Exra wonks out on the cost savings of EPI health care plan that democrats have adopted with a few marginal changes anf find an extra trillion over 10 years:
EzraKlein | The American Prospect – National Health Care Saves Money
The bottom line is that the Hacker structure covers just about everyone and saves huge amounts of money. At the start, bringing the changes to the system and the broad expansion of coverage to 46 million (or so) Americans means total federal spending increases by about $50 billion, but employer spending decreases by $10 billion, families save $22 billion, and states save about $20 billion. So it evens out.But that’s only on day one. Then, over time, the new system does quite a bit to cut costs through “restricting provider payment increases, negotiating deeper drug discounts, and simplified administration.” The bottom line of the report is that “under these cost controls, total national health spending over the 2008 through 2017 period would be about $1.04 trillion less than under current law over that same period.” That’s $1.04 trillion in savings even with 47 million more Americans covered and far less economic insecurity for the rest of us.
Hmmm, take that with a big grain of salt. Advocates will tend to exaggerate benefits to get reform passed in Congress. Even if it cost slightly more than the current plan at first, I’m OK with that because of the benefits of extending coverage and reducing the economic loss attributable to forgoing health care.
