Healthcare Costs To Skyrocket Over The Next Decade, According To A New Report

Looks like those predictions about ObamaCare driving up healthcare costs weren’t so wrong after all…

Via The Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein:

“In a report published on Wednesday by the journal Health Affairs, actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – who are viewed as the official source of health spending data – wrote that the recent slowdown in health spending was actually “primarily attributable to the sluggish economic recovery and constrained state and local government budgets following the 2007–09 recession.”

“Though the actuaries estimate that spending increased by a relatively modest 3.6 percent in 2013, they expect that growth rate to spike 5.6 percent in 2014 as an estimated 9 million previously uninsured Americans gain health coverage through Obamacare and spend more money on medical services. The actuaries project the law’s expansion of Medicaid will drive up spending on the program by 12.8 percent this year.

…

“As the economy improves, Obamacare continues to expand, and the Medicare age population explodes, health spending is expected to rise by an average of 6 percent a year over the 2015 to 2023 time period. Though this would be lower than the 7.2 percent average over the 1990 to 2008 span, it would still outpace the growth of the economy.

“Because of this, health spending as a share of gross domestic product is expected to increase from 17.2 percent in 2012 to 19.3 percent in 2023 – representing nearly one in five dollars of the economy.”

In his article, Klein mentions Obama’s 2009 healthcare speech that said “the status quo was unsustainable.” Well, from the likes of it, the future doesn’t look so sustainable either.