Lies about the Costs of Health Care Reform

Why are the American people so easily hoodwinked? It does not take more than a 4th or 5th math education to discover how unlikely the projected health care "savings" promoted by Obama are to be. If anything, our record deficits put us in even worse positions than the past.

Anyone who thinks this bill will save money in the long run is suffering from serious delusions. Anyone who thinks this bill will improve the quality of healthcare, or somehow miraculously bring down the cost of private health care is equally delusional.

From the Senate Joint Economic Committee report, "Are Health Care Reform Cost Estimates Reliable? History Shows True Costs Are Often Significantly Understated,"

Medicare (hospital insurance). In 1965, as Congress considered legislation to establish a national Medicare program, the House Ways and Means Committee estimated that the hospital insurance portion of the program, Part A, would cost about $9 billion annually by 1990.v Actual Part A spending in 1990 was $67 billion. The actuary who provided the original cost estimates acknowledged in 1994 that, even after conservatively discounting for the unexpectedly high inflation rates of the early ‘70s and other factors, “the actual [Part A] experience was 165% higher than the estimate.”

Medicare (entire program). In 1967, the House Ways and Means Committee predicted that the new Medicare program, launched the previous year, would cost about $12 billion in 1990. Actual Medicare spending in 1990 was $110 billion—off by nearly a factor of 10.

If you want more, here's Reason TV,