Medicaid
Commentary
Forget the ‘Cornhusker Kickback’: Senate Medicaid Deal a Recipe for Fraud
The Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) is the federal financing formula that encourages each state to spend its own taxpayers money irresponsibly in order to maximize its take from other states. For example, Californias FMAP was traditionally the 50 percent minimum: For every dollar California spent, the U.S. Treasury would ...
Health Care
The Rich Get Richer: The Senate’s Medicaid Proposal Gives a Bigger Bailout to Wealthier States
Imagine that you were inspecting a swimming pool that was cracked and leaking water, such that anyone who dove into it would be at risk of cracking his head on the bottom. You would likely make it a priority to fix the pool. However, if the pool were on a ...
Commentary
The March of the Senate Democrats
As one early morning report put it, the Senate was marching to passage on Christmas Eve of its version of health overhaul. What does this Democrats-only bill do? What are the consequences? As it stands today, the health overhaul bill is a hoax. We all may know some part of ...
Commentary
Orange Grove: CLASS act in health bill really isn’t
Orange County Register, January 6, 2010 Just before the curtain closed on 2009, the U.S. Senate voted to proceed with landmark health care legislation. The bill had appeared to be at a dead end, until Senate leaders assuaged moderates’ concerns about cost by dropping both the “public option” and the ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s Three Major Hurdles
The Democrats are determined to expand the federal governments portfolio beyond the Post Office, Amtrak, and General Motors, by adding the entire health-care industry to its holdings. But before they can subject what will soon be one-fifth of our economy to the federal governments command-and-control model, Democrats must clear three ...
Business & Economics
Calif. Gov. Calls For More Federal Aid As States Bleed Red
Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should have said “I’ll be back” when the state got billions of dollars from the federal government last year. Because on Wednesday, he demanded another handout. In his state of the state speech, Schwarzenegger acknowledged California faces deep budget woes and called for federal assistance. He ...
Commentary
Advantage Cronyism
If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, at least if you pay cash. One of the many problems with funneling our nation’s health-care system through our nation’s political system is that it would politicize health care. The health-care bill that recently passed the Senate ...
California
Would You Like a California Cash Cow or New York Pork With Your Florida Flim Flam?
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reckons that 15 million more people will enroll in Medicaid if the Senate bill becomes law (p. 8), which is just a whisker less than half the total number of persons the CBO forecasts will be newly insured, 31 million, as a result of the ...
Commentary
Cadillac Health Plans; And Taxation Thereof
And I don’t just mean the HuffingtonPost/DailyKos/MoveOn.org crowd. There’s even a sense at the New York Times that the President’s faction has failed to grab history by the tail. Witness this column by Bob Herbert, who protests the tax on so-called “Cadillac health plans,” those which cost more than $23,000 ...
California
Health Reform: Would You Like A California Cash Cow or New York Pork With Your Cornhusker Kickback, Louisiana Purchase, and Florida Flim-Flam?
Californias recent budget deficits will look bush league relative to the fiscal hurricane that federal health reform will unleash on California and many other states. I made that prediction in this space on December 2, but as we approach 2010 Californians should know that things are actually worse than I ...
Forget the ‘Cornhusker Kickback’: Senate Medicaid Deal a Recipe for Fraud
The Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) is the federal financing formula that encourages each state to spend its own taxpayers money irresponsibly in order to maximize its take from other states. For example, Californias FMAP was traditionally the 50 percent minimum: For every dollar California spent, the U.S. Treasury would ...
The Rich Get Richer: The Senate’s Medicaid Proposal Gives a Bigger Bailout to Wealthier States
Imagine that you were inspecting a swimming pool that was cracked and leaking water, such that anyone who dove into it would be at risk of cracking his head on the bottom. You would likely make it a priority to fix the pool. However, if the pool were on a ...
The March of the Senate Democrats
As one early morning report put it, the Senate was marching to passage on Christmas Eve of its version of health overhaul. What does this Democrats-only bill do? What are the consequences? As it stands today, the health overhaul bill is a hoax. We all may know some part of ...
Orange Grove: CLASS act in health bill really isn’t
Orange County Register, January 6, 2010 Just before the curtain closed on 2009, the U.S. Senate voted to proceed with landmark health care legislation. The bill had appeared to be at a dead end, until Senate leaders assuaged moderates’ concerns about cost by dropping both the “public option” and the ...
Obamacare’s Three Major Hurdles
The Democrats are determined to expand the federal governments portfolio beyond the Post Office, Amtrak, and General Motors, by adding the entire health-care industry to its holdings. But before they can subject what will soon be one-fifth of our economy to the federal governments command-and-control model, Democrats must clear three ...
Calif. Gov. Calls For More Federal Aid As States Bleed Red
Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should have said “I’ll be back” when the state got billions of dollars from the federal government last year. Because on Wednesday, he demanded another handout. In his state of the state speech, Schwarzenegger acknowledged California faces deep budget woes and called for federal assistance. He ...
Advantage Cronyism
If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, at least if you pay cash. One of the many problems with funneling our nation’s health-care system through our nation’s political system is that it would politicize health care. The health-care bill that recently passed the Senate ...
Would You Like a California Cash Cow or New York Pork With Your Florida Flim Flam?
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reckons that 15 million more people will enroll in Medicaid if the Senate bill becomes law (p. 8), which is just a whisker less than half the total number of persons the CBO forecasts will be newly insured, 31 million, as a result of the ...
Cadillac Health Plans; And Taxation Thereof
And I don’t just mean the HuffingtonPost/DailyKos/MoveOn.org crowd. There’s even a sense at the New York Times that the President’s faction has failed to grab history by the tail. Witness this column by Bob Herbert, who protests the tax on so-called “Cadillac health plans,” those which cost more than $23,000 ...
Health Reform: Would You Like A California Cash Cow or New York Pork With Your Cornhusker Kickback, Louisiana Purchase, and Florida Flim-Flam?
Californias recent budget deficits will look bush league relative to the fiscal hurricane that federal health reform will unleash on California and many other states. I made that prediction in this space on December 2, but as we approach 2010 Californians should know that things are actually worse than I ...
