10 thoughts on “Expenditures for Health Programs Always Outpace Early Estimates”

  1. And the Massachusetts Plan is just getting started. I like to think of Government plans like diesel engines, sometimes they take awhile to warm up, but from then on you can always count on them to run up the public debt.

    Since it is a state program, I don’t think that the Massachusetts will threaten the frightening expenditure growth of Medicare and Medicaid, but if some of the current plans in Congress get passed, which resemble the Mass. Plan (exchange, individual mandate, guaranteed access, mandates), then we are in for a wild ride.

  2. I noticed one interesting point to this analysis. These are programs for which the government has little control over demand. Yet it has estimating a cost far into the future. A case in point is the Hospital Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) fund. The DSH fund is essentially throwing money at hospitals for providing charity care. Hospitals have little incentive to vet which patients are truly needy, and collect from those that aren’t needy when the government is willing to spend billions on hospitals that treat indigent patients.

  4. Pingback: Health Care Costs Often Exceed Expectations « Free Market Mojo
  6. Pingback: No Runny Eggs » Blog Archive » We’ve Only Just Begun
  7. Pingback: Instapundit » Blog Archive » THE OBAMACARE DEFICIT BLOWOUT: “The press corps has noticed the Congressional Budget Office’s est…

  8. Are these the projected and actual costs of the first full year of the program? Or are the projections/actuals some years in the future?

  9. Pingback: Maggie's Farm
  10. Pingback: Projected Health Care Costs vs Actual « Democratic Thinker

Comments are closed.