More bad news for the Obamacare naysayers. There’s been a dramatic drop in expected Medicare spending — $50 billion in savings this year against costs predicted four years ago.
It’s complicated, of course, and precise explanations aren’t readily at hand. But, expensive hospital readmissions are down. And ….
The health care law[Obamacare] included lots of changes to the way that doctors get paid within the Medicare program, all aimed at getting doctors to provide better care at lower costs. That’s true, for example, with readmissions: Obamacare now penalizes hospitals when their patient shows up for a second visit that didn’t need to happen, if everything had gone right the first time.
Facts don’t matter to the faithful, of course. Obama and his health bill MUST be bad. Still ….
“The numbers are impressive, and the consecutive year-to-year reductions in projected Medicare spending are unprecedented,” Kaiser Family Foundation’s Tricia Neuman and Juliette Cubanski, who drew up the above chart, write. “The unexpected $1,000 per beneficiary reduction in spending this year may ease short-term budgetary pressures on Medicare and could provide an opportunity for thoughtful consideration of ways to bolster the program for an aging population.”