Ten years of Obamacare would cost 1.76 trillon dollars - far more than originally claimed

Thursday, March 22, 2012 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: Obamacare, health care, costs

(NaturalNews) According to new spending projections issued by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the costs associated with implementing Obamacare over the next ten years are more than double what the Obama Administration claimed when first pushing for its passage. Through 2022, the gross spending requirements for the federal government to fully implement this progressive form of universal healthcare in the U.S. are an astounding $1.76 trillion dollars, also written as $1,760,000,000,000.

"The ACA's (Affordable Care Act) provisions related to insurance coverage are now projected to have a net cost of $1,252 billion over the 2012-2022 period," says the CBO report. "[T]hat amount represents a gross cost to the federal government of $1,762 billion, offset in part by $510 billion in receipts and other budgetary effects (primarily revenues from penalties and other sources)" (http://cbo.gov/publication/43080).

As can be expected, the economic implications of such a lofty hike in actual versus estimated costs are ominous. $1.76 trillion is nearly half of the entire 2011 federal budget (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_States_federal_budget), and more than 11 percent of the entire national debt (http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/). If it fails to get repealed or declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, Obamacare will translate into an enormous financial burden of unprecedented proportions.

"Only next year will we get a true ten-year cost estimate, if the law isn't overturned by the Supreme Court or repealed by then," writes Philip Klein at the Washington Examiner. "Given that in 2022, the last year available, the gross cost of the coverage expansion are $265 billion, we're likely looking at about $2 trillion over the first decade, or more than double what Obama advertised" (http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com).

Perhaps the worst part of it all is that the revised spending projections fail to specify how the money will be spent, or how it will even cover more underinsured or uninsured individuals. According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the spending plan will only provide insurance coverage for a small percentage of those currently without insurance, which leaves one to wonder where all this money will be going (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124536826475329427.html).

"The details haven't been made public, but the short version seems to be that President Obama's health boondoggle prescribes vast new spending without a coherent plan to pay for it even while failing to meet its own standards for social equity," says the WSJ. "The CBO score for a new entitlement is only the teaser rate, given that the costs will inevitably balloon as the years pass and more people mob 'free' or subsidized insurance."

Sources for this article include:

http://cbo.gov/publication/43080