Vox interviewed President Obama on Facebook Live Friday. He discussed health care, along with the doomed fate of his health care law. One of the more interesting things he had to say was this:
“We can’t get health care for free. You’re going to have to pay for it one way or another: either the government [or individuals] pay more.” pic.twitter.com/g2ZyNyD0re
— Vox (@voxdotcom) January 6, 2017
This prompts the question: Does the president know who funds the government? Because this isn’t really a choice between you or the government paying more to provide health care. Taxpayers are going to cover the cost, unless Obama’s just talking about running up the deficit and having them pay for it later. The latter case is still a baffling argument to make. In the process of selling Obamacare, the president promised that the health care law would lower the cost of insurance for the typical family $2,500 and would not “add one dime to the deficit.”
As you probably noticed, health care premiums have gone up since Obamacare—by a lot. As for the effect on deficits, the Congressional Budget Office has been all over the place. In 2014, they said they could no longer accurately determine costs associated with the law, saying that it was “not possible” to measure the budgetary effects of certain provisions. What a shock, then, that in 2015, the CBO alternately said Obamacare repeal would save $516 billion and then said six months later it would actually add $353 billion to the deficit. For what it’s worth, a 2013 Government Accountability Office report said Obamacare was projected to add $6.2 trillion to the deficit.
But if the guy who the law is named after is finally conceding Obamacare is going to cost money, well, that seems like news.
