Sally C. Pipes
Commentary
High-risk pools: the life jacket U.S. health care needs
Obamacare guarantees all Americans health insurance. But it doesn’t guarantee that coverage will be affordable. That’s becoming a bit of a problem. This year, premiums were up an average of 8 percent. In many states, double-digit premium hikes were the norm. Next year, they’re likely to be even bigger, according ...
Agriculture
Water Markets May Help California Better Manage Its Water
California’s famous moniker – the Golden State – is becoming all too accurate as the state enters the fifth year of drought and the summer heat begins to dry out its rolling hillsides. A lackluster El Niño failed to deliver a promised deluge of rain and ultimately brought only an ...
California
The high price of “cheap” drugs
California is losing the battle against opioid addiction. Every 45 minutes, someone in the Golden State overdoses. Fifty percent more people overdose today than in 2006. Fortunately, the Food and Drug Administration just approved the anti-addiction treatment Probuphine. It’s an implant placed in a person’s upper arm, where it releases ...
Commentary
The GOP’s Obamacare Replacement: Better Than Good
Last week, the GOP kept a promise to the American people by delivering a replacement plan for Obamacare. The plan — part of the party’s “A Better Way” campaign — was unveiled by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. “What we are laying out today is a first-time-in-six-years consensus by the ...
Commentary
Latest Obamacare Casualty? The Constitution
A federal judge recently ruled that the Obama administration violated the Constitution by spending $7 billion on subsidies for insurance companies without Congress’s permission. Worse still, the administration knew all along that it was flouting the law. If the ruling is upheld, Americans will face higher premiums and fewer choices ...
Commentary
Hello, HillaryCare?
Hillary Clinton is within striking distance of the White House. Last week, she secured enough delegates to ensure that she’ll be the Democrats’ presidential nominee, barring any hiccups. According to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls, Clinton would beat Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, if the election were ...
Commentary
Medicare Drug Reimbursement Cuts Are Backdoor Rationing
Imagine being denied treatment for cancer because Washington bureaucrats decided that a cutting-edge new therapy that could cure you just wasn’t “cost effective.” That’s already happening in Britain under its government-run health care system, the National Health Service. And Medicare officials are poised to bring similar policies here. The NHS’s ...
Commentary
Obamacare is Failing–On Purpose?
Obamacare’s exchanges could soon be out of health insurers. This month, UnitedHealth – the largest U.S. insurer — announced that it would no longer sell exchange plans in New Jersey in 2017. It has now withdrawn from 27 states. Last year, UnitedHealth lost about $475 million on the exchanges; this ...
Commentary
Obama administration should stop the attack on HSAs
Health insurance is about to bear a higher price tag. Experts at the Kaiser Family Foundation just warned that premiums are likely to jump in 2017 — after increasing an average of more than 12 percent this year. High-deductible health plans paired with tax-advantaged Health Savings Accounts (HSA) have emerged ...
Commentary
Bundled payments bad medicine for Medicare seniors
Medicare is changing the way it pays for seniors’ knee and hip replacements. That change could be awfully painful for patients. The new payment scheme pits doctors and patients against one another by punishing providers for excess costs — and rewarding them for denying access to more expensive, potentially better ...
High-risk pools: the life jacket U.S. health care needs
Obamacare guarantees all Americans health insurance. But it doesn’t guarantee that coverage will be affordable. That’s becoming a bit of a problem. This year, premiums were up an average of 8 percent. In many states, double-digit premium hikes were the norm. Next year, they’re likely to be even bigger, according ...
Water Markets May Help California Better Manage Its Water
California’s famous moniker – the Golden State – is becoming all too accurate as the state enters the fifth year of drought and the summer heat begins to dry out its rolling hillsides. A lackluster El Niño failed to deliver a promised deluge of rain and ultimately brought only an ...
The high price of “cheap” drugs
California is losing the battle against opioid addiction. Every 45 minutes, someone in the Golden State overdoses. Fifty percent more people overdose today than in 2006. Fortunately, the Food and Drug Administration just approved the anti-addiction treatment Probuphine. It’s an implant placed in a person’s upper arm, where it releases ...
The GOP’s Obamacare Replacement: Better Than Good
Last week, the GOP kept a promise to the American people by delivering a replacement plan for Obamacare. The plan — part of the party’s “A Better Way” campaign — was unveiled by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. “What we are laying out today is a first-time-in-six-years consensus by the ...
Latest Obamacare Casualty? The Constitution
A federal judge recently ruled that the Obama administration violated the Constitution by spending $7 billion on subsidies for insurance companies without Congress’s permission. Worse still, the administration knew all along that it was flouting the law. If the ruling is upheld, Americans will face higher premiums and fewer choices ...
Hello, HillaryCare?
Hillary Clinton is within striking distance of the White House. Last week, she secured enough delegates to ensure that she’ll be the Democrats’ presidential nominee, barring any hiccups. According to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls, Clinton would beat Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, if the election were ...
Medicare Drug Reimbursement Cuts Are Backdoor Rationing
Imagine being denied treatment for cancer because Washington bureaucrats decided that a cutting-edge new therapy that could cure you just wasn’t “cost effective.” That’s already happening in Britain under its government-run health care system, the National Health Service. And Medicare officials are poised to bring similar policies here. The NHS’s ...
Obamacare is Failing–On Purpose?
Obamacare’s exchanges could soon be out of health insurers. This month, UnitedHealth – the largest U.S. insurer — announced that it would no longer sell exchange plans in New Jersey in 2017. It has now withdrawn from 27 states. Last year, UnitedHealth lost about $475 million on the exchanges; this ...
Obama administration should stop the attack on HSAs
Health insurance is about to bear a higher price tag. Experts at the Kaiser Family Foundation just warned that premiums are likely to jump in 2017 — after increasing an average of more than 12 percent this year. High-deductible health plans paired with tax-advantaged Health Savings Accounts (HSA) have emerged ...
Bundled payments bad medicine for Medicare seniors
Medicare is changing the way it pays for seniors’ knee and hip replacements. That change could be awfully painful for patients. The new payment scheme pits doctors and patients against one another by punishing providers for excess costs — and rewarding them for denying access to more expensive, potentially better ...
