Another big Obamacare success: the healthcare cost curve is bending

[Lief 🗽]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/11/20/this-chart-is-amazing-news-for-our-health-cost-problem/

Wonderful news! Thank you Obama!

[badgate]

Praise Our Powerful Beloved Obama

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Why is the length of time for the first series twice as long as the last?  Always take graphs/statistics that use uneven units / periods of measurement with a grain of salt... that's an easy way to skew numbers without making it obvious.

[Indy Texas]

Why is the length of time for the first series twice as long as the last?  Always take graphs/statistics that use uneven units / periods of measurement with a grain of salt... that's an easy way to skew numbers without making it obvious.

The graph shows average annual growth over the period in question; not cumulative growth from the beginning of the period to the end.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The growth was mostly due to the baby boomers advancing in age, using more healthcare.  That will continue I would think as the boomers move into their 60s and 70s and 80s even as spending on the 40s/50s aged crowd declines.

[King]

God bless this man and all that he has fought for.  May the Obamacare legislation and its infallible trust on the opinion of healthcare economic experts over ideologues stand as strong as the firewall which re-elected this President in 2012.

[jaichind]

See

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/11/15/president-obamas-claim-that-obamacare-has-helped-hold-down-health-care-costs/

"In his State of the Union address in February, the president made a somewhat less sweeping statement — “Already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health-care costs.”– that yielded him two Pinocchios. So has anything new emerged to change that assessment?"

"From 2009 to 2011, the annual rate of increase for national health care expenditures was around 3.9 percent, and the Medicare actuaries project that it was 4 percent in 2012 and will be 3.7 percent in 2013"

"The issue is whether the Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law, had much to do with it. The increase in health care spending in 2009, before the law was enacted, was just 3.9 percent as well."

[Brittain33]

Why is the length of time for the first series twice as long as the last?  Always take graphs/statistics that use uneven units / periods of measurement with a grain of salt... that's an easy way to skew numbers without making it obvious.

Inks, it might be interesting for you to research if 2000-2003 was a period of slow healthcare growth and 2004-2007 a period of unusually fast healthcare cost growth. This data is freely located on the web, and it would enable you to test your hypothesis that this data is misleading.

As others have said, since it shows annual change, it's a fair and equitable comparison. But perhaps there is some oddity introduced by grouping two time segments into one, I don't know.

[badgate]

See

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/11/15/president-obamas-claim-that-obamacare-has-helped-hold-down-health-care-costs/

"In his State of the Union address in February, the president made a somewhat less sweeping statement — “Already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health-care costs.”– that yielded him two Pinocchios. So has anything new emerged to change that assessment?"

"From 2009 to 2011, the annual rate of increase for national health care expenditures was around 3.9 percent, and the Medicare actuaries project that it was 4 percent in 2012 and will be 3.7 percent in 2013"

"The issue is whether the Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law, had much to do with it. The increase in health care spending in 2009, before the law was enacted, was just 3.9 percent as well."

Interesting theory. I wonder if in an alternate universe, would you be critical of President Romney taking credit for the Obama-created jobs boom that is coming.