The Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation have significantly lowered their estimates concerning the cost of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's insurance coverage provisions.
In March 2010, the CBO and JCT projected the health insurance provisions of the PPACA would cost the federal government $710 billion during fiscal years 2015 through 2019. The newest estimate of $571 billion is a 20 percent reduction in costs over the same period.
Looking just at 2019, the CBO and JCT projected in 2010 that the PPACA's insurance coverage provisions would cost the federal government $172 billion, and the most recent projection is 23 percent lower at $132 billion.
The revision of the projection is due to a number of factors, including "changes in law, revisions to CBO's economic projections, the Supreme Court decision that made the expansion of eligibility for Medicaid option for states, administrative actions, new data and numerous improvements in CBO and JCT's modeling," according to the report.
More articles on healthcare finance:
Swedish Health Services CFO Dan Harris discusses CFO challenges in 2015
Healthcare to shift away from fee-for-service in historic overhaul
Hospitals boosted uncompensated care by $500M