House GOP blasts Obama health law over spending projections

House Republicans slammed President Obama's health law after a federal agency estimated that spending on healthcare will jump 7.4 percent in 2014, when much of the law is implemented.

A memo from the House Ways and Means Committee said that the report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) "confirms that despite the Obama administration’s promises to the contrary, healthcare costs continue to increase."

The figures come as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on the Affordable Care Act. The court's decision could dramatically shift the cost picture if some or all of the law is thrown out.

For the most part, Tuesday's CMS report predicted modest growth in health spending until 2021 at an average rate of 5.7 percent per year, or 0.9 percent faster than the overall economy.

Those figures represent a deceleration since the last decade, when health spending grew 6.8 percent annually, Reuters reported.

The jump in 2014 will take place when the health law's Medicaid expansion and new state insurance exchanges are set in motion.

Overall, spending is expected to reach 19.6 percent of the U.S. economy — a 1.7 percent bump from its current share — by 2021. The reports' authors attributed this increase to the health law's Medicaid expansion, its premium and cost-sharing subsidies for insurance exchange plans and rising enrollment in Medicare as the baby boom generation ages.

The Ways and Means GOP said that the report confirms "ObamaCare" critics' worst fears.

"The Obama administration’s own actuaries reaffirmed a reality that so many other reports have already warned about," the memo stated. "Because of the Democrats’ healthcare law, healthcare spending will go up, employers will drop health coverage and the government will control a greater portion of our healthcare system."

In a blog post, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius praised the health law for expanding coverage and controlling costs.

"The healthcare law has contributed to these results and will continue to help move us forward," she wrote on Tuesday. "We’re rooting out fraud and abuse … We have implemented policies to hold insurance companies accountable. And we’re investing in primary care and prevention."