(WASHINGTON TIMES) The U.S. will spend slightly more on health care over the next decade than it would have had President Obama’s Affordable Care Act not passed, according to a new estimate released Tuesday by the federal government.
If the Supreme Court upholds the law later this month, the Affordable Care Act is expected to add $478 billion to health care costs over the next decade, driving up average spending by one-10th of a percent faster than if the law had never been passed, according to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services.
While Republicans said the data proves the health care law won’t solve the problem of ballooning health care costs, the administration defended the law, saying Americans’ out-of-pocket expenses will be less beginning in 2014, particularly on prescription drug.