Medicaid
Commentary
Wasteful Medicaid spending prevents government from fulfilling core responsibilities
Few states can waste public healthcare dollars like California. According to a recent state audit, Medi-Cal — the Golden State’s Medicaid program, which covers about 13 million people — improperly spent more than $4 billion on thousands of ineligible enrollees from 2014 to 2017. At least one of those ineligible enrollees had been dead ...
Commentary
Health spending in US is finally slowing: Here’s why
America’s health bill appears to be moderating, and market forces deserve the credit for this good news. National health expenditures grew more slowly in 2017 than in 2016, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The CMS statistics break down cost increases by category. Private health insurance spending grew ...
Commentary
Partial Medicaid expansion isn’t the solution
Some Trump administration officials, and even President Trump himself, reportedly favor allowing states to partially expand Medicaid, the program for low-income Americans jointly funded by the federal and state governments. Any expansion is a bad idea, for both fiscal and moral reasons. Obamacare enabled states to enroll able-bodied, childless adults ...
California
Governor Newsom’s troubling first act on medications
In one of his first acts, Governor Newsom signed an executive order that will change how medicines are purchased in California. With visions of big-box store discounts dancing in his head, Governor Newsom has established a bulk program that will now purchase drugs for the state’s Medicaid program (Medi-Cal). The ...
Commentary
Electronic records are driving doctor burnout
Doctors are being driven daffy by electronic health records, or EHRs. That’s the takeaway from a recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Seven in 10 Rhode Island doctors surveyed who used electronic health records said that the technology stressed them out. Those who reported health ...
Commentary
The Rising Support for Single-Payer Health Care
Public support for single-payer health care is soaring. Seven in 10 Americans want to adopt a “Medicare for All” system, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. This shift in public opinion has been good news for Democrats. The party took back the House in part by promising to make voters’ ...
Commentary
No Matter What the Courts Say, Obamacare Is Ineffective and Unconstitutional
Last month, Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a ruling declaring Obamacare unconstitutional. The case was brought by 20 Republican state attorneys general. Seventeen Democratic state attorneys general responded January 3 by appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. Judge O’Connor ...
Commentary
Checking In On New York’s (Health Care) State Of Mind
Empire State progressives are giddy about the prospect of passing a single-payer health care bill in 2019. Every year for the past four years, the liberal State Assembly has approved the New York Health Act, which would establish a statewide single-payer plan. But the bill always died in the State Senate, ...
Commentary
New Study Championing Medicare for All Is Bogus
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2017 Medicare for All bill (S.1804) would guarantee exceptional care to all Americans while reducing health spending by $5.11 trillion. At least that’s what a new study from researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute, which is co-directed by Professor Robert Pollin, claims. Sound too good ...
Blog
Sacramento’s “Funniest Unfunny Man” Prepares to Exit Stage Left
Gov. Jerry Brown was once described by my former boss, Connie Conway, as the “funniest unfunny man” she’d ever met. For anyone who had the opportunity to watch his “exit interview” at the Sacramento Press Club, you’d know that this is an apt description. When asked to make a particularly ...
Wasteful Medicaid spending prevents government from fulfilling core responsibilities
Few states can waste public healthcare dollars like California. According to a recent state audit, Medi-Cal — the Golden State’s Medicaid program, which covers about 13 million people — improperly spent more than $4 billion on thousands of ineligible enrollees from 2014 to 2017. At least one of those ineligible enrollees had been dead ...
Health spending in US is finally slowing: Here’s why
America’s health bill appears to be moderating, and market forces deserve the credit for this good news. National health expenditures grew more slowly in 2017 than in 2016, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The CMS statistics break down cost increases by category. Private health insurance spending grew ...
Partial Medicaid expansion isn’t the solution
Some Trump administration officials, and even President Trump himself, reportedly favor allowing states to partially expand Medicaid, the program for low-income Americans jointly funded by the federal and state governments. Any expansion is a bad idea, for both fiscal and moral reasons. Obamacare enabled states to enroll able-bodied, childless adults ...
Governor Newsom’s troubling first act on medications
In one of his first acts, Governor Newsom signed an executive order that will change how medicines are purchased in California. With visions of big-box store discounts dancing in his head, Governor Newsom has established a bulk program that will now purchase drugs for the state’s Medicaid program (Medi-Cal). The ...
Electronic records are driving doctor burnout
Doctors are being driven daffy by electronic health records, or EHRs. That’s the takeaway from a recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Seven in 10 Rhode Island doctors surveyed who used electronic health records said that the technology stressed them out. Those who reported health ...
The Rising Support for Single-Payer Health Care
Public support for single-payer health care is soaring. Seven in 10 Americans want to adopt a “Medicare for All” system, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. This shift in public opinion has been good news for Democrats. The party took back the House in part by promising to make voters’ ...
No Matter What the Courts Say, Obamacare Is Ineffective and Unconstitutional
Last month, Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a ruling declaring Obamacare unconstitutional. The case was brought by 20 Republican state attorneys general. Seventeen Democratic state attorneys general responded January 3 by appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. Judge O’Connor ...
Checking In On New York’s (Health Care) State Of Mind
Empire State progressives are giddy about the prospect of passing a single-payer health care bill in 2019. Every year for the past four years, the liberal State Assembly has approved the New York Health Act, which would establish a statewide single-payer plan. But the bill always died in the State Senate, ...
New Study Championing Medicare for All Is Bogus
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2017 Medicare for All bill (S.1804) would guarantee exceptional care to all Americans while reducing health spending by $5.11 trillion. At least that’s what a new study from researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute, which is co-directed by Professor Robert Pollin, claims. Sound too good ...
Sacramento’s “Funniest Unfunny Man” Prepares to Exit Stage Left
Gov. Jerry Brown was once described by my former boss, Connie Conway, as the “funniest unfunny man” she’d ever met. For anyone who had the opportunity to watch his “exit interview” at the Sacramento Press Club, you’d know that this is an apt description. When asked to make a particularly ...
