Medicare
Health Care
Sally Pipes in HealthCare Dive, “How might Xavier Becerra operate as HHS Secretary?”
The nominee has made headlines since leaving the House, in part by leading blue state efforts to defend the ACA, now under threat in a case before the Supreme Court. California consumer rights groups have high hopes for Xavier Becerra, President Joseph Biden’s nominee to lead HHS, while some lawyers ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 1, 2021
Commentary
Biden’s health care plans – this is what Americans can expect from Democrats
Last week, President Joe Biden signed executive orders that will re-open ObamaCare’s insurance exchanges from Feb. 15 through May 15 and direct federal agencies to re-examine some of the health care rules enacted by the Trump administration. There’s a limit to what Biden can accomplish by executive action. But with narrow control of Congress, there’s still plenty ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 1, 2021
Commentary
Biden’s ill-advised Obamacare rescue mission
President Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan that includes billions in new subsidies for health insurance purchased on Obamacare’s exchanges. That may be good news for people who get coverage through those marketplaces. But is it really the best use of taxpayer resources, given that many of those ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 26, 2021
Commentary
Biden sets the stage for a radical health care agenda
President Joe Biden recently announced his picks to lead his administration’s approach to health care policy — and moderate they are not. Take his nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra. He served in the House for 12 terms but has no on-the-ground experience in public ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 23, 2021
Commentary
Let The Failures Of Government Vaccine Distribution Be A Warning
Last week, former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb suggested that we “hit the reset” button on Covid-19 vaccine distribution. That reset should include taking the government out of the equation. The government has largely failed to get life-saving vaccines into the arms of Americans. And the consequences are deadly. The government’s botched ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 19, 2021
Commentary
Biden officials threaten to jumpstart single-payer health care systems
Move over, Bidencare. Single-payer health care could be coming to the United States. President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, is a longtime supporter of Medicare for All. If confirmed, he’ll have the power to approve waivers that would allow states ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 14, 2021
Commentary
Government incompetence deprives people of COVID-19 vaccines
By Monday afternoon, of 25.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses distributed across the United States, just 9 million had actually been administered to patients. That’s well short of the government’s goal of inoculating 20 million people by the end of 2020. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Government-controlled markets are notoriously inefficient and subject ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 12, 2021
California
A Single-Payer Healthcare System Would Have Made the Pandemic Worse
The intended-to-scare-readers headline said “California hospitals discuss rationing care as virus surges.” And it should frighten anyone who saw it. Though not necessarily for the reason the headline writer had in mind. The alarmist string of words topped a Dec. 21 Associated Press story, which warned that “overwhelmed hospitals” in ...
Kerry Jackson
January 4, 2021
Commentary
Price Transparency: A Gift To Americans In The New Year
The New Year is starting off with a healthcare victory for American patients. On January 1, a new rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services went into effect requiring hospitals to publish the prices they negotiate with insurers for various medical procedures. Previously, those prices had been secret. ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 4, 2021
Commentary
COVID vaccinations are going much too slowly — here’s how to speed them up and save lives
Vaccines against the novel coronavirus were developed in record time. But getting those vaccines into the arms of Americans has been frustratingly slow at a time when speeding up vaccinations is literally a matter of life and death. Tragically, thousands of people are dying of COVID-19 every day in the U.S. and the ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 3, 2021
Sally Pipes in HealthCare Dive, “How might Xavier Becerra operate as HHS Secretary?”
The nominee has made headlines since leaving the House, in part by leading blue state efforts to defend the ACA, now under threat in a case before the Supreme Court. California consumer rights groups have high hopes for Xavier Becerra, President Joseph Biden’s nominee to lead HHS, while some lawyers ...
Biden’s health care plans – this is what Americans can expect from Democrats
Last week, President Joe Biden signed executive orders that will re-open ObamaCare’s insurance exchanges from Feb. 15 through May 15 and direct federal agencies to re-examine some of the health care rules enacted by the Trump administration. There’s a limit to what Biden can accomplish by executive action. But with narrow control of Congress, there’s still plenty ...
Biden’s ill-advised Obamacare rescue mission
President Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan that includes billions in new subsidies for health insurance purchased on Obamacare’s exchanges. That may be good news for people who get coverage through those marketplaces. But is it really the best use of taxpayer resources, given that many of those ...
Biden sets the stage for a radical health care agenda
President Joe Biden recently announced his picks to lead his administration’s approach to health care policy — and moderate they are not. Take his nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra. He served in the House for 12 terms but has no on-the-ground experience in public ...
Let The Failures Of Government Vaccine Distribution Be A Warning
Last week, former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb suggested that we “hit the reset” button on Covid-19 vaccine distribution. That reset should include taking the government out of the equation. The government has largely failed to get life-saving vaccines into the arms of Americans. And the consequences are deadly. The government’s botched ...
Biden officials threaten to jumpstart single-payer health care systems
Move over, Bidencare. Single-payer health care could be coming to the United States. President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, is a longtime supporter of Medicare for All. If confirmed, he’ll have the power to approve waivers that would allow states ...
Government incompetence deprives people of COVID-19 vaccines
By Monday afternoon, of 25.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses distributed across the United States, just 9 million had actually been administered to patients. That’s well short of the government’s goal of inoculating 20 million people by the end of 2020. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Government-controlled markets are notoriously inefficient and subject ...
A Single-Payer Healthcare System Would Have Made the Pandemic Worse
The intended-to-scare-readers headline said “California hospitals discuss rationing care as virus surges.” And it should frighten anyone who saw it. Though not necessarily for the reason the headline writer had in mind. The alarmist string of words topped a Dec. 21 Associated Press story, which warned that “overwhelmed hospitals” in ...
Price Transparency: A Gift To Americans In The New Year
The New Year is starting off with a healthcare victory for American patients. On January 1, a new rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services went into effect requiring hospitals to publish the prices they negotiate with insurers for various medical procedures. Previously, those prices had been secret. ...
COVID vaccinations are going much too slowly — here’s how to speed them up and save lives
Vaccines against the novel coronavirus were developed in record time. But getting those vaccines into the arms of Americans has been frustratingly slow at a time when speeding up vaccinations is literally a matter of life and death. Tragically, thousands of people are dying of COVID-19 every day in the U.S. and the ...