Health Care Inflation at Lowest Level in 50 Years, Insurers Issued $500M in Rebates to Customers This Year
BATON ROUGE — In continuing to pursue the law’s repeal, Louisiana Republicans like John Fleming and Steve Scalise refuse to acknowledge the realities of the Affordable Care Act, which is slowing the growth in health care costs and requiring insurers to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on care for patients.
“The Affordable Care Act is finally making a dent in runaway increases to health care costs,” said Louisiana Democratic Party Executive Director Stephen Handwerk. “Health care is a pocketbook issue for millions of middle-class families and American businesses, and the health care reform law is helping to cut costs. When families spend less on health care, they feel more secure in their budgets. And when businesses spend less on health care, they can hire more workers — which is evident in the 8.1 million private-sector jobs added over the past 45 months.”
Health care price inflation is at its lowest level in 50 years, and, according to the most recent projections, health care spending grew at the slowest rate on record over the last three years. Real per person spending grew at just a 1.3 percent rate, and this slow growth was seen in Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance. Inflation for health care goods and services is currently running at just 1 percent on a year-over-year basis.
Nationwide 8.5 million consumers saved $500 million in rebates this year because of the Affordable Care Act’s 80/20 rule. In our state, nearly 81,000 Louisianians with private insurance received a total of $2.3 million in rebates from the insurance companies.
For more on how the Affordable Care Act is already improving health care for Louisianians, visit:
https://live-ladems.pantheonsite.io/2013/08/30/aca-in-la/
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