Medicaid
California
Unhealthy Ballot Initiatives Feed the “Blob”
As California teeters on insolvency, Republican state legislators have proposed a budget that transfers $5 billion from two health care programs that are in surplus. The funds in question are for mental health and early childhood development. They are in “silos” because they were approved via propositions. To “break the ...
Commentary
Medicaid’s Poverty Trap: Learning the Right Lesson
The Annals of Internal Medicine has an original article demonstrating that patients who had interrupted access to Medicaid in California (Medi-Cal) were more likely to be hospitalized than those who were constantly enrolled during a five year period. The New York Times concludes that the culprit is California’s requirement that ...
California
Families of 80% of Uninsured California Kids Reject State Coverage
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has published its annual update on health insurance in the Golden State. I’m a big consumer of the Center’s research. It conducts the outstanding California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), which was a source for much of my criticism of last year’s Schwarzenegger-Nuñez Health ...
Commentary
Politics & Health Care in Illinois: “Even Crooks are Appalled”
I feel a little lazy going after such low-hanging blog-fruit as Gov. Blagojevich, but as long as he refuses to give up command of the good ship Illinois, I suppose he’s fair game. Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal ran a guest column by Chicagoan and NPR radio-man, Scott Simon, noting that ...
Health Care
Cajun Care: Medicaid Reform in Louisiana
The election of Barack Obama and forthcoming nomination of Tom Daschle as secretary of Health and Human Services has given hope to advocates of government monopoly health care. As the Wall Street Journal noted on November 20, the appointment of Daschle, “puts a skilled navigator of Capitol Hill in charge ...
Commentary
Less Government Involvement Holds Key To Affordable Health Insurance
National Center for Policy Analysis, December 10, 2008 The U.S. Census Bureau’s report on health insurance statistics, which showed a decrease in the number of Americans uninsured last year, has been called into question by experts for overestimating and oversimplifying the number of uninsured. According to Sally Pipes, president and ...
Commentary
Praise The Lord & Pass The Ammunition
Praise The Lord & Pass The Ammunition Here’s a recent sampling of the intellectual ammunition available from the nation’s leading think tanks: The Little Three automakers and their enablers in Congress have been pointing to a study warning of dire economic consequences for Americans if the insolvent firms are allowed ...
Commentary
Rhode Island Seeks Caps on Medicaid, Will Shift Costs to Emergency Room Patients
In response to an ongoing state budget crisis, Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri (R) has requested the federal government relax its strict Medicaid regulations in exchange for caps on state spending and federal contributions to the program. The state’s plan is to cap Medicaid spending at 23 percent of the ...
Commentary
Government Care Isn’t Promising
Health care reform proposals generally fall into two camps: Those that rely on government to expand access and hold prices down, and those that rely on market competition to lower prices and expand consumer choice. Proponents of government-heavy reform believe that because the health care problem itself is massive and ...
Commentary
Bush’s Final Medicaid Reform Increases Patient Responsibility
The Bush Administration’s (or the Bush “regime’s”, if you prefer) theme in Medicaid reform has been to give states more flexibility in how they operate their Medicaid programs, despite the federal government paying over half the cost. In its (likely) final hurrah, the Administration recently published Medicaid rules allowing states ...
Unhealthy Ballot Initiatives Feed the “Blob”
As California teeters on insolvency, Republican state legislators have proposed a budget that transfers $5 billion from two health care programs that are in surplus. The funds in question are for mental health and early childhood development. They are in “silos” because they were approved via propositions. To “break the ...
Medicaid’s Poverty Trap: Learning the Right Lesson
The Annals of Internal Medicine has an original article demonstrating that patients who had interrupted access to Medicaid in California (Medi-Cal) were more likely to be hospitalized than those who were constantly enrolled during a five year period. The New York Times concludes that the culprit is California’s requirement that ...
Families of 80% of Uninsured California Kids Reject State Coverage
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has published its annual update on health insurance in the Golden State. I’m a big consumer of the Center’s research. It conducts the outstanding California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), which was a source for much of my criticism of last year’s Schwarzenegger-Nuñez Health ...
Politics & Health Care in Illinois: “Even Crooks are Appalled”
I feel a little lazy going after such low-hanging blog-fruit as Gov. Blagojevich, but as long as he refuses to give up command of the good ship Illinois, I suppose he’s fair game. Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal ran a guest column by Chicagoan and NPR radio-man, Scott Simon, noting that ...
Cajun Care: Medicaid Reform in Louisiana
The election of Barack Obama and forthcoming nomination of Tom Daschle as secretary of Health and Human Services has given hope to advocates of government monopoly health care. As the Wall Street Journal noted on November 20, the appointment of Daschle, “puts a skilled navigator of Capitol Hill in charge ...
Less Government Involvement Holds Key To Affordable Health Insurance
National Center for Policy Analysis, December 10, 2008 The U.S. Census Bureau’s report on health insurance statistics, which showed a decrease in the number of Americans uninsured last year, has been called into question by experts for overestimating and oversimplifying the number of uninsured. According to Sally Pipes, president and ...
Praise The Lord & Pass The Ammunition
Praise The Lord & Pass The Ammunition Here’s a recent sampling of the intellectual ammunition available from the nation’s leading think tanks: The Little Three automakers and their enablers in Congress have been pointing to a study warning of dire economic consequences for Americans if the insolvent firms are allowed ...
Rhode Island Seeks Caps on Medicaid, Will Shift Costs to Emergency Room Patients
In response to an ongoing state budget crisis, Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri (R) has requested the federal government relax its strict Medicaid regulations in exchange for caps on state spending and federal contributions to the program. The state’s plan is to cap Medicaid spending at 23 percent of the ...
Government Care Isn’t Promising
Health care reform proposals generally fall into two camps: Those that rely on government to expand access and hold prices down, and those that rely on market competition to lower prices and expand consumer choice. Proponents of government-heavy reform believe that because the health care problem itself is massive and ...
Bush’s Final Medicaid Reform Increases Patient Responsibility
The Bush Administration’s (or the Bush “regime’s”, if you prefer) theme in Medicaid reform has been to give states more flexibility in how they operate their Medicaid programs, despite the federal government paying over half the cost. In its (likely) final hurrah, the Administration recently published Medicaid rules allowing states ...
