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Forbes Contributor: Obamacare Will Increase Health Spending By $7K+ For Typical Family of 4
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Forbes Contributor: Obamacare Will Increase Health Spending By $7K+ For Typical Family of 4

"Obamacare will not save Americans one penny now or in the future."

Obamacare will increase health spending for a typical family of four by roughly $7,450, Forbes contributor Chris Conover writes, citing experts working for Medicare’s actuary.

In fact, according to these same experts, Obamacare will in its first 10 years increase health spending by “roughly $621 billion” above what Americans would have spent without President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

This is all surprising considering it’s an explicit violation of a promise made by candidate Obama in 2008: ““In an Obama administration, we’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year….. We’ll do it by the end of my first term as President of the United States.”

But how did the Forbes report arrive at that $7,450 figure from estimates of $621 billion?

Conover explains: “I have taken the latest year-by-year projections, divided by the projected U.S. population to determine the added amount per person and multiplied the result by 4.”

This approach, he explains, allows us to examine just how far off the mark candidate Obama was with his 2008 promise.

“Between 2014 and 2022, the increase in national health spending (which the Medicare actuaries specifically attribute to the law) amounts to $7,450 per family of 4,” Conover writes:

Forbes.

But perhaps Conover’s report shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise. Indeed, as Factcheck.org said in 2008, the president’s Obamacare promise was “overly optimistic, misleading and, to some extent, contradicted by one of his own advisers.” Even the Washington Post awarded the president two Pinocchios for his promise.

But rather than correct course, President Obama went all-out during the 2012 presidential election, promising small business owners “your premiums will go down.”

Keep in mind, he repeatedly promised during the 2012 election that Obamacare would lower premiums even after the Medicare actuaries had reported the Affordable Care Act would in fact increase health spending.

Now the average family of four has seen its spending increased by only $125 over the past four years. However, as the report notes, the average amount paid this year (approximately $66) will be “10 times as large in 2014 when Obamacare kicks in for earnest.”

“And it will rise for two years after that, after which it hit a steady-state level of just under $800 a year” Conover adds. “Of course, all these figures are in nominal dollars. In terms of today’s purchasing power, this annual amount will rise steadily.”

So what’s the bottom line?

“Obamacare will not save Americans one penny now or in the future,” Conover writes, again citing Medicare’s actuaries. “Perhaps the next time voters encounter a politician making such grandiose claims, they will learn to watch their wallet.”

“Until then, let’s spare strapped Americans from having to find $657 in spare change between their couch cushions next year. Let’s delay this law for a year so that policymakers have time to fix the poorly designed Rube Goldberg device known as Obamacare,” he adds.

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Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

Featured image via Associated Press.

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