowed in 2009, it is the underlying trend that is more troubling: the continuing decline in private coverage and the steady increase in government health care. These trends will only accelerate under Obamacare.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), total health care spending grew by 4 percent in 2009 to reach $2.5 trillion. This represents a slower rate of growth from 2008, but the slower increase still outpaced spending as an overall percentage of GDP.

The 3.2 percent decline in private coverage and the slowing of out-of-pocket spending by consumers are attributed to the recession. Fewer people with jobs mean fewer people with traditional employer-based health care coverage and less income to pay for health care.

The decline in private coverage is reportedly offset by a massive increase in Medicaid as more individuals enroll in the government health care program for the poor. According to CMS, Medicaid spending grew at a rate of 9 percent, nearly doubling from 4.9 percent in 2008. Moreover, the federal share of this spending increased 22 percent as the federal government picked up a greater share of the cost as directed under the stimulus bill. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, national health care spending, out-of-pocket costs, private coverage

“If you like your current health coverage, you can keep it.” It was a key promise of Obamacare.

But the new law gives government a say in everything from the benefits you carry to the treatment you receive. And that means very real changes to existing coverage. One of those many changes derive from new restrictions on flexible spending accounts (FSAs).

FSAs allow users to put aside pre-tax dollars for out-of-pocket health expenditures such as co-pays, deductibles, eyeglasses, and dental work. Typically, it cuts out-of-pocket costs by around 20 percent. FSAs are especially valuable for consumers with chronic illness and others who have large foreseeable medical costs (families: think orthodontics!). And because FSA funds cannot be rolled over year to year, the accounts encourage responsible budgeting and use of health services. (more…)

Tags: co-pays, deductibles, Flexible Spending Accounts, medical costs, out-of-pocket costs, Side Effects