Levin Statement on CEA Report Showing Lowest-Ever Growth in Health Care Spending

Press Release

Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) issued the following statement today after a Council of Economic Advisors report revealed that the Affordable Care Act has helped slow health care spending to 1.3 percent over the last three years, the lowest three-year increase ever:

"Today's report shows that health reform is having an enormous impact on reducing the growth of health care spending. Health care spending is now increasing at the slowest rate ever recorded over a three-year period. That's good for families, business and the economy."

The report concludes that the slower growth in health care costs, thanks in part to the ACA, is likely to have substantial benefits for the nation's economy in both the short-run and long-run, including:

*Providing families with greater financial and health security. The new report finds that, if just half the recent slowdown continues, health care spending a decade from now will be on average $1,400 lower per person than it would be with pre-ACA growth.

*Helping businesses improve their balance sheets. The slowdown in health care costs has reduced employers' benefit costs, thereby increasing firms' incentives to hire additional workers and maintain current benefits.

*Reducing long-term deficits. In large part because of the ACA's role in slowing the growth of health care spending, CBO estimated at the time of enactment that the ACA would reduce deficits by about $100 billion during the first decade after enactment and by an average of 0.5 percent of GDP ($83 billion a year in today's economy) over the following decade.

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