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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (784455)	5/12/2014 2:38:31 PM
From: puborectalis	1 Recommendation Recommended By bentway Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572657

Obamacare is good for the economy? That’s what one venerable Wall Street brokerage is saying. Alec Phillips, economic researcher at Goldman Sachs, said in a note issued late last week to clients that subsidies from the Affordable Care Act boosted gross domestic product during the first quarter and are likely to do the same during the second quarter. Shutterstock.com Phillips says that he now has a more optimistic view of the second quarter’s GDP growth, with a gain of 3.9% now estimated, and 4.5% annualized growth in real personal consumption. “While we were initially skeptical of the large estimated effect of the new subsidies on personal income, these now look more reasonable to us in light of revisions, greater enrollment than expected several months ago, and the fact that states are likely contributing to the subsidies on top of the well-known estimates of federal costs,” Phillips said. Phillips goes on to say that health spending grew at a faster pace during the first quarter than at any other time in the last 30 years, thanks to a $37 billion boost in personal income. That boost is likely to continue into the second quarter. He says effects from Obamacare should be modest in the third and fourth quarters of this year, but will pick up again in 2015 and 2016 as enrollment increases. Spending in the health-care industry was up 9.9% in the first quarter, though it wasn’t as high as the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis predicted, he says. That, however, may have been due to weather and other conditions, which may mean added health spending in the second and third quarters. But the health-care industry won’t be the only one to benefit, Phillips says, as subsidies will free up income for those who had no coverage before, as well as those who had insurance but were paying for it themselves. “Overall, around 40% of the subsidies should find their way to non-health consumption this year,” he wrote.