The Affordable Care Act may have only a "very limited" effect on unnecessary U.S. health care spending in the coming decade, according to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysts.
The CBO analysts have included that prediction in a written Affordable Care Act presentation that CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf used today in an appearance at the University of Southern California.
The Affordable Care Act, the federal legislative package that includes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), provides mechanisms for expanding access to government health insurance programs and subsidies for the purchases of health insurance, cutting Medicare spending and holding down other health care spending.
"The legislation will decrease spending on health care for people who would be insured with or without the legislation," CBO analysts say in the presentation. "The magnitude of that decrease, and the extent to which it will be achieved through greater efficiencies in the delivery of care or through reductions in access to care or quality of care, are unclear."
