Obama Claims Credit For Slowing Medical Cost Increases

Which is a bit like taking credit for sunrises. But claims are far from the truth.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently released their annual report on health care spending in America. And surprise, surprise - spending continues to grow. It amounted to 17.9 percent of the nation's gross domestic product in 2010, or $2.6 trillion. But the annual rate of growth was lower than it had been most of the past 50 years - just 3.9 percent.

Naturally, the Obama administration took credit for this sliver of good news. "Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, we're keeping costs down and making health care more affordable," wrote Nancy-Ann DeParle, deputy chief of staff for policy, on the official White House Blog.

But an in-depth look at that report reveals that Obamacare has done little thus far to slow the growth of American health spending. In fact, the federal health care reform effort is already increasing the share of spending shouldered by taxpayers. Worse yet, the implementation of Obamacare has barely begun.

As the law's various provisions begin to take effect, the pace of spending will only accelerate. The report was clear about what's restraining health care spending - and it's not Obamacare. As the report put it, the "impact of the recent recession continued to affect the purchasers, providers and sponsors of health care." The agency's researchers went on to cite "[p]ersistently high unemployment, continued loss of private health insurance coverage, and increased cost sharing" as reasons that "led some people to forgo care or seek less costly alternatives." In other words, it's the economy, stupid.

This is a pattern. Does anybody else remember when Obama claimed credit for reducing the United States' carbon dioxide emissions, which was also a result of his recession.

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