Government Efficiency: The U.S. spends $100 billion on this program, so Medicaid recipients can save $5.5 billion

From Megan McArdle writing at Bloomberg:

... When Obamacare was passing, its supporters were pretty clear about what the program was supposed to do: save thousands of lives every year, reduce health-care costs, lower premiums, and save thousands of families from the trauma, and stigma, of bankruptcy. 

Have mortality rates dropped? No, they rose. Are premiums lower? No. Have bankruptcies dropped? Yes, but only dubiously related to Obamacare. The only outcome for which we have really strong evidence is a modest reduction in the financial stress of illness. According to the CFPB [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau], we have reduced medical debt by about $5.5 billion, or roughly $10 per consumer. 

Now, that debt is not equally distributed, so some people got a substantial benefit and are breathing easier without having to worry about their medical bills. That’s a definite good, and we should all be glad to know that fewer people are waking up in the middle of the night, wondering where they’re going to be able to pay for their medical care. 

But we’re spending more than $100 billion a year on Obamacare. That is a lousy way to save people $5.5 billion in medical debt. It will be troubling if we continue to find good evidence of small effects like these, and less compelling evidence of the substantial benefits we were promised in return for all that money.