Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
More good news on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (aka "ObamaCare") -- it is bending the cost curve on healthcare costs, just as it was designed to do, which also bends the curve on federal deficits.
The latest good news come from the Federation of American Hospitals, which represents for-profit hospitals, and PwC’s Health Research Institute. Both argue in new studies out today that a big chunk of the slowdown is structural — and won’t disappear as the economy improves. Why are health care costs rising more slowly?:
Dobson DaVanzo & Associates, in a report for the hospital group, concludes that if present trends continue Medicare savings will be $1 trillion more in the next 10 years than the savings projected by the Congressional Budget Office in May. The changes, Al Dobson said in an interview, are the result of marketplace pressures and the Affordable Care Act, which set new penalties for hospital readmissions, and included bundled payments and other incentives for hospitals and doctors to find ways to cut costs without hurting patients.
* * *
PwC uses a medical cost trend–or growth rate–that measures the changes in the cost to treat patients and is influenced by the cost of products and services and utilization. The projection is based on interviews with health plans, a survey of employers and other data. They conclude that health-care spending growth will dip to 6.5 percent next year, adding that the slowing of health-care spending “defies historical post-recession patterns and is likely to be sustained” even as millions of uninsured Americans enter the health system next year.
“The long-term trends suggest that as the economy improves, the cycle of runaway cost increases will be broken,” said Michael Thompson, principal with PwC’s human resource services practice.
* * *
But the new reports fly in the face of research from other smart policy types, including Drew Altman and Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation . . . An analysis Kaiser conducted with the Altarum Institute found that health spending grew by 4.2 percent per year from 2008 to 2012, down from a peak of 8.8 percent from 2001 to 2003 – and that most of the slowdown – 77 percent — was due to years of a weak economy “which causes people to put off health services when they can and prompts employers and states to reduce health spending. The other 23 percent is explained by changes in the health system, including increased consumer cost-sharing, tighter managed care and modifications in payments and delivery.”
Contacted Monday, Levitt reiterated his view: “Over the last five decades, there has been a remarkably close relationship between the ups and downs in the economy and the ups and downs in health spending growth rates. The historic slowdown in health spending that we’re seeing now is consistent with that historical pattern, though there also appear to be significant structural factors at play as well.”
Recent success with bending the cost curve in healthcare costs is being complimented by an aggressive push to educate the public about the healthcare insurance exchanges being set up under "ObamaCare" to premiere on October 1. Push is on to promote health law:
The race is on to sign up uninsured Americans for health-care coverage this fall, with a number of large national advocacy groups launching aggressive, multimillion-dollar campaigns this summer aimed at promoting President Obama’s health-care law.
The groups are buying television ads, tapping social networks, training hundreds of new workers and volunteers and developing online and on-the-ground efforts akin to an enormous, months-long get-out-the-vote campaign. They aim to raise awareness in preparation for a big push leading up to open enrollment Oct. 1, when people can begin signing up for insurance plans and government subsidies available under the law.
“We’ll be engaging Americans in their homes and communities, getting mothers talking to children, neighbors talking to neighbors, friends talking to friends about the changes and what the new law means to them,” said Anne Filipic, president of Enroll America, a group that on Tuesday launched a campaign called “Get Covered America.”
The nonprofit coalition of advocacy organizations, health insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and others sprang up in conjunction with the law.
* * *
Planned Parenthood, the National Council of La Raza, the Service Employees International Union and Organizing for Action — the Democratic political-action group that grew out of Obama’s campaign apparatus — are also mobilizing this summer, along with many smaller groups. Their aim will be to spread awareness of the law’s benefits and persuade generally healthy people who lack coverage to sign up.
The groups’ work will be critical to the success of Obama’s signature domestic accomplishment, the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which is aimed at dramatically reducing the ranks of the uninsured over the next decade — by providing subsidies to low-income people to buy private plans and by expanding Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for the poor.
* * *
In a call with reporters Tuesday, Filipic — a former Obama campaign organizer and White House staffer — said the group’s research shows that 78 percent of uninsured people do not know about the changes coming in January.
That is when the law’s subsidies and Medicaid expansion — as well as the mandate that virtually every American carry health insurance or face a tax penalty of $95 in the first year — kick in.
The Obama administration is gearing up for its own awareness effort. It has secured an $8 million contract with the public relations firm Weber Shandwick and will launch a Web site this summer for people to register for online accounts and shop for health plans. The administration is also setting up a call center that will be open around the clock and be able to assist callers in 150 languages.
* * *
The coalition includes major players in the health world, including Aetna, the American Heart Association, Catholic Charities and CVS Caremark, as well as many nonprofits mounting their own independent efforts. The group has a presence in 18 states and will be holding strategy sessions and handing out information at farmers markets and churches this weekend.
* * *
Outreach efforts will be crucial because officials do not expect the tax penalty to be a motivator for people to sign up for coverage. The White House is banking on 2.7 million young, healthy people signing up for insurance in the first year to offset the cost to insurers of all the sick people expected to rush to enroll.
Many advocates say this goal is attainable, especially with the help of the nonprofit and advocacy groups.
* * *
Organizing for Action on Monday announced that it has purchased a seven-figure cable television ad buy aimed at raising awareness about enrollment options. The group has enlisted the help of about 800 unpaid fellows who will be serving as on-the-ground organizers, and it also has a vast e-mail network estimated at about 13 million people.
Young Invincibles, a youth-oriented organization that formed to help pass the health-care law, expects to train 1,000 community groups on how to help people find insurance. It is developing a mobile phone app that, among other things, will send reminders when it is time to sign up for insurance.
Arizona's healthcare insurance exchange will be set up by the federal government after Governor Jan Brewer and our Tea-Publican controlled legislature declined to set up an insurance exchange under state control.
Recent Comments