Health Care
Commentary
Senior Citizens Will Pay Dearly For Health Care Price Controls
Squabbles over spending cuts have ruled the negotiations over increasing the debt ceiling. But even after the ink is dry on the budget deal just passed, lawmakers will still be charged with reducing federal spending further. One proposal that refuses to die would impose price controls on prescription drugs in ...
Health Care
Why Health Exchanges Don’t Work
Key Points: The Utah Health Exchange is failing to meet its goals. It is almost certainly true that the administrative costs of operating an exchange are greater than the administrative costs of the traditional small-group market. Any exchange that offers unsubsidized, voluntary coverage will likely have the same poor results ...
Commentary
How ObamaCare Threatens Solvency Of Health Insurers
One of the most remarkable outcomes of ObamaCare is how the stock market has treated commercial health plans, which have rallied significantly. In the two years between the 2008 and 2010 elections, the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payors’ Index rallied 26% (annualized), vs. only 9% for the S&P 500. Outperformance increased ...
Commentary
Obamacare threatens solvency of Colorado health plans
Obamacare encourages state politicians to increase their interference with health-insurance premiums. In 2008 Colorado passed a law giving the Division of Insurance the power to deny premium hikes. To enhance this power, known as “prior approval,” Obamacare gave Colorado a $1 million grant last year to hire more insurance analysts ...
Health Care
Why the Utah Health Exchange is No Model for Health Reform
The Utah Health Exchange is the model some conservatives believe can be used to push back against Obamacare. Witness the Wall Street Journal (July 16) soundly rejecting regulatory guidance on what the Administration is now calling Affordable Insurance Exchanges, but encouraging governors to get on the exchange bandwagon, in the ...
Commentary
80% of Employers Concerned About Health Reform’s Administrative Obligations; 30% Think Exchanges Will Offer Worse Coverage
A new survey by Lockton, Inc.s Health Reform Advisory Practice reports that 80 percent of respondents are concerned about federal health reforms additional administrative obligations (figure 2). The respondents cover a wide portfolio of industries. On the surface, it looks like fewer employers than anticipated by previous surveys (especially McKinsey ...
Commentary
ObamaCare’s Imposition Will Lead To An Unhealthy State Of Wellbeing
The federal government has produced yet another study stating the obvious about health care that having insurance coverage is better than not having it. Yet some wonks are hailing this report from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) as the most important health-care policy experiment since the 1970s. ...
Health Care
Health Insurance Exchanges: What If They Issued 347 Pages of Regulations and Nobody Cared?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued regulations governing Health Benefits Exchanges and Small-Business Health Options Exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). These regulations are poorly defined, confirming that the exchanges will empower state functionaries to reduce choice and competition in health ...
Commentary
Government Mandates Make Health Savings More Elusive
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently released some data that show that the digital revolution continues to evade health care. Through mid-May, just 1,026 registered hospitals and physicians out of a possible 56,599 have demonstrated that they are using electronic medical records and other health information technology in ...
Business & Economics
Old Boss or New Boss, state stem cell agency still a bust
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has chosen financier Jonathan Thomas as its new boss — but it matters little who runs the state stem-cell agency. The focus should be on results, and by that standard, Californians do not get what they paid for. Thomas, an investment banker schooled ...
Senior Citizens Will Pay Dearly For Health Care Price Controls
Squabbles over spending cuts have ruled the negotiations over increasing the debt ceiling. But even after the ink is dry on the budget deal just passed, lawmakers will still be charged with reducing federal spending further. One proposal that refuses to die would impose price controls on prescription drugs in ...
Why Health Exchanges Don’t Work
Key Points: The Utah Health Exchange is failing to meet its goals. It is almost certainly true that the administrative costs of operating an exchange are greater than the administrative costs of the traditional small-group market. Any exchange that offers unsubsidized, voluntary coverage will likely have the same poor results ...
How ObamaCare Threatens Solvency Of Health Insurers
One of the most remarkable outcomes of ObamaCare is how the stock market has treated commercial health plans, which have rallied significantly. In the two years between the 2008 and 2010 elections, the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payors’ Index rallied 26% (annualized), vs. only 9% for the S&P 500. Outperformance increased ...
Obamacare threatens solvency of Colorado health plans
Obamacare encourages state politicians to increase their interference with health-insurance premiums. In 2008 Colorado passed a law giving the Division of Insurance the power to deny premium hikes. To enhance this power, known as “prior approval,” Obamacare gave Colorado a $1 million grant last year to hire more insurance analysts ...
Why the Utah Health Exchange is No Model for Health Reform
The Utah Health Exchange is the model some conservatives believe can be used to push back against Obamacare. Witness the Wall Street Journal (July 16) soundly rejecting regulatory guidance on what the Administration is now calling Affordable Insurance Exchanges, but encouraging governors to get on the exchange bandwagon, in the ...
80% of Employers Concerned About Health Reform’s Administrative Obligations; 30% Think Exchanges Will Offer Worse Coverage
A new survey by Lockton, Inc.s Health Reform Advisory Practice reports that 80 percent of respondents are concerned about federal health reforms additional administrative obligations (figure 2). The respondents cover a wide portfolio of industries. On the surface, it looks like fewer employers than anticipated by previous surveys (especially McKinsey ...
ObamaCare’s Imposition Will Lead To An Unhealthy State Of Wellbeing
The federal government has produced yet another study stating the obvious about health care that having insurance coverage is better than not having it. Yet some wonks are hailing this report from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) as the most important health-care policy experiment since the 1970s. ...
Health Insurance Exchanges: What If They Issued 347 Pages of Regulations and Nobody Cared?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued regulations governing Health Benefits Exchanges and Small-Business Health Options Exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). These regulations are poorly defined, confirming that the exchanges will empower state functionaries to reduce choice and competition in health ...
Government Mandates Make Health Savings More Elusive
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently released some data that show that the digital revolution continues to evade health care. Through mid-May, just 1,026 registered hospitals and physicians out of a possible 56,599 have demonstrated that they are using electronic medical records and other health information technology in ...
Old Boss or New Boss, state stem cell agency still a bust
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has chosen financier Jonathan Thomas as its new boss — but it matters little who runs the state stem-cell agency. The focus should be on results, and by that standard, Californians do not get what they paid for. Thomas, an investment banker schooled ...
