Saturday November 8, 2014 11:57 AM

The Associated Press

(c) 2014, The Washington Post.

"Health care inflation has gone down every single year since the law [the Affordable Care Act] passed, so that we now have the lowest increase in health care costs in 50 years_which is saving us about $180 billion in reduced overall costs to the federal government and in the Medicare program."

President Barack Obama, news conference, Nov. 5, 2014

---

In his post-election news conference, President Obama hit on a theme that we have explored before that the Affordable Care Act has led to lower increases in health care costs. But the evidence for this is still rather fuzzy.

Let's deconstruct the president's statement.

First, note that the president simply notes that growth in health-care spending has gone down every year since the law passed, thus cleverly avoiding a causal connection. But he certainly implies it, and that's the message most viewers might have received.

But the evidence for a direct connection still is in dispute.

Continued here:

Fact Check: Obama claims lower increase in health care costs