The Obama administration’s newly passed healthcare reform bill received more bad publicity last week, as officials with the nonpartisan Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released an assessment indicating that the legislation will actually increase spending over the next decade.
In the report, Rick Foster, CMS’ chief actuary, estimated that projected healthcare spending would increase by 1 percent over the next 10 years to $311 billion. Last month, the Congressional Budget Office reported that the new law would decrease spending to an estimated $222 billion, Fox News reports.
The report also indicated that by delaying the implementation of most of the spending provisions until 2014, the administration is hiding the true cost of the legislation, according to The Hill.
"Because of these transition effects and the fact that most of the coverage provisions would be in effect for only six of the 10 years of the budget period, the cost estimates shown in this memorandum do not represent a full 10-year cost for the new legislation," wrote Foster in the 38-page report.
He concluded that the proposed Medicare cuts may be "unrealistic," as they could force about 15 percent of healthcare providers into the red, "possibly jeopardizing access" to medical care for senior citizens. 