14 Jan 2014 Has ObamaCare Reduced Medicare Spending? Part 1

Writing in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, claimed  that the current slowdown in national health care spending “is thanks in part to the Affordable Care Act….Many factors, including the recession and one-time developments like blockbuster drugs coming off patent, have contributed to the slowdown, which started in the middle of the last decade. But the slowdown has deepened since the ACA passed, and evidence shows the law has made a meaningful contribution.” 

Furman also claims that the health care law has impacted Medicare spending. ObamaCare “is directly responsible for a substantial portion of slowdown in Medicare’s growth over the past few years…Notably, the rise in Medicare costs has slowed, with real Medicare spending per beneficiary essentially unchanged from 2010 to 2012.”  As the chart below shows, the rate of real per beneficiary growth in Medicare has almost dropped off a cliff since 2010: