The federal government’s Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise colloquially known as Obamacare, has come with a price-tag of $73 billion since 2010, a number that is far greater than what was initially (2010) projected by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Obamacare’s high costs are related to spending for healthcare.gov and related programs at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other federal agencies, according to an analysis published by Bloomberg Government, citing estimates provided by the Obama administration.
The website alone has cost taxpayers $2.1 billion.
Healthcare.gov has been the primary portal for millions of Americans to sign up for the healthcare coverage. The website, which has been experiencing dire issues since being rolled out a year ago, has been the subject of intense disagreement between the administration and Republican officials.
Peter Gosselin, a senior health-care analyst at BGov and lead author of study, argued that the way the health reform system has been instituted “has been very messy” as spending has been allocated to dozens of contractors, which were given prior to the implementation as well as during the amendments stage.
“One of the reasons it has been implemented in the way it has been, financially, is precisely to deny opponents of the law a clear target,” Gosselin said in the report.
An example given by the business news publication is the number of contractors involved with the construction of healthcare.gov, which consisted of 60 firms that were supervised by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) employees rather than a lead contractor.
However, Aaron Albright, a spokesman for CMS, attempted to retort the report’s calculations. “The GAO, HHS’s Inspector General and the department all measured the cost of marketplace-related IT contracts for healthcare.gov,” Albright said in an e-mail to the outlet. “But this report measures different things, and not surprisingly, produces a different number.”
Nevertheless, Gosselin still highlights the costs to be rather exorbitant, especially when compared to other items the government spends, including the F-35 joint strike fighter, the most expensive weapons system that came with a bill of $54.9 billion.
Although the cost of Obamacare is still growing by the day because only 40 percent of it has been implemented and the law changes any time the executive branch pleases, the American Thinker opines that the biggest issue is that the government doesn’t have the ability to monitor and track spending for the medical care reform law. The publication went as far as accusing the administration of releasing phony numbers.
“The Congressional Budget Office no longer scores Obamacare because the president has altered the law so massively,” wrote Rick Moran. “In truth, we have no idea how much this monstrosity is going to cost us over the next decade. Last report was $2.1 trillion. I would imagine that number has ballooned since then.”
Hospital costs falling
Despite the studies highlighting the enormous costs to taxpayers, a new report suggests that some hospital expenditures are falling within the first year of Obamacare. According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), hospitals are projected to save $5.7 billion in uncompensated care costs this year.
The report notes that $4.2 billion of the savings occurred from the 27 states that permitted a Medicaid expansion in relation to the ACA, and an extra $1.5 billion in savings from states that opted out of expansion.
“Hospitals have long been on the front lines of caring for the uninsured, who often cannot pay the full cost of their care. Today’s news is good for families, businesses and taxpayers alike,” said HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell before the report’s release.
The latest CBS News/New York Times poll shows the healthcare law maintains a 41 percent approval rating.
