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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Upside of Affordable Care Act: Health Care Costs Down

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Monday, October 27, 2014   

RALEIGH, N.C. - Not long ago, the airwaves were filled with predictions that health-care reform would be a disaster for taxpayers and consumers. That hasn't happened.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, will cut the federal budget deficit by a hundred billion dollars despite adding health coverage for about 10 million people, by federal estimates.

Paul Van de Water, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, says the reform has been able to do this because it's had real success at one of its key goals, holding down the cost of health care.

"The growth of health-care costs has been at close to historic lows, both in the public programs, that is Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the private sector," Van de Water says.

Some critics still argue health-care reform will be a disaster, but that position is not getting a lot of support from the data. Other critics have simply fallen silent.

Up until now, North Carolina has opted out of billions in federal funding to extend Medicaid to more than 300,000 low-income North Carolinians, but more than 200,000 of the state's residents signed up for a health plan through the Affordable Care Act.

The overall federal deficit has dropped dramatically. It's now projected to total nearly $5 trillion less by 2020 than was expected just four years ago. Maybe more importantly, Van de Water says the ACA is improving the health of the vital Medicare program, which is threatened by an influx of millions of baby boomers.

"Medicare will continue to need adjustments, but it's clear health reform has made Medicare's prospects better, not worse," he says.

Another prediction that hasn't come true yet is premiums would skyrocket. Van de Water says the huge variation in the cost of insurance makes it difficult to describe a simple pattern. But he says it looks like slowing the rise in health-care costs has helped keep the price of premiums in line especially in the new insurance exchanges.

"Premiums in the health-insurance exchanges have turned out to be lower than what the congressional office was originally projecting," Van de Water says. "Premiums are still going up, but it's likely they're going up by less than what would have otherwise been the case."


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