[lbo-talk] Federal reserve economists show that the CBO's healthcare spending projections are crap.

[nathan tankus]

By comparison, defense spending as a percent of GDP peaked at 42% of GDP in
World War II. A model that presents as a possible outcome that the US will
devote nearly 40% of GDP to health care spending a long-term, sustained
outcome, is ludicrous on its face. The CBO assuming public health care
spending will sustain its growth rate of the last 50 years for as long as
they do (see further discussion below) with no policy changes is like
budget analysts in 1946 assuming that military spending will grow at the
same rate it did during World War II without any policy changes. Yet they
further assume that, having reached this crushing level, Medicare costs in
2082 will still be growing faster than GDP!

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/11/fed-budgetary-experts-demolish-cbo-health-cost-model-the-lynchpin-of-budget-hysteria.html

Please spread far and wide