Health Care Reform
Commentary
Read the latest on CA health care policy
California rues healthcare minimum wage increase
A minimum wage hike for healthcare workers in California was supposed to take effect this Saturday. But over the past week, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and his Democratic allies have worked feverishly on legislation to postpone it. California Democrats haven’t suddenly become free-market acolytes. They’re worried that the wage increase, which may cost the state $4 billion this ...
Commentary
Mandating dental coverage will drive up the cost of insurance
The Biden administration finalized a rule last month allowing states to mandate that most individual and small-group health plans, including those for sale on Obamacare‘s exchanges, cover adult dental services. Mandating coverage of dental benefits may be politically appealing. But it will end up leaving a bitter taste in people’s mouths. Mandates cost money. Implementing ...
Commentary
Congress should take action to make telemedicine permanent
Congress faces a year-end deadline to extend its relaxed pandemic-era rules permitting greater use of telehealth by Medicare beneficiaries. If our lawmakers fail to step up, millions of seniors as well as privately insured patients could lose access to what has become an essential form of medical care. The expansion of ...
Commentary
Read on the benefits of telehealth
Time Medicare Joined 21st Century on Telehealth
The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing this month to discuss extending pandemic-era policies that expanded access to telehealth under Medicare. Without urgent action by lawmakers, these telehealth flexibilities will expire at the end of the year. That’s an outcome few should welcome. Telehealth has proved enormously valuable to ...
Commentary
Read about healthcare on the presidential campaign trail
Biden And Harris Are Wrong About Healthcare “Rights”
Speaking to supporters in North Carolina late last month, Vice President Kamala Harris said, “We here agree that access to healthcare should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it.” President Biden picked up the thread when he joined Harris on stage, saying he envisioned “a future ...
Commentary
Read about the gap in black and white outcomes in healthcare
Government programs are WIDENING black-white health disparities
Thanks to better prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment, cancer mortality in the United States has fallen 33% since 1991, per data the American Cancer Society published this year. But that progress has not been equally distributed. The cancer mortality rate for black people remains higher than for white people. Between 2000 and ...
Commentary
Read the latest on GOP's plan for healthcare reform
House GOP Embraces Markets in New Health Reform Plan
The House Republican Study Committee’s new budget proposal, which was released last month, offers fresh proof that the GOP hasn’t given up on sensible health reform. The proposal would balance the budget in just seven years, in part by undoing some of the most destructive elements of Obamacare. It also gives Americans ...
Commentary
Learn about America's physician shortage
We need all doctors on deck
Medical students recently celebrated “Match Day,” when aspiring doctors learn where they’ll be spending the next few years in residency to complete their training. America needs many more physicians — as many as 86,000 by 2036, according to projections released this week by the Association of American Medical Colleges. Policymakers can help plug that gap by easing ...
Commentary
If expanding quality health care access is California’s goal, Medi-Cal is not the solution
In January, California became the very first state to open its Medicaid program, called Medi-Cal, to every undocumented immigrant within its borders. Some 700,000 adults between the ages of 26 and 49 now qualify for publicly funded health coverage. It’s the fourth expansion of the program to undocumented immigrants, after kids became eligible in 2015, young ...
Commentary
Don’t take away short-term health plans
The Biden administration may soon finalize rules that would deprive many Americans, especially young and healthy ones, of affordable insurance coverage. That will be the consequence of President Joe Biden‘s plan to reverse a 2018 rule promulgated by the Trump administration that allowed low-cost short-term health plans to last up ...
Read the latest on CA health care policy
California rues healthcare minimum wage increase
A minimum wage hike for healthcare workers in California was supposed to take effect this Saturday. But over the past week, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and his Democratic allies have worked feverishly on legislation to postpone it. California Democrats haven’t suddenly become free-market acolytes. They’re worried that the wage increase, which may cost the state $4 billion this ...
Mandating dental coverage will drive up the cost of insurance
The Biden administration finalized a rule last month allowing states to mandate that most individual and small-group health plans, including those for sale on Obamacare‘s exchanges, cover adult dental services. Mandating coverage of dental benefits may be politically appealing. But it will end up leaving a bitter taste in people’s mouths. Mandates cost money. Implementing ...
Congress should take action to make telemedicine permanent
Congress faces a year-end deadline to extend its relaxed pandemic-era rules permitting greater use of telehealth by Medicare beneficiaries. If our lawmakers fail to step up, millions of seniors as well as privately insured patients could lose access to what has become an essential form of medical care. The expansion of ...
Read on the benefits of telehealth
Time Medicare Joined 21st Century on Telehealth
The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing this month to discuss extending pandemic-era policies that expanded access to telehealth under Medicare. Without urgent action by lawmakers, these telehealth flexibilities will expire at the end of the year. That’s an outcome few should welcome. Telehealth has proved enormously valuable to ...
Read about healthcare on the presidential campaign trail
Biden And Harris Are Wrong About Healthcare “Rights”
Speaking to supporters in North Carolina late last month, Vice President Kamala Harris said, “We here agree that access to healthcare should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it.” President Biden picked up the thread when he joined Harris on stage, saying he envisioned “a future ...
Read about the gap in black and white outcomes in healthcare
Government programs are WIDENING black-white health disparities
Thanks to better prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment, cancer mortality in the United States has fallen 33% since 1991, per data the American Cancer Society published this year. But that progress has not been equally distributed. The cancer mortality rate for black people remains higher than for white people. Between 2000 and ...
Read the latest on GOP's plan for healthcare reform
House GOP Embraces Markets in New Health Reform Plan
The House Republican Study Committee’s new budget proposal, which was released last month, offers fresh proof that the GOP hasn’t given up on sensible health reform. The proposal would balance the budget in just seven years, in part by undoing some of the most destructive elements of Obamacare. It also gives Americans ...
Learn about America's physician shortage
We need all doctors on deck
Medical students recently celebrated “Match Day,” when aspiring doctors learn where they’ll be spending the next few years in residency to complete their training. America needs many more physicians — as many as 86,000 by 2036, according to projections released this week by the Association of American Medical Colleges. Policymakers can help plug that gap by easing ...
If expanding quality health care access is California’s goal, Medi-Cal is not the solution
In January, California became the very first state to open its Medicaid program, called Medi-Cal, to every undocumented immigrant within its borders. Some 700,000 adults between the ages of 26 and 49 now qualify for publicly funded health coverage. It’s the fourth expansion of the program to undocumented immigrants, after kids became eligible in 2015, young ...
Don’t take away short-term health plans
The Biden administration may soon finalize rules that would deprive many Americans, especially young and healthy ones, of affordable insurance coverage. That will be the consequence of President Joe Biden‘s plan to reverse a 2018 rule promulgated by the Trump administration that allowed low-cost short-term health plans to last up ...
