A new Harvard study published in the journal Science finds that expanding public insurance coverage increases a patient’s use of emergency rooms – despite claims that such action would lower the incidents of these expensive visits.  Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who helped the Obama Administration put together the basic principles of the health care law, says the Harvard study is, “part of a broader set of evidence that covering people with health insurance doesn’t save money…That was sometimes a misleading motivator for the Affordable Care Act.  The law isn’t designed to save money.” In covering the release of the Harvard study, Bloomberg headlined its article, “Another Problem ObamaCare Won’t Solve: Health Costs.”

While these higher costs don’t come as a surprise to many, it has left us wondering: Why do Democrats call it “the Affordable Care Act” if the law doesn’t lower the cost of health care for consumers, for providers or for taxpayers?

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