ObamaCare Failures a Lesson in Government Waste

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is a political committee devoted to maintaining and increasing the 239-member Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Democrats’ government takeover of healthcare is turning out to be full of surprises—and not in a good way. A new study predicts ObamaCare may gamble away $20 billion a year on so-called healthcare “incentives” that are likely to fail:

STUDY: “MORE THAN $20 BILLION SPENT ON HEALTHCARE INCENTIVES MAY BE WASTED”: (“More Than $20 Billion Spent on Healthcare Incentives May Be Wasted,” The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch Blog, 5/14/2012)

“MORE THAN 75 PERCENT OF INCENTIVES ARE SO SMALL OR POORLY COMMUNICATED THAT THEY GO UNNOTICED”: “While incentives can be an effective motivator in healthcare, a new study from global consulting firm ZS Associates suggests that more than 75 percent of incentives are so small or poorly communicated that they go unnoticed by providers. As a result, more than $20 billion in healthcare incentives may be wasted annually.” (“More Than $20 Billion Spent on Healthcare Incentives May Be Wasted,” The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch Blog, 5/14/2012)

WASTED INCENTIVES A “KEY ELEMENT” IN OBAMACARE: “Performance incentives (and penalties) are a widely accepted tool to achieve healthcare cost and quality goals. They are a key element in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and also a central part of the design and rationale behind accountable care organizations (ACOs) where participants earn incentives for achieving key performance goals.” (“More Than $20 Billion Spent on Healthcare Incentives May Be Wasted,” The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch Blog, 5/14/2012)

FAILURE OF OBAMACARE INCENTIVES MEANS ONE MORE BARRIER FOR OBAMACARE TO MEET ITS UNREALISTIC “HEALTHCARE QUALITY AND COST GOALS”: “In its 2012 Incentives for Health Professionals (IHP) Report, ZS surveyed more than 4,500 healthcare providers and payers on the use of pay-for-performance incentives to guide provider behavior and achieve goals such as increased patient drug compliance, decreased hospital readmission rates, efficient care coordination and improved quality. ZS concluded most incentives, though well intentioned, neither affect behavior nor help meet healthcare quality and cost goals. The goals of some ACOs may also be in jeopardy.” (“More Than $20 Billion Spent on Healthcare Incentives May Be Wasted,” The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch Blog, 5/14/2012)

This is just the latest in a line of ObamaCare programs that have turned out to be wasteful disasters:

OBAMACARE-CREATED CLASS PROGRAM A FISCAL DISASTER:

DEMOCRATS’ CLASS PROGRAM “ABANDONED YET DEFENDED”: (Brett Norman and Jennifer Haberkorn, “CLASS Act: Abandoned Yet Defended,” Politico, 1/31/2012)

HHS: CLASS “TOO FLAWED TO SALVAGE”: “CLASS is by far the biggest piece of healthcare reform to meet its end, and also the first to collapse entirely on its own. Republicans successfully repealed one much smaller provision, and the individual mandate could be struck down by the Supreme Court. But HHS officials acknowledged that CLASS fell apart simply because it was too flawed to salvage.” (Sam Baker, “Obama’s HHS Ends Controversial Program in Health Reform Law,” The Hill, 10/14/2011)

DEMOCRATS WERE WARNED THAT CLASS LOOKED “LIKE A RECIPE FOR DISASTER”: “A Health and Human Services deputy secretary repeatedly warned his superiors and Democratic staff on the Hill that the Class program ‘seems like a recipe for disaster to me.’ Later, he even suggested that Democrats include a ‘failsafe’ for public support.” (Joseph Rago, “GOP Vets an ObamaCare Program,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/19/2011)

MEDICARE ACTUARY RICK FOSTER PREDICTED CLASS WOULD “COLLAPSE IN SHORT ORDER AND REQUIRE SIGNIFICANT FEDERAL SUBSIDIES TO CONTINUE”: (Joseph Rago, “GOP Vets an ObamaCare Program,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/19/2011)

DEMOCRATS KNEW “PROGRAM WAS DESIGNED TO FAIL AND WENT AHEAD ANYWAY”: “The emails, obtained by a joint Republican panel led by Sen. John Thune and House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, reveal that the administration knew the program was designed to fail and went ahead anyway.” (Joseph Rago, “GOP Vets an ObamaCare Program,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/19/2011)

