Medicare
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
Commentary
The illogical California lockdown orders
Get ready to stay home indefinitely, my fellow Californians. Gov. Gavin Newsom has suggested that the stay-at-home order he issued Dec. 3 will likely be extended well into January. So for a few more weeks — at least — most Californians won’t be able to engage in a wide range ...
Commentary
Why Joe Biden must keep Donald Trump’s short-term health plans in place
President-elect Joe Biden has promised “a dramatic expansion of health care coverage and bold steps to lower health care costs” once he takes office after his inauguration Jan. 20. But one of his first orders of business may undermine both those goals in one fell swoop. The incoming administration has signaled its intention to roll ...
Commentary
Americans are getting a good return on their healthcare spending
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released new data on Dec. 16 on health expenditures. In 2019, overall spending rose 4.6% to reach a total of $3.8 trillion, or 17.7% of the economy. That’s enough to make anyone do a double take. But a deeper look at the data ...
Commentary
COVID vaccines can give economy a needed shot in the arm once essential workers vaccinated
The arrival of two coronavirus vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use this month has prompted fierce debate about who ought to be immunized first. The latest guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices put health care workers and older Americans living in nursing ...
Commentary
COVID-19 has shown us how dysfunctional the American regulatory state can be
In November, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first rapid at-home coronavirus test. That would seem to be unabashedly good news. But it’s actually an indictment of federal regulators, who have moved at a snail’s pace in the fight against the coronavirus. These delays have been concerning for folks ...
Commentary
Reforming Rebate Contracting will Improve Drug Affordability
By Wayne Winegarden and Robert Popovian The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalized a regulation on November 20, 2020 that removed the safe harbor protections for rebates on prescription drugs paid to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and Part D plans. This analysis evaluates the expected impact from this ...
Commentary
Work Requirements Can Preserve Medicaid For Those Who Need It Most
This month, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case early next year that will decide whether states have the power to impose work requirements as a condition of receiving Medicaid benefits. The question before the high court is a legal one. But as a matter of policy, work requirements are a great ...
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 ...
The illogical California lockdown orders
Get ready to stay home indefinitely, my fellow Californians. Gov. Gavin Newsom has suggested that the stay-at-home order he issued Dec. 3 will likely be extended well into January. So for a few more weeks — at least — most Californians won’t be able to engage in a wide range ...
Why Joe Biden must keep Donald Trump’s short-term health plans in place
President-elect Joe Biden has promised “a dramatic expansion of health care coverage and bold steps to lower health care costs” once he takes office after his inauguration Jan. 20. But one of his first orders of business may undermine both those goals in one fell swoop. The incoming administration has signaled its intention to roll ...
Americans are getting a good return on their healthcare spending
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released new data on Dec. 16 on health expenditures. In 2019, overall spending rose 4.6% to reach a total of $3.8 trillion, or 17.7% of the economy. That’s enough to make anyone do a double take. But a deeper look at the data ...
COVID vaccines can give economy a needed shot in the arm once essential workers vaccinated
The arrival of two coronavirus vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use this month has prompted fierce debate about who ought to be immunized first. The latest guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices put health care workers and older Americans living in nursing ...
COVID-19 has shown us how dysfunctional the American regulatory state can be
In November, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first rapid at-home coronavirus test. That would seem to be unabashedly good news. But it’s actually an indictment of federal regulators, who have moved at a snail’s pace in the fight against the coronavirus. These delays have been concerning for folks ...
Reforming Rebate Contracting will Improve Drug Affordability
By Wayne Winegarden and Robert Popovian The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalized a regulation on November 20, 2020 that removed the safe harbor protections for rebates on prescription drugs paid to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and Part D plans. This analysis evaluates the expected impact from this ...
Work Requirements Can Preserve Medicaid For Those Who Need It Most
This month, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case early next year that will decide whether states have the power to impose work requirements as a condition of receiving Medicaid benefits. The question before the high court is a legal one. But as a matter of policy, work requirements are a great ...
