Medicare
Commentary
Fighting coronavirus – billionaires, private sector deserve thanks for medical progress
Bill Gates announced on April 2 that his foundation would fund the construction of facilities to produce seven possible coronavirus vaccines. The Microsoft founder acknowledges that only two of those vaccines will likely succeed – and the foundation will thus waste billions of dollars on the failed candidates. That’s a small ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 13, 2020
Commentary
Coronavirus deregulating health care — this should continue after pandemic is beaten
In response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has rolled back regulations on hospitals and health care providers. Hospitals are no longer barred from treating COVID-19 patients in outpatient facilities. The feds are also freeing nurse practitioners, physician assistants and medical residents to provide more care on their own. ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 7, 2020
Commentary
The Medicare Bureaucracy Is Unnecessarily Putting Kidney Patients At Risk
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued guidance for healthcare facilities in response to the COVID-19 virus including asking all U.S. healthcare facilities to “explore alternatives to face-to-face triage and visits.” The CDC has issued this recommendation to help contain the spread of the virus, protect healthcare workers from ...
Wayne Winegarden
April 6, 2020
Commentary
Telehealth should stay long after COVID-19 goes
The new coronavirus outbreak has put enormous pressure on the American health care system. In response, federal officials and private insurers have rushed to improve patient access to video consultations and other forms of virtual care. It may have taken a public health emergency to bring “telehealth” to the mainstream, ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 6, 2020
Commentary
In coronavirus battle, price controls would make it harder to develop lifesaving drugs
As scientists race to develop vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, Democrats in Congress have renewed their push for price controls on drugs designed to protect us from the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, along with other illnesses. The Democrats claim many Americans will only be able to afford the therapies that ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 30, 2020
Blog
Single Payer Poll Watch: Coronavirus Update
Coronavirus is impacting everything and anything it touches. In the March PRI Single Payer Poll Watch, average opposition to a single payer plan overtook support, continuing