White House takes credit for deceleration in health spending that began a decade (or more) ago

thisistwitchy | 2:14 PM on November 20, 2013

The rate of growth in health care spending is slowing. And the Obama administration wants you to believe that the ACA deserves some of the credit:

The ACA is contributing to the recent slow growth in health care prices and spending and is improving quality of care: ACA provisions that reduce Medicare overpayments to private insurers and medical providers are contributing to the recent slow growth in health care prices and spending.

Harvard University health policy professor Amitabh Chandra addressed this claim last week. He would like to know why, if the ACA is responsible, health spending declerated a decade ago, during the Bush Administration?

I disagree w/ David Cutler that ACA caused the healthcare spending slowdown…it started 10+ years ago (see our Fig2) http://t.co/S1FtUUT0jz

— Amitabh Chandra (@amitabhchandra2) November 11, 2013

For that matter, why did health spending decelerate two decades ago, during the Clinton Administration?

health care spending growth

If you believe the ACA deserves credit for a slowdown in health spending growth, you probably also believe Michelle Obama deserves credit for the decline in childhood obesity that began six years before the Obamas came into office.

In fairness to the White House, it is true that the ACA might eventually end up causing health care spending to decline. That’s the sort of thing that happens when millions of Americans lose their health insurance or are required to enroll in plans with higher deductibles than they have now.