Gov't Checkup: Health Care Costs Rise Under Obama Overhaul

According to a government report, the nation's health care tab will go up — not down — as a result of Obama's sweeping overhaul, arming critics who say the president was wrong to insist it would cut costs.

WASHINGTON (FOXNews.com) - The nation's health care tab will go up -- not down -- as a result of President Barack Obama's sweeping overhaul. That's the conclusion of a government forecast released Thursday, which also finds the increase will be modest.

The average annual growth in health care spending will be just two-tenths of 1 percentage point higher through 2019 with Obama's remake, said the analysis. And that's with more than 32 million uninsured gaining coverage because of the new law.

"The impact is moderate," said economist Andrea Sisko of Medicare's Office of the Actuary, the nonpartisan unit that prepared the report.