83% OF HOUSE DEMS VOTE AGAINST CLASS ACT REPEAL: Final Vote: 267-159. (Roll Call 18, Clerk of the U.S. House, 5/14/2012)

DEMS’ MEDICARE “PILOT PROGRAMS” ALSO A FAILURE, FAIL TO CONTROL SKYROCKETING HEALTHCARE COSTS:

DEMS’ PROMISED DEFICIT REDUCTION UNDER OBAMACARE CONTINUES TO VANISH: “About half the projected deficit reduction has now evaporated, because programs added to the bill in order to raise revenue, like the moronic provision requiring everyone to give 1099s to all their vendors, and the fiscally unsustainable CLASS Act long-term care program, had to be axed. The reimbursement cuts to providers and the excise tax on "cadillac" insurance plans that cost too much won't go into effect for a while, but I still think it likely that they, too, will be (expensively) modified in the face of political and administrative realities. Medicare's chief actuary thinks so too, so this is not exactly a crazy belief.” (Megan McArdle, “CBO Report: Medicare Pilot Programs Don’t Control Health-Care Costs,” The Atlantic, 1/18/2012)

OBAMA’S FAILED PILOT PROGRAMS PUT LAW ON A “CRASH COURSE TOWARDS FISCAL DISASTER”: “In fact, the report is incredibly depressing. Some measures do seem to have controlled hospital admissions and spending--but they cost more money than they saved. It's always tempting to celebrate being right, but in this case, there's nothing to be happy about. What this report really says is that we’re on a crash course towards fiscal disaster, and the steering wheel's broken.” (Megan McArdle, “CBO Report: Medicare Pilot Programs Don’t Control Health-Care Costs,” The Atlantic, 1/18/2012)

Disturbingly, the price tag for ObamaCare has surpassed $2 trillion while President Obama has already added more than $5 trillion to the national debt:

OBAMACARE TO COST $1.76 TRILLION OVER THE NEXT 10 YEARS: (Phillip Klein, “CBO: ObamaCare to Cost $1.76 Trillion Over 10 Years,” The Washington Examiner, 3/13/2012)

TOTAL COSTS FOR OBAMACARE: $2.6 TRILLION: (“ObamaCare: A Budget-Busting, Job-Killing Healthcare Law,” Speaker of the House John Boehner, 1/6/2011)

CURRENT U.S. DEBT LEVEL AT 101% OF THE SIZE OF THE ECONOMY: NATIONAL DEBT STANDS AT $15.67 TRILLION, LARGER THAN THE NATION’S $15.46 TRILLION ECONOMY: (“The Daily History of the Debt Results,” TreasuryDirect.Gov, Accessed 5/14/2012; “National Economic Accounts,” Bureau of Economic Analysis, Accessed 5/7/2012)

STUDY: DEBT LEVELS MORE THAN 90 PERCENT OF ECONOMY COULD REDUCE ECONOMIC GROWTH BY 25%: (Rich Miller, “Reinharts, Rogoff See Huge Output Losses From High Debt,” Bloomberg Businessweek, 4/30/2012)

TOTAL DEBT INCREASE UNDER OBAMA NOW AT $5.05 TRILLION: (“The Daily History of the Debt Results,” Treasury Direct, Accessed 5/14/2012)

“NATIONAL DEBT HAS INCREASED MORE UNDER OBAMA THAN UNDER BUSH”: (Mark Knoller, “National Debt Has Increased More Under Obama than Under Bush,” CBS News, 3/19/2012)

THREE AND A HALF YEARS OF OBAMA IS MORE DEBT THAN EIGHT YEARS OF PREDECESSOR: (Mark Knoller, “National Debt Has Increased More Under Obama than Under Bush,” CBS News, 3/19/2012)

POLITIFACT SAID LAST YEAR THAT OBAMA WAS THE “UNDISPUTED DEBT KING OF THE LAST FIVE PRESIDENTS”: “Obama is the undisputed debt king of the last five presidents, rather than the guy who added a piddling mount to the debt.” (Louis Jacobson, “Nancy Pelosi Posts Questionable Chart on Debt Accumulation by Barack Obama, Predecessors,” Politifact, 5/19/2011)

OBAMA RECORD “THE MOST RAPID INCREASE IN THE DEBT UNDER ANY U.S. PRESIDENT”: (Mark Knoller, “National debt has increased $4 trillion under Obama,” CBS News’ Political Hotsheet Blog, 8/22/2011)