Yes. Among right-wingers, it's an article of faith that Obamacare drove up healthcare costs. Yet there are plenty of statistical sources we can use to check that idea, including the healthcare inflation statistic I cited. That real-world evidence all tells the same story: although healthcare costs continued to rise after Obamacare, they rose at a drastically lower rate than was typical before Obamacare. It appears to cause right-wingers a great deal of mental distress when the tropes they cherish run up against such facts.
How much has Obamacare saved the American people?
- Thread starter Oneuli
- Start date
Lightbringer
Loves Me Some Souls
Econ101 baby. Increase demand...don't increase supply...what happens?
Obama can be rightly criticized for having overstated the case for Obamacare: claiming it would actually lower costs, rather than merely lowering the rate of cost growth. If people want to call him a liar for that, that's fine with me. He knew better, but overstated the case anyway. It wasn't dishonesty of a Trumpian scale, but it was dishonest, and I won't defend him on that front. But the topic here is Obamacare, not Obama. Obamacare did, in fact, greatly reduce the rate of healthcare inflation -- to the point that prices have risen much less since Obamacare passed than in ANY comparably lengthy period before Obamacare. You can confirm that yourself with the data link I provided.
Superfreak
Verified User
Comparing healthcare rates on healthcare without adjusting for overall inflation rates is misleading. Of course healthcare inflation rates are going to go up higher under Carter like inflation than they are under sub 2% inflation that we have seen in the past decade. So to do an apples to apples comparison, you must adjust for over all inflation.
Do the math yourself, if you don't believe me. How much have healthcare costs risen since Obamacare, in percentage terms? Now, find ANY OTHER PERIOD IN HISTORY, before Obamacare, when healthcare costs rose that little over a period that long. You won't be able to. At least going back to the start of the data at that source, in 1947, costs rose a greater percentage in every other period of that length.
No, that's not the argument. I'm not comparing the rate of increase since Obamacare to the highest rates of increase from prior periods of that length and arguing "it could be worse." Instead, I'm comparing the rate of increase since Obamacare to the lowest rates of increase from prior periods of that length and pointing out IT HAS NEVER BEEN BETTER. So, it's not that it could have increased faster. It's that it WOULD HAVE increased faster. Much faster, in fact, according to all prior experience.
So, you confirmed I was right. Or are you just absolute shit at reading graphs? If so, that's fine. You can use the link to download the data and do the calculations, so that even if you suck at reading graphs, you'll be able to confirm the truth of what I say. If you find you need help, don't be too embarrassed to reach out for it. I'll be happy to walk you through.
We're not talking about mere speculation that things might have been worse. We're talking about the FACT that healthcare inflation since Obamacare has been significantly lower than the RECORD LOWEST healthcare inflation for a period of that length before Obamacare.
Perhaps you need to do the math; Americans were told that healthcare costs would actually go down. They were also told they could keep their doctors. They were also told they could keep their plans.
All of these were lies. Why do you keep pontificating about the lower cost of increase when Obamacare has not lived up to ANY of its promises snowflake?
Obama didn't say Obamacare would reduce the rate of increase; he actually claimed they would go DOWN and that they would LOWER the deficit.
Jonathan Gruber Videos: Oneuli "Too Stupid to Understand" Obamacare
Now, imagine the exact opposite scenario. Imagine that Obamacare went into effect, and over the next eight years and eight months, the healthcare inflation wasn't just above average, but was so vastly far above average that it blew away the prior record for the most healthcare inflation over a period of that length.
Would you be in here saying "No causative effect that I can see." You know perfectly well you wouldn't. In fact, EVERYONE here knows perfectly well you wouldn't. If the post-Obamacare era had set a dramatically higher new record for most healthcare cost increases, rather than a dramatically lower new record for least healthcare cost increases, you'd do the reasonable thing and infer cause and effect. But because it runs contrary to your prejudices, rather than reinforcing them, there's nothing that would cause you to infer causation.
Americans were told that healthcare costs would actually go down. They were also told they could keep their doctors. They were also told they could keep their plans.
All of these were lies. Why do you keep pontificating about the lower cost of increase when Obamacare has not lived up to ANY of its promises snowflake?
Obama didn't say Obamacare would reduce the rate of increase; he actually claimed they would go DOWN and that they would LOWER the deficit.
Jonathan Gruber Videos: Oneuli "Too Stupid to Understand" Obamacare
Costing over a trillion dollars to shred the Constitution and double my insurance premiums while forcing me to lose the doctor I wanted to keep (contrary to everything we were promised) and making everything worse "saved" us money in the same way that illegal immigrants "help" our economy.
It didn't cost anything. It saved money. Go back and reread.
Americans were told that healthcare costs would actually go down. They were also told they could keep their doctors. They were also told they could keep their plans.
All of these were lies. Why do you keep pontificating about the lower cost of increase when Obamacare has not lived up to ANY of its promises snowflake?
Obama didn't say Obamacare would reduce the rate of increase; he actually claimed they would go DOWN and that they would LOWER the deficit.
Jonathan Gruber Videos: Oneuli "Too Stupid to Understand" Obamacare
As you know, I made no claim that it was incumbent on you. So, who do you think did make such a claim? Try not to be so dumb.
I see no causative effect. You're speculating, and your speculation is informed by your prejudices.
Look at the stats. What do you think happened to account for the US setting a new record for the least healthcare cost growth over a period of this length?
