John R. Graham
Health Care
Medicare Advantage or Medicare Monopoly: Protecting Seniors’ Choices and Taxpayers’ Wallets in the Federal Government’s Largest Entitlement Program
This report by John R. Graham, Director of Health Studies at Pacific Research Institute, examines the costs and benefits of Medicare Advantage, which allows consumers to get their benefits through private insurance plans. Under the Senate Health Care bill, the Medicare Advantage program, would be cut by about $118 billion. ...
Commentary
The Loneliest Voice in the Wilderness: The Council of Economic Advisers
Yesterday’s report trucks out, yet again, claims which few find credible anymore. There’s the ever-present argument that the government can shave off some dollars by focusing on “waste, fraud, and abuse.” Okay: What’s stopping them from doing that right now? Health-information technology comes in for a boost, even though recent ...
Education
Another Victim of Medicaid (And Employer Benefits)
Mr. Kristof also recounts a horrible story: A man who suffers an abnormal growth of blood vessels in his brain, which has rendered him unable to work. Of course, he lost his employment-based benefits, and was unable to acquire individual insurance because of his severe condition. As usual, the story ...
Commentary
New Yorker Would Have Done Better With Individual Insurance To Start
Laurie Rippon notes that (s)he lost his job after being hit by a car while crossing the street, which resulted in traumatic brain injury. After timing out of COBRA coverage, he would not have been able to buy an individual policy because he would not have passed underwriting. Mr. Rippon ...
Commentary
Cutting Medicare Benefits Will Not Protect Taxpayers
While much of the “savings” promoted by the deficit chicken-hawks are delusional (waste, fraud, abuse, and no longer “fixing” doctors’ Medicare Part B reimbursement), one is very real: Cutting actual Medicare benefits by reducing seniors’ choices of Medicare Advantage plans. Traditional Medicare Part A (hospital) and Part B (outpatient) benefits ...
Health Care
The Advantage of Medicare Advantage: Why Reducing Seniors’ Choices Won’t Protect Taxpayers
Medicare Advantage, in which about one-quarter of Medicare beneficiaries are currently enrolled, is a program that subsidizes beneficiaries’ access to private health insurance. The Pacific Research Institute will shortly publish Medicare Advantage or Medicare Monopoly? a thorough analysis of the costs and benefits of this program for Medicare beneficiaries and ...
Commentary
Screening for Cancer
Having barely digested the U.S. Preventive Services Task Forces’ suggestion that women between 40 and 50 years of age don’t need mammograms, American women now have to deal with the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists’ recommendation that they don’t need Pap smears until they turn 21. But at least ...
Commentary
More on the Grinding Pace of the Health-Care Take-Over
Well, what do you know: Most Republicans also supported the 1935 Social Security Act. 81 of 102 Republican Representatives and 16 of 25 Senators voted in favor. While this happened after the mid-term elections, the Congressional swing in favor of FDR’s party wasn’t massive: Dems picked up nine seats in ...
Commentary
Health Insurance Rates Soar in Oregon
Not discussed is the role of mandatory benefits, which the Oregon legislature has been laying on to health plans: hearing aids, and oral anti-cancer drugs (which was imposed without the legally required cost analysis). Are these worth what they cost? We’ll never know, because the legislature has decided that people ...
Commentary
Ohio To Destroy Access to Individual Health Insurance?
This will attract only the sickest of the sick to apply for individual coverage – after they’ve already been diagnosed. Remarkably, the bill also has the positive reform of allowing (requiring?) employers which do not offer coverage to use IRS Section 125 to permit their employees to use pre-tax dollars ...
Medicare Advantage or Medicare Monopoly: Protecting Seniors’ Choices and Taxpayers’ Wallets in the Federal Government’s Largest Entitlement Program
This report by John R. Graham, Director of Health Studies at Pacific Research Institute, examines the costs and benefits of Medicare Advantage, which allows consumers to get their benefits through private insurance plans. Under the Senate Health Care bill, the Medicare Advantage program, would be cut by about $118 billion. ...
The Loneliest Voice in the Wilderness: The Council of Economic Advisers
Yesterday’s report trucks out, yet again, claims which few find credible anymore. There’s the ever-present argument that the government can shave off some dollars by focusing on “waste, fraud, and abuse.” Okay: What’s stopping them from doing that right now? Health-information technology comes in for a boost, even though recent ...
Another Victim of Medicaid (And Employer Benefits)
Mr. Kristof also recounts a horrible story: A man who suffers an abnormal growth of blood vessels in his brain, which has rendered him unable to work. Of course, he lost his employment-based benefits, and was unable to acquire individual insurance because of his severe condition. As usual, the story ...
New Yorker Would Have Done Better With Individual Insurance To Start
Laurie Rippon notes that (s)he lost his job after being hit by a car while crossing the street, which resulted in traumatic brain injury. After timing out of COBRA coverage, he would not have been able to buy an individual policy because he would not have passed underwriting. Mr. Rippon ...
Cutting Medicare Benefits Will Not Protect Taxpayers
While much of the “savings” promoted by the deficit chicken-hawks are delusional (waste, fraud, abuse, and no longer “fixing” doctors’ Medicare Part B reimbursement), one is very real: Cutting actual Medicare benefits by reducing seniors’ choices of Medicare Advantage plans. Traditional Medicare Part A (hospital) and Part B (outpatient) benefits ...
The Advantage of Medicare Advantage: Why Reducing Seniors’ Choices Won’t Protect Taxpayers
Medicare Advantage, in which about one-quarter of Medicare beneficiaries are currently enrolled, is a program that subsidizes beneficiaries’ access to private health insurance. The Pacific Research Institute will shortly publish Medicare Advantage or Medicare Monopoly? a thorough analysis of the costs and benefits of this program for Medicare beneficiaries and ...
Screening for Cancer
Having barely digested the U.S. Preventive Services Task Forces’ suggestion that women between 40 and 50 years of age don’t need mammograms, American women now have to deal with the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists’ recommendation that they don’t need Pap smears until they turn 21. But at least ...
More on the Grinding Pace of the Health-Care Take-Over
Well, what do you know: Most Republicans also supported the 1935 Social Security Act. 81 of 102 Republican Representatives and 16 of 25 Senators voted in favor. While this happened after the mid-term elections, the Congressional swing in favor of FDR’s party wasn’t massive: Dems picked up nine seats in ...
Health Insurance Rates Soar in Oregon
Not discussed is the role of mandatory benefits, which the Oregon legislature has been laying on to health plans: hearing aids, and oral anti-cancer drugs (which was imposed without the legally required cost analysis). Are these worth what they cost? We’ll never know, because the legislature has decided that people ...
Ohio To Destroy Access to Individual Health Insurance?
This will attract only the sickest of the sick to apply for individual coverage – after they’ve already been diagnosed. Remarkably, the bill also has the positive reform of allowing (requiring?) employers which do not offer coverage to use IRS Section 125 to permit their employees to use pre-tax dollars ...
