The Story of Obamacare Cost Inflation as Told to a Future Generation*

*Apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1897-1882), Paul Revere’s Ride

October 13, 2012

Listen my children, and you shall hear, of the drama,

Of the ten year health inflation ride of Barack Obama,

Who was so obsessed with expanding health care access,

That he forgot his first priority was the economic mess.

So on the twenty third of March of twenty ten,

The Patient Protection and Affordability bill passed,

Without a single Republican vote caste.

Most of you are still alive it is now clear,

Who remember that infamous day and year,

When Obamacare passed with a cost now so dear.

The original cost was estimated for a decade at $900 billion

Later revised by Congressional Budget Office to  $2.6 trillion.

How could the estimate come to this,

Such a massive miscalculation miss?

When it contributed so very much to the national debt,

Which has left you and your children financially bereft.

Part of it was simply sleight of hand – an  artful feint,

Delaying its start until 2014 to avoid cost complaint.

Part of it was talk of $716 billion ravings,

With a ten year series of government savings,

Taken from Medicare,

To fund  Obamacare,

Achieved by cutting pay to hospitals and physicians,

Enforced by a 15-member board of non-clinicians.

Part of it was herding doctors and hospitals into accountable organizations,

With fixed budgets, financial risks, and defined Medicare populations,

Part of it was complete lack of fincancial control,

As the system plunged deeper  into a financial hole,

But who was there to sound and spread the alarm,

When Obama and his party owned the Congressional farm?

Tweet:  This is for future generations who will wonder how Congress passed a law

contributing $2.7 trillion to the national debt.