Just sayin’, you know?
This is news economists and budget watchers and policy makers have been hoping to hear for 60 years.
Here it is — did you see it in your local paper? On TV? On Facebook?
Chart showing news coverage of record low health care cost rises. From ThinkProgress
Health spending rose at just 1.3% since 2010.. lowest ever in a 3yr period..How much media coverage? #PDMFNB http://t.co/WzvppoixvA—
diane straub (@didikins4life) November 23, 2013
One criticism aimed at the Affordable Care Act that had some legs was that it did not go far enough to control actual costs. Cost controls would have been impossible to add to the bill, politically. So the hope was that this first step would have some impact.
In 2009, health care cost inflation ran about 20% per year, despite the recession. For the previous two decades, health care costs inflated at a greater-than 10% clip every year.
By 2012, with a push from the reforms in the ACA, Bill Clinton reported that health care cost inflation had dropped to 4% per year.
Now? 1.3%. This is huge news.
Who covered it? Not many, according to ThinkProgress.
Bad news gets 24-hour coverage and bulletins during the ads. Good news is an orphan. How wrong is that?
Bookmark the chart and ThinkProgress; you’ll need facts in your discussions.
More:
- Another View: Assembly Republicans defend Obamacare website (sacbee.com)
- CBS Notices ‘Another Problem’ With ObamaCare – Higher Deductibles; ABC, NBC Omit (newsbusters.org)
- Members of Congress shocked to discover health care system sucks (washingtonpost.com)
- Colin Powell Pitches Single-Payer Health Care in US – ABC News (blog) (abcnews.go.com)
- State health care exchanges and Obamacare: Background research on key questions (journalistsresource.org)
- The ultimate guide to buying insurance on HealthCare.gov (washingtonpost.com)
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 