DOGE

what has happened to healthcare inflation since the ACA went into effect?

ChatGPT said:​

Great question. Let’s break it down carefully, because there are a few different measures of “healthcare inflation” and the Affordable Care Act (ACA, enacted 2010, major provisions starting in 2014) has affected them in different ways.


1.​

  • Pre-ACA trend (2000–2009): U.S. healthcare spending was growing much faster than GDP and general inflation. Per capita health expenditures were rising at ~6–7% annually.
  • Post-ACA (2010s): Healthcare cost growth slowed sharply. From 2010–2019, national health expenditures grew at an average rate of ~4% per year, the slowest decade in half a century.
    • This was partly due to the lingering effects of the Great Recession, but most analyses credit the ACA with at least some role, especially in reducing Medicare payment growth and penalizing hospital readmissions.

2.​

  • The medical care component of CPI also slowed after the ACA.
    • 2000–2009: grew around 3.8% annually.
    • 2010–2019: slowed to around 2.2% annually.
    • In the late 2010s, it was often close to or even below overall CPI—very unusual historically.

3.​

  • Premium growth also moderated:
    • 2000–2010: family premiums grew at ~7% annually.
    • 2010–2020: growth slowed to ~4% annually.
  • However, employees’ deductibles and cost-sharing rose significantly, meaning out-of-pocket costs still climbed.

4.​

  • The pandemic distorted healthcare spending (elective care dropped in 2020, then rebounded).
  • Recently, healthcare inflation has picked up again, largely due to rising wages for healthcare workers, drug prices, and hospital costs. In 2023–2024, medical CPI was running 3–5% annually, again above overall inflation.

Summary

  • Since the ACA went into effect, healthcare inflation slowed dramatically in the 2010s, hitting the lowest rates in decades.
  • The ACA’s cost-containment provisions (Medicare payment reforms, value-based purchasing, limits on insurer overhead, penalties for readmissions) are widely credited with helping, though the economic environment also played a role.
  • Since the pandemic, cost growth has accelerated again, and healthcare is once more outpacing overall inflation.

Would you like me to put together a graph showing medical CPI vs overall CPI before and after the ACA so you can visualize the slowdown?
 
They will die !!!!

Man I hear this a lot,
Except when Dems do the same exact thing

People are over it, the fear mongering doesn’t work

Time to bring real solutions or back up your batshit opinions or GTFO the way.
Well, unless you need to make rural people afraid of immigrants and trans people. Then it’s actually highly effective.
 
what has happened to healthcare inflation since the ACA went into effect?

ChatGPT said:​

Great question. Let’s break it down carefully, because there are a few different measures of “healthcare inflation” and the Affordable Care Act (ACA, enacted 2010, major provisions starting in 2014) has affected them in different ways.


1.​

  • Pre-ACA trend (2000–2009): U.S. healthcare spending was growing much faster than GDP and general inflation. Per capita health expenditures were rising at ~6–7% annually.
  • Post-ACA (2010s): Healthcare cost growth slowed sharply. From 2010–2019, national health expenditures grew at an average rate of ~4% per year, the slowest decade in half a century.
    • This was partly due to the lingering effects of the Great Recession, but most analyses credit the ACA with at least some role, especially in reducing Medicare payment growth and penalizing hospital readmissions.

2.​

  • The medical care component of CPI also slowed after the ACA.
    • 2000–2009: grew around 3.8% annually.
    • 2010–2019: slowed to around 2.2% annually.
    • In the late 2010s, it was often close to or even below overall CPI—very unusual historically.

3.​

  • Premium growth also moderated:
    • 2000–2010: family premiums grew at ~7% annually.
    • 2010–2020: growth slowed to ~4% annually.
  • However, employees’ deductibles and cost-sharing rose significantly, meaning out-of-pocket costs still climbed.

4.​

  • The pandemic distorted healthcare spending (elective care dropped in 2020, then rebounded).
  • Recently, healthcare inflation has picked up again, largely due to rising wages for healthcare workers, drug prices, and hospital costs. In 2023–2024, medical CPI was running 3–5% annually, again above overall inflation.

Summary

  • Since the ACA went into effect, healthcare inflation slowed dramatically in the 2010s, hitting the lowest rates in decades.
  • The ACA’s cost-containment provisions (Medicare payment reforms, value-based purchasing, limits on insurer overhead, penalties for readmissions) are widely credited with helping, though the economic environment also played a role.
  • Since the pandemic, cost growth has accelerated again, and healthcare is once more outpacing overall inflation.

Would you like me to put together a graph showing medical CPI vs overall CPI before and after the ACA so you can visualize the slowdown?
Omg our PhD is arguing that ACA was a good thing for costs

Skip college kiddos
 
Well, unless you need to make rural people afraid of immigrants and trans people. Then it’s actually highly effective.
Illegal immigrants or legal ones? You guys never differentiate.

But the nightly news does both. Talk to them about fear mongering. You guys always turn to censorship anyway.
 
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Illegal immigrants or legal ones? You guys never differentiate.

But the nightly news does both. Talk to them about fear mongering. You guys always turn to censorship anyway.
Yes, the media sucks too. That doesn’t mean your side isn’t fear mongering. Donald Trump just said we’re in a state of war in Portland, Oregon for fuck’s sake.
 
what has happened to the growth rate of national spending on healthcare and the growth rate of federal spending on health care since the ACA

ChatGPT said:​

Good question — the Affordable Care Act (ACA) changed both the level and the composition of U.S. healthcare spending, so it’s helpful to separate (a) national health expenditures (NHE) and (b) federal health spending (Medicare, Medicaid, subsidies).


1.​

Before ACA (2000–2009):

  • Health spending grew about 6–7% per year, much faster than GDP.
  • Health’s share of GDP rose from ~13% (2000) to ~17% (2009).
After ACA (2010s):

  • Growth slowed sharply. From 2010–2019, NHE grew at about 4% per year on average — the slowest decade in 50+ years.
  • Healthcare’s share of GDP still rose, but more gradually (to ~17.7% in 2019).
  • Factors: ACA payment reforms (especially Medicare), slower drug spending, Great Recession after-effects, and the shift to high-deductible plans.
Pandemic (2020–2022):

  • Big distortions: 2020 spending dipped as elective care collapsed, then rebounded with federal relief payments to providers.
  • By 2022, NHE was about 18.3% of GDP.
  • Growth picked up again in 2023–2024 due to higher wages in healthcare, drug costs, and hospital prices.

2.​

Medicare and Medicaid are the main drivers here.

  • Medicare (pre-ACA): Costs rising fast — ~7% annually in the 2000s.
  • Post-ACA: Growth slowed significantly. CBO estimated ACA Medicare provisions (payment reforms, reduced overpayments to Medicare Advantage, penalties for readmissions) extended Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund solvency by ~8 years. From 2010–2019, Medicare spending growth per beneficiary was unusually low (~2% annually).
  • Medicaid:
    • Grew sharply in states that adopted ACA expansion starting in 2014.
    • Federal spending jumped because Washington initially covered 100% of expansion costs (2014–2016), then phased down to 90%.
    • Even with this expansion, per-enrollee cost growth remained modest, because Medicaid pays providers less than private insurance.
  • ACA Marketplace Subsidies (Premium Tax Credits, Cost-Sharing Reductions):
    • These were new categories of federal health spending, starting in 2014.
    • By 2019, subsidies totaled ~$53 billion, small compared with Medicare and Medicaid.
Overall:

  • Federal health spending increased as a share of the budget due to Medicaid expansion and subsidies, but the growth rate slowed compared to pre-ACA baselines, especially for Medicare.
  • The CBO repeatedly revised downward its 10-year Medicare and Medicaid spending projections during the 2010s, citing unexpectedly slow growth.

📊

  • National healthcare spending: Growth slowed from ~6–7% (2000s) to ~4% (2010s), lowest in decades.
  • Federal health spending: Jumped in level due to Medicaid expansion + subsidies, but Medicare growth slowed dramatically, making overall federal health spending grow more slowly than pre-ACA projections had forecast.
  • Post-2020: Growth is accelerating again, driven by wages, hospitals, and drugs, with healthcare once more outpacing GDP.
 
Yes, the media sucks too. That doesn’t mean your side isn’t fear mongering. Donald Trump just said we’re in a state of war in Portland, Oregon for fuck’s sake.
We are - Thats what happens when you have an embedded Marxist revolt in your country.
 
Maybe Trumps stormtroopers were there this whole time. BL suggested they were the only issue in Portland I believe.

There was a secret law enforcement force sweeping the nation causing chaos in blue cities narrative that duped half the population.
 
MQT is great at calling out his own parties issues in the past.

Never seems to be that keen on seeing hte obvious in the present.
 
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