Thursday, September 4, 2014

How Politics and Policy Could Accelerate Health Spending

Medicare actuaries’ annual projections of health expenditures for the next decade emphasized that health spending will rise modestly in the coming years. However, decisions by the administration and Congress to undo future spending reductions could change that picture.

The Wednesday release showed that national health spending will grow at a 5.6% rate this year, due in large part to coverage expansions under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. In 2015, the actuaries estimate that health spending will rise at a slightly lower 4.9% pace, due to “significant decelerations in Medicare and Medicaid spending.” But policy makers may yet reverse the policies behind those projected slowdowns.

With respect to Medicaid, the actuaries noted that in 2015, a “temporary increase in payments in primary care providers is scheduled to expire,” leading to slower spending growth. But spending growth would accelerate if lobbying by numerous medical groups is successful in extending — and broadening — the payment provision.

Likewise, the actuaries note that in 2015, Medicare spending will grow at a much slower rate, “mainly as a result of reduced payments to Medicare Advantage plans.” However, the Medicare Advantage payment reductions included in Obamacare have become a political albatross. In 2011, fearing seniors’ wrath at the polls in 2012, the Obama administration announced a temporary—and legally dubious—Medicare Advantage demonstration program that mitigated much of the effects of Obamacare’s payment cuts.

The administration also scaled back other rounds of Medicare Advantage cuts in 2013 and 2014. If past performance is indicative of future results, some or all of these cuts could be reversed administratively, leading Medicare spending growth to rise instead of fall in 2015.

The analysis above demonstrates the extent to which policy choices made in Washington directly influence national health spending trends. To the extent that reductions in health spending programs become politically unpalatable, and Congress or an administration feels the need to undo them, our health spending growth—to say nothing of our fiscal deficits—will only increase.

This post was originally published at the Wall Street Journal Think Tank blog.