CBO: O-Care controls will curb health spending

A new report from the Congressional Budget Office says cost control measures in ObamaCare will help reduce the growth in federal healthcare spending over the next 25 years.

The report says federal healthcare spending will be equal to 8 percent of GDP by 2039, down from a projection last year of 8.1 percent. The savings would amount to $250 billion in today’s dollars, CBO found.

{mosads}Overall spending on Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and ObamaCare insurance subsidies are expected to rocket due to a growing elderly population, more people gaining insurance coverage and the cost of new medical technologies. However, ObamaCare’s cost control provisions will help rein in some of the projected growth.

“The projections incorporate the reductions in Medicare’s payments to physicians scheduled for 2015 and reductions in Medicare spending specified in the Budget Control Act of 2011, as amended, for 2015 through 2024,” says the report.

After 2024, CBO estimates Medicare will continue to pay benefits based on the current law.

Overall the nonpartisan budget watchdog said entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will push the national debt to unsustainable levels.

The current federal debt is 74 percent of GDP, a figure twice that reported in 2008. The CBO projects the share of debt will grow to 106 percent of GDP by 2039.