The Obama Diary

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Tara Culp-Ressler: Thanks To Obamacare, Hospitals Saved More Than $7 Billion Last Year

According to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), hospitals saved at least $7.4 billion last year, thanks in large part to reforms under Obamacare. The savings reflect a reduction in the so-called “uncompensated care” that hospitals provide to uninsured Americans, and are even greater than HHS officials predicted they would be at the beginning of this year. Since people without insurance typically don’t have any means to cover their medical bills, the cost of their treatment ends up falling on the hospital itself. Therefore, as more people gain coverage, it become less expensive for hospitals to care for their patients.

More than 16 million previously uninsured Americans have gotten covered under Obamacare, contributing to the biggest drop in the national uninsurance rate over the past four decades. The savings have been most pronounced in the states that agreed to accept Obamacare’s optional Medicaid expansion, which seeks to extend public insurance to additional low-income people. Nearly 70 percent of the savings documented in the HHS report — a total of $5 billion — occurred in the 29 states that have expanded Medicaid. And, if every state had agreed to add more people to their Medicaid rolls, their hospitals could have saved an extra $1.4 billion.

More here

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Thanks to Obamacare, hospitals saved more than $7 billion last year thkpr.gs/3637685

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mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) March 23, 2025

Like other surveys, a new RAND analysis finds a 16.9 million drop in uninsured adults as the ACA went into effect. content.healthaffairs.org/content/early/…

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Larry Levitt (@larry_levitt) May 06, 2025