Health Care
Commentary
Telemedicine could revolutionize health care
The house call is back. Several tech companies are working to deliver doctors to patients’ doorsteps at the touch of a button — or the swipe of a smartphone. For patients outside the cities where these apps are taking off, there’s the virtual house call, whether via video-messaging services like ...
Commentary
Trump and Obama promise to be terrible negotiators
President Barack Obama and presidential hopeful Donald Trump don’t agree on much. But they’ve found common ground in pushing to upend the Medicare drug benefit. At a rally days before his resounding victory in New Hampshire, Trump grumbled about government drug spending — and called for Medicare to take over ...
Commentary
Seniors paying price for Obamacare fraud
Fewer seniors are re-entering the hospital after an initial stay, according to recent data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Obama administration says that we have Obamacare to thank for this “positive transformative change.” But the only thing that’s “changed” is how hospitals fill out the government’s ...
Commentary
Sanders and Trump Are Singing From the Same Tattered Single-Payer Hymnal
Perhaps the cold — or the proximity to Canada — got to New Hampshire’s voters on February 9. Both Republicans and Democrats in the Granite State handed presidential primary victories to candidates who have — at one time or another — supported government-run, Canadian-style single-payer health care. Sen. Bernie Sanders, ...
Commentary
Book Review: Sally Pipes’ ‘The Way Out Of Obamacare’
Back in January of 2011, and over drinks with Sally Pipes and Rowena Itchon (respectively President and Vice President of the Pacific Research Institute), we got to talking about Pipes’ emigration from Canada to the United States when she was a young adult. Her mother’s parting plea to Pipes was ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s ACOs punish hospitals for quality care
Obamacare promised to cut Medicare’s costs by coordinating care among doctors. But the first effort to do so – Obamacare’s Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations – lost $2.6 million. Now, the administration is trying a “new and improved” version – so-called Next Generation ACOs. Maine’s Beacon Health Network is participating. But ...
Business & Economics
Yet Another Promise: The ACA and Entrepreneurship
Many were the benefits promised by supporters of the Affordable Care Act. If you like your doctor and health plan, you will be able to keep them. Health insurance premiums will fall by an average of $2500 per year for a typical family, even as coverage will be extended to ...
Commentary
Health laws’ cost-cutting and patient care priorities
The Affordable Care Act promised to cut Medicare’s costs by encouraging doctors to coordinate care — and thus eliminate waste and duplication. So far, it’s backfiring. The White House claimed that its first efforts to get doctors to coordinate care — the Shared Savings Program and Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations ...
Commentary
Single-payer collides with reality
It’s a two-horse race for the Democratic nomination for president. This week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) came within 0.2 percentage points of beating Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses. Sanders zealots are “feeling the Bern” in large part because of his healthcare plan. “I believe in a Medicare for all ...
Commentary
The Right Way to Replace Obamacare’s Subsidy
On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, nine candidates for the Republican presidential nomination remain. All are staunch critics of Obamacare. But they differ on what they’d put in its place. One point of tension? How to replace Obamacare’s overly complicated subsidy system. The GOP roughly falls into two ...
Telemedicine could revolutionize health care
The house call is back. Several tech companies are working to deliver doctors to patients’ doorsteps at the touch of a button — or the swipe of a smartphone. For patients outside the cities where these apps are taking off, there’s the virtual house call, whether via video-messaging services like ...
Trump and Obama promise to be terrible negotiators
President Barack Obama and presidential hopeful Donald Trump don’t agree on much. But they’ve found common ground in pushing to upend the Medicare drug benefit. At a rally days before his resounding victory in New Hampshire, Trump grumbled about government drug spending — and called for Medicare to take over ...
Seniors paying price for Obamacare fraud
Fewer seniors are re-entering the hospital after an initial stay, according to recent data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Obama administration says that we have Obamacare to thank for this “positive transformative change.” But the only thing that’s “changed” is how hospitals fill out the government’s ...
Sanders and Trump Are Singing From the Same Tattered Single-Payer Hymnal
Perhaps the cold — or the proximity to Canada — got to New Hampshire’s voters on February 9. Both Republicans and Democrats in the Granite State handed presidential primary victories to candidates who have — at one time or another — supported government-run, Canadian-style single-payer health care. Sen. Bernie Sanders, ...
Book Review: Sally Pipes’ ‘The Way Out Of Obamacare’
Back in January of 2011, and over drinks with Sally Pipes and Rowena Itchon (respectively President and Vice President of the Pacific Research Institute), we got to talking about Pipes’ emigration from Canada to the United States when she was a young adult. Her mother’s parting plea to Pipes was ...
Obamacare’s ACOs punish hospitals for quality care
Obamacare promised to cut Medicare’s costs by coordinating care among doctors. But the first effort to do so – Obamacare’s Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations – lost $2.6 million. Now, the administration is trying a “new and improved” version – so-called Next Generation ACOs. Maine’s Beacon Health Network is participating. But ...
Yet Another Promise: The ACA and Entrepreneurship
Many were the benefits promised by supporters of the Affordable Care Act. If you like your doctor and health plan, you will be able to keep them. Health insurance premiums will fall by an average of $2500 per year for a typical family, even as coverage will be extended to ...
Health laws’ cost-cutting and patient care priorities
The Affordable Care Act promised to cut Medicare’s costs by encouraging doctors to coordinate care — and thus eliminate waste and duplication. So far, it’s backfiring. The White House claimed that its first efforts to get doctors to coordinate care — the Shared Savings Program and Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations ...
Single-payer collides with reality
It’s a two-horse race for the Democratic nomination for president. This week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) came within 0.2 percentage points of beating Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses. Sanders zealots are “feeling the Bern” in large part because of his healthcare plan. “I believe in a Medicare for all ...
The Right Way to Replace Obamacare’s Subsidy
On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, nine candidates for the Republican presidential nomination remain. All are staunch critics of Obamacare. But they differ on what they’d put in its place. One point of tension? How to replace Obamacare’s overly complicated subsidy system. The GOP roughly falls into two ...
