CBO chief says Obamacare is reducing deficit

News outlets also look at a looming court decision on the health law's subsidies and the potential impact of big data on health outcomes.

The Wall Street Journal: CBO Director: Political Divide Makes Fiscal Progress 'Very Hard'
[Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas] Elmendorf said it was impossible to tell whether his agency's 2009 and 2010 assessments of the Affordable Care Act were – in retrospect – accurate, because parts of the law are only beginning to take effect ... He said CBO's projections for the number of people who would enroll in insurance exchanges established by the ACA have turned out to be very accurate. He also said they stand by their estimate that the law – in its entirety – will reduce the government's deficit over its first two decades (Paletta, 8/28).

Bloomberg: Obamacare's Latest Threat Nears Turning Point In Court
Two years after a single vote on the U.S. Supreme Court saved a core part of Obamacare, opponents are trying to topple the measure again, this time using a four-word phrase in the law. A disputed provision in the Affordable Care Act suggests that millions of Americans can't get the tax subsidies created by the law to reduce the cost of health insurance. All sides are now waiting for a federal appeals court in Washington to make a procedural decision that will have outsize implications. The announcement could come any time (Stohr, 6/29).

USA Today: If 'Clean,' Big Data Can Improve U.S. Health Care
Less medical privacy may be good for your health. A growing body of research has found that information Americans share on social media websites about their health and lifestyle is more up to date and accurate than what they share with doctors, employers, insurance companies and government agencies. ... With the federal government now requiring all patient data to be digital, there's a big opportunity for companies that can integrate health data from a variety of sources and ensure its accuracy, says [Eva] Ho, a co-founder of Applied Semantics (Shinal, 8/28).