Sometimes even the government cannot spend money that it does not have. That’s the simple truth behind the new study by Charles Blahous, a public trustee for Medicare and Social Security.
Blahous finds that the Affordable Care Act is expected to increase the federal deficit by at least $346 billion between now and 2021, and the price tag might be as high as $527 billion. That’s a far cry from the $143 billion in deficit reduction that the Congressional Budget Office predicted when the ACA was enacted.