Medicaid
Commentary
It’s time for ObamaScare, The Sequel
Like a dreaded movie sequel, ObamaScare 2.0 “The Nightmare Continues” is back for a second open enrollment season. Too scary to be released prior to the midterm elections, the ObamaScare horror show goes live Nov. 15. But unlike a Hollywood slasher flick, where the monsters are fake, the ...
Sally C. Pipes
October 23, 2014
Commentary
The Bungling of Bundled Payments
Obamacares two chief goals were to cut the number of uninsured and reduce the cost of health care. At least one of the laws primary ways of fulfilling the latter goal appears to be failing. The RAND Corporation recently examined a pilot effort by several California hospitals to replace their ...
Sally C. Pipes
September 23, 2014
Commentary
In Federal Drug Program, Hospitals and Pharmacies Use the Poor to Get Rich
Telling the truth about wasteful healthcare spending is dangerous. Too many people are invested in the status quo to admit that a program isnt working, or worse, being exploited. Recently, defenders of the deeply problematic 340B drug discount program came out swinging. On July 29, Doctors Robert Chapman and Andres ...
Sally C. Pipes
August 15, 2014
Commentary
No, Really — Employer Health Insurance Is Better Than Government Care
Who knew the cost disparities between employer and government health insurance could be so exciting? Last week, Princeton economics professor Uwe Reinhardt took issue with my July 28 column Employer Health Insurance: A Bargain Compared to Government-Sponsored Coverage. In my piece, I unpacked the numbers from a new American ...
Sally C. Pipes
August 14, 2014
Commentary
Employer Health Insurance: A Bargain Compared to Government-Sponsored Coverage
After years of slowing growth, employer health costs are forecast to climb at a faster pace next year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Even with that projected growth, employers are spending much less per person than is the government about 60 percent less, concludes a new study from the American Health ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 28, 2014
Commentary
Healthcare’s Problem Is Not High Drug Prices
Is $84,000 too much to pay to save a life? That’s a question worth asking now that the insurance industry has declared war on what it has deemed outrageous prices for new specialty drugs. In this case, the complaints focus on Sovaldi, a breakthrough treatment that gives three million people ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 10, 2014
Commentary
The High and Rising Costs of the HealthCare.gov Fiasco
The final verdict on Obamacare has yet to be written. But earlier this month, Republican staffers from the Senate Finance and Judiciary Committees offered a first installment on the botched rollout of the federal health insurance exchange HealthCare.gov. It wasnt pretty. The Committees 34-page report explains just how bad ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 30, 2014
California
Covered California’s Big Budget Blowout Is Coming
Only by Obamacares standards could Covered California, Sacramentos state-run Obamacare exchange, be considered a success. Outside California, Obamacare is fading fast in the states. Some led by Oregon and Maryland intend to abandon their Obamacare health-insurance exchanges and let the federal government takeover. Covered California, however, is firing ...
John R. Graham
June 26, 2014
Commentary
Repeal and Replace Remains the Goal
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently admitted that it has no idea what Obamacare will end up costing taxpayers. The budget agency has quietly gone back on its initial claim that the law would lower the deficit by $120 billion over the next decade. The reason? It cant track the ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 25, 2014
Commentary
Drug Discount Program Drives up Costs, Discounts the Poor
American cancer patients have never had a better chance of beating the disease than they do today. In the last quarter-century, cancer death rates have declined by more than one-fifth. But these gains in the fight against cancer havent come cheaply. Cancer drug prices have doubled in the past decade. ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 2, 2014
It’s time for ObamaScare, The Sequel
Like a dreaded movie sequel, ObamaScare 2.0 “The Nightmare Continues” is back for a second open enrollment season. Too scary to be released prior to the midterm elections, the ObamaScare horror show goes live Nov. 15. But unlike a Hollywood slasher flick, where the monsters are fake, the ...
The Bungling of Bundled Payments
Obamacares two chief goals were to cut the number of uninsured and reduce the cost of health care. At least one of the laws primary ways of fulfilling the latter goal appears to be failing. The RAND Corporation recently examined a pilot effort by several California hospitals to replace their ...
In Federal Drug Program, Hospitals and Pharmacies Use the Poor to Get Rich
Telling the truth about wasteful healthcare spending is dangerous. Too many people are invested in the status quo to admit that a program isnt working, or worse, being exploited. Recently, defenders of the deeply problematic 340B drug discount program came out swinging. On July 29, Doctors Robert Chapman and Andres ...
No, Really — Employer Health Insurance Is Better Than Government Care
Who knew the cost disparities between employer and government health insurance could be so exciting? Last week, Princeton economics professor Uwe Reinhardt took issue with my July 28 column Employer Health Insurance: A Bargain Compared to Government-Sponsored Coverage. In my piece, I unpacked the numbers from a new American ...
Employer Health Insurance: A Bargain Compared to Government-Sponsored Coverage
After years of slowing growth, employer health costs are forecast to climb at a faster pace next year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Even with that projected growth, employers are spending much less per person than is the government about 60 percent less, concludes a new study from the American Health ...
Healthcare’s Problem Is Not High Drug Prices
Is $84,000 too much to pay to save a life? That’s a question worth asking now that the insurance industry has declared war on what it has deemed outrageous prices for new specialty drugs. In this case, the complaints focus on Sovaldi, a breakthrough treatment that gives three million people ...
The High and Rising Costs of the HealthCare.gov Fiasco
The final verdict on Obamacare has yet to be written. But earlier this month, Republican staffers from the Senate Finance and Judiciary Committees offered a first installment on the botched rollout of the federal health insurance exchange HealthCare.gov. It wasnt pretty. The Committees 34-page report explains just how bad ...
Covered California’s Big Budget Blowout Is Coming
Only by Obamacares standards could Covered California, Sacramentos state-run Obamacare exchange, be considered a success. Outside California, Obamacare is fading fast in the states. Some led by Oregon and Maryland intend to abandon their Obamacare health-insurance exchanges and let the federal government takeover. Covered California, however, is firing ...
Repeal and Replace Remains the Goal
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently admitted that it has no idea what Obamacare will end up costing taxpayers. The budget agency has quietly gone back on its initial claim that the law would lower the deficit by $120 billion over the next decade. The reason? It cant track the ...
Drug Discount Program Drives up Costs, Discounts the Poor
American cancer patients have never had a better chance of beating the disease than they do today. In the last quarter-century, cancer death rates have declined by more than one-fifth. But these gains in the fight against cancer havent come cheaply. Cancer drug prices have doubled in the past decade. ...