I've been posting about the number of people who now have insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and it turns out to be millions of Americans -- even more than was originally predicted by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Now there's more good news about Obamacare numbers, and this time those numbers involve the costs of the program.
Back in February, the CBO projected that Obamacare would cost about $1.487 trillion between 2015 and 2024. Now the CBO has revised that estimate -- downward. They now say the program will cost only $1.383 trillion during that 10 year period. That's about $104 billion less than their previous estimate.
Now you may be asking yourself -- how can Obamacare be covering more people with health insurance than expected and still cost less money than expected. The main reason is that the insurance premiums have cost less than the CBO had thought they would cost, so the subsidies needed to help many of those who bought private policies aren't costing as much as expected.
And the good news doesn't end there. Both the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) agree that the provisions of the Affordable Care Act "will reduce federal budget deficits by $152 billion over the 2015-2024 period".
So, to summarize -- Obamacare has provided health insurance for more people than expected, will cost less than expected while providing better insurance, and will actually reduce the budget deficit. It seems that the right-wing Republicans were wrong about all of these things. And that's not a Democratic opinion -- but the opinions of the bipartisan CBO and JCT.
Obamacare has not solved all of the problems of our health care system, and it has not covered all American with health insurance -- but it is a big improvement, and it has done exactly what the president promised it would do. By any measure, Obamacare is a huge success.
