CBO Says Obamacare Will Raise Costs, Not Cut Them … Quick Notify Obama’s Nark Squad at flag@whitehouse.gov

More annoying facts from the CBO against Obamacare …

The CBO comes out with more damaging news for Obamacare stating that preventive care will raise the cost of health care, not lower it. This represents yet another blow to the claims that Obamacare, a government run, single payer system, and take over of health care in the US will result in cost savings.

“Although different types of preventive care have different effects on spending, the evidence suggests that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall,” Elmendorf wrote. “That result may seem counterintuitive.

I guess the CBO report that Obamacare will raise costs and not cut them will be sent to the Obama White House snitch line. Or maybe it’s Obama’s spin that needs to be sent in to his own snitch line as misrepresented health care comments?

However, as the CBO cites facts and case study, the Democratic controlled Congress whines at the results as cites as their proof … nothing, nada, nil. What is it that “We the People” are supposed to believe that the Congress is correct? Obama’s promises that the stimulus would work? Maybe it was the brilliant and under allocation of money to the Cash for Clunkers program? Maybe we are supposed to just believe them, because they said so?

The concept is rather simple. No one can predict the future. A physician does not know what patient will become sick with a disease and which one will, thus all individuals will need preventive care screenings.

In such cases, an ounce of prevention improves health and reduces spending — for that individual,” Elmendorf wrote. “But when analyzing the effects of preventive care on total spending for health care, it is important to recognize that doctors do not know beforehand which patients are going to develop costly illnesses. To avert one case of acute illness, it is usually necessary to provide preventive care to many patients, most of whom would not have suffered that illness anyway. … Researchers who have examined the effects of preventive care generally find that the added costs of widespread use of preventive services tend to exceed the savings from averted illness.”

However, Linda Douglass, the White House communications director for Health Reform, responded that preventive care will save money because it will be targeted. Targeted??? How does one target preventive care? By it’s definitive, preventive care is just that … PREVENTIVE for all. Unless Obama is going to have a panel that decides who is worthy of what preventive care.

CBO Sent letter to Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J., Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, were cc’ed. Of course the CBO letter falls on deaf ears because the Democrats do not want to listen to any thing that opposes their agenda. That’s what this is all about, an agenda!

As Flopping Aces stated, “the success of Obamacare is dependent upon every one doing the right thing 100% of the time.”

From The New England Journal of Medicine, Feb 14, 2008: Does Preventive Care Save Money? Health Economics and the Presidential Candidates

Sweeping statements about the cost-saving potential of prevention, however, are overreaching. Studies have concluded that preventing illness can in some cases save money but in other cases can add to health care costs.3 For example, screening costs will exceed the savings from avoided treatment in cases in which only a very small fraction of the population would have become ill in the absence of preventive measures. Preventive measures that do not save money may or may not represent cost-effective care (i.e., good value for the resources expended). Whether any preventive measure saves money or is a reasonable investment despite adding to costs depends entirely on the particular intervention and the specific population in question. For example, drugs used to treat high cholesterol yield much greater value for the money if the targeted population is at high risk for coronary heart disease, and the efficiency of cancer screening can depend heavily on both the frequency of the screening and the level of cancer risk in the screened population.4