The CBO published a study today that estimated a savings of $84 Billion over the next 11 years as a result of the Affordable Care Act. Moreover, the CBO found that repealing ACA would increase the deficit over the next decade by $109 billion. These should be pretty persuasive numbers, especially if you are a deficit hawk.
But that's only at the macro level. In my small community, 5% of our county property taxes are spent on providing for indigent care, whether we like it or not, as this expense is mandated by state law. That's $3,300,000 in costs paid to our local hospital through local property taxes that my county would not have to bear under ACA -- a 5% reduction in our property tax bills. But there's even more at the micro level. Our hospital "wrote off" $87,000,000 last year in indigent care. Of course we know that the hospital does not absorb these costs, but rather passes them on to those of us who have health insurance coverage, or pay cash.
Reuters, in reporting on these findings by the CBO figures that:
The latest measure of the healthcare law's cost is likely to become a factor in the presidential election-year debate over its merits and Republican efforts to repeal the law, Obama's top legislative achievement.Ya figure? These are excellent numbers to fight with at the macro level. At the micro level, I know that in Texas our county property taxes would be decreased by at least 5% if ACA is able to bust through Rick Perry's ideology and political pandering.