New Study: Affordable Care Act Worsens the Nation's Already Unsustainable Fiscal Path

One of the primary justifications for the health care law’s passage was its fiscal benefits. But a significant new study by Mercatus Center scholar Chuck Blahous, public trustee for Medicare and Social Security, finds that the law falls well short of this standard, and in fact, unambiguously worsens the nation’s already unsustainable fiscal path.

Key findings 

• Even under an optimistic scenario, the health care law will add more than $1.15 trillion to federal spending over the next decade.
• The law will add more than $340 billion and as much as $530 billion to federal deficits over the same period, and increasing amounts thereafter.
• To ensure the health care law doesn’t worsen the nation’s fiscal outlook, two-thirds of the subsidies must be repealed or other fiscal offsets found before benefits begin in 2014.

For more on this paper’s findings, click here and visit here for a copy of the entire study.