Sally C. Pipes
Commentary
Follow the State’s Lead to Better Medicaid
By any objective measure, Medicaid is a failure. It provides substandard care at an ever increasing cost to taxpayers. When a Republican Congress and a Democrat president worked together to end another failing program welfare as we knew it we achieved something rare in public policy: success. We ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 11, 2011
Business & Economics
Small-Business Health Care Tax Credits Are having a Miniscule Impact
The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council recently surveyed 304 small business owners about how satisfied they were with the new healthcare reform laws tax credits. Nearly 90% had not applied for the credits. Some had no idea they existed, others were deemed ineligible, and more than a fifth found that ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 4, 2011
Commentary
Medicaid Mess-up
Last week, government officials discovered that up to 3 million middle-class Americans with annual incomes as high as $64,000 could qualify for Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, thanks to Obamacare. Medicares chief actuary, Richard Foster, summed the situation up nicely: [T]hat just doesnt make ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 29, 2011
Commentary
Price Caps Will Only Cap Availability of Insurance
Earlier this month, the California Assembly voted to give the state insurance commissioner the power to reject health insurance rate hikes that he deemed excessive. The state senate must now take up the measure, known as AB 52. A week later, AB 52 effectively went national. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 27, 2011
Commentary
Will Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Survive Obamacare?
Reports from consulting firms dont normally make national news. Then again, most such reports dont predict the downfall of the American health care system. Earlier this month, the consulting group McKinsey projected that tens of millions of Americans could find themselves without the health coverage they now get through their ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 20, 2011
Commentary
Even Obamacare’s Supporters Don’t Support the Rationing Board
The House Energy and Commerce Committee just scheduled hearings for next month on one of the most controversial components of ObamaCare the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). This 15-member, unelected Board will be charged with making recommendations for reducing Medicare spending if costs exceed a specified cap. Those recommendations ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 12, 2011
Commentary
Single Payer Health Care Systems, Multiple Health Care Disasters
Democrats have recently seized on a novel way of reducing health care costs threats. The Obama Administrations Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced that any insurance company that wants to increase premiums more than 10% will have to get approval from the government. Congress didnt pass ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 6, 2011
Commentary
Candid Romney Would Own Up To Mass. Fiasco
Massachusetts health reform is in the news driven by reports of long waits for care and its architect’s presidential ambitions. Former Massachusetts governor and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney delivered a widely panned speech the week before last on health care. The three-part speech attempted the impossible: It defended ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 20, 2011
Health Care
Are Hospitals Being Stiffed by the Uninsured?
“The whole issue is that people need to take control of their lives, people need to not think of health care as an entitlement, they need to get health insurance, and you know it is possible. When you break down that 50.7 million Americans who don’t have insurance at one ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 13, 2011
Commentary
New Health Care Law Cripples State Budgets
America’s fiscal crisis is about to explode. In 2010 state budget deficits reached an all-time high of $191 billion. Former New York Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch has predicted that state deficits could reach a staggering $500 billion this year when the stimulus funds propping up state budgets run out in ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 10, 2011
Follow the State’s Lead to Better Medicaid
By any objective measure, Medicaid is a failure. It provides substandard care at an ever increasing cost to taxpayers. When a Republican Congress and a Democrat president worked together to end another failing program welfare as we knew it we achieved something rare in public policy: success. We ...
Small-Business Health Care Tax Credits Are having a Miniscule Impact
The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council recently surveyed 304 small business owners about how satisfied they were with the new healthcare reform laws tax credits. Nearly 90% had not applied for the credits. Some had no idea they existed, others were deemed ineligible, and more than a fifth found that ...
Medicaid Mess-up
Last week, government officials discovered that up to 3 million middle-class Americans with annual incomes as high as $64,000 could qualify for Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, thanks to Obamacare. Medicares chief actuary, Richard Foster, summed the situation up nicely: [T]hat just doesnt make ...
Price Caps Will Only Cap Availability of Insurance
Earlier this month, the California Assembly voted to give the state insurance commissioner the power to reject health insurance rate hikes that he deemed excessive. The state senate must now take up the measure, known as AB 52. A week later, AB 52 effectively went national. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) ...
Will Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Survive Obamacare?
Reports from consulting firms dont normally make national news. Then again, most such reports dont predict the downfall of the American health care system. Earlier this month, the consulting group McKinsey projected that tens of millions of Americans could find themselves without the health coverage they now get through their ...
Even Obamacare’s Supporters Don’t Support the Rationing Board
The House Energy and Commerce Committee just scheduled hearings for next month on one of the most controversial components of ObamaCare the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). This 15-member, unelected Board will be charged with making recommendations for reducing Medicare spending if costs exceed a specified cap. Those recommendations ...
Single Payer Health Care Systems, Multiple Health Care Disasters
Democrats have recently seized on a novel way of reducing health care costs threats. The Obama Administrations Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced that any insurance company that wants to increase premiums more than 10% will have to get approval from the government. Congress didnt pass ...
Candid Romney Would Own Up To Mass. Fiasco
Massachusetts health reform is in the news driven by reports of long waits for care and its architect’s presidential ambitions. Former Massachusetts governor and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney delivered a widely panned speech the week before last on health care. The three-part speech attempted the impossible: It defended ...
Are Hospitals Being Stiffed by the Uninsured?
“The whole issue is that people need to take control of their lives, people need to not think of health care as an entitlement, they need to get health insurance, and you know it is possible. When you break down that 50.7 million Americans who don’t have insurance at one ...
New Health Care Law Cripples State Budgets
America’s fiscal crisis is about to explode. In 2010 state budget deficits reached an all-time high of $191 billion. Former New York Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch has predicted that state deficits could reach a staggering $500 billion this year when the stimulus funds propping up state budgets run out in ...