Why Obamacare May End Up Raising Medicare Costs

November 18 01:00 2015 by ushadmin

Lately the news about Medicare costs has been surprisingly good. Congress recently made a deal to spare some beneficiaries what would have been steep 50% hikes in Part B premiums (for doctor and outpatient services) next year. Even better, data from the Medicare Trustees Report show, the five-year-old Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare, has helped slow the rise in health care costs.

But these welcome short-term gains may not be sustainable, according to a new report by the Boston College Center for Retirement Research. That’s because the cost savings are being funded in part by reduced payments to doctors and hospitals, who could stop accepting Medicare patients if lower reimbursements continue. It goes without saying that raising their payments would substantially boost Medicare’s longer-term price tag—indeed, the movement to higher payments already has begun…