Smucker’s constituents deserve better

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker recently sent out an email to his constituents soliciting a response to this question: “Since ‘Obamacare’ was enacted in 2010, has the cost of your health care increased, decreased or stayed the same?”

As an economist and one who teaches health economics, I’m speechless. What household expenditure hasn’t increased in cost in the last seven years? This poll question either suggests the congressman might need a basic lesson in economics or is purposefully misleading and politically baiting his constituents.

National health care expenditures, according to CMS.gov, have risen faster than general inflation every year since they’ve been measured. This is due to a number of factors, some beyond government’s control: demographics, technology, inelastic demand, monopoly power, lifestyle choices, just to name a few. A realistic goal for the nation is not an overall decrease in health care expenditures but to reduce the growth rate to something reasonable and manageable; it’s your health after all.

From 1975 to 2010, national health care expenditures increased 9.2 percent annually, with a downward trend from double-digit growth prior to the early 1990s. From 2010 to 2015, national health care expenditures increased an average 4.9 percent annually. CMS.gov projects annual growth of 5.6 percent until 2025 based on current policy, an annual rate below the historical average due in part to a healthier population resulting from the Affordable Care Act’s required essential benefits.

If Republicans can come up with a new plan to decrease annual health expenditure growth rates more than the ACA without pricing people out of health care and/or reducing coverage, I think we are all ears. But please, Congressman Smucker, stop baiting your constituents and treat them with a bit more respect.

Mike Gumpper

Professor of Economics

Millersville University