from the to-dumb-to-understand-downstream-benefits dept
Last year Trumplicans killed a popular program that provided poor people with $30 off of their monthly broadband bill. The FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) was unsurprisingly very popular, with more than 23 million Americans benefitting at its peak.
At the time, the GOP claimed they were simply looking to save money. The real reason, of course, was that the ACP was popular with their constituents (the majority of ACP participants were in red states) and they didn’t want Dems to use it as an election season issue.
But a new report by The Brattle Group (spotted by telecom industry consultant Doug Dawson) found that the $7-$8 billion annual taxpayer cost of the program generated between $28.9 and $29.5 billion in savings thanks to expanded access to affordable internet and remote telehealth services.
Dawson notes:
“The savings from using telemedicine instead of live doctor visits are dramatic. They estimate that the savings from one telemedicine visit saves the equivalent of 3.5 years of ACP support for a Medicaid recipient.
The report cites estimates that telemedicine visits are 23% less expensive than in-person visits. They cite studies that show that telemedicine visits for cancer patients save between $147 – $186 for each visit. Telehealth visits with medical specialists average $120 less, and virtual urgent-care visits save $141 compared to in-person clinic visits.”
The study found downstream savings on other fronts as well, whether it’s the higher lifetime earnings generated by improved academic achievement, or the simple cost benefits of the ability to engage in remote work from within fiber-connected rural communities. Tribal communities also benefitted with a boosted $45 monthly discount off of their monthly broadband bill.
But the study estimates that the telemedicine benefit to the federal government alone is four times the cost of ACP. Even if the study’s optimistic by half, it was more than enough to justify the cost of the program.
But because guys like Trump, Musk, and his team of 4chan Doge brats genuinely aren’t particularly bright, they often don’t understand that many taxpayer-funded programs have very real downstream benefits. It’s simply too complicated for bullies in love with their own pseudo-intellect who long ago confused ignorant elbow-swinging with efficiency.
At the time the ACP was repealed, we noted how most of the press failed to make the GOP own its unpopular decision, with most stories framing the program as a casualty of ambiguous partisan acrimony. Dem messaging on such a slam dunk issue (“the GOP made your broadband more expensive and hurt your access to health care”) was also borderline nonexistent during the last election.
Filed Under: ACP, Affordable Connectivity Program, broadband, education, fcc, low income, telecom, telehealth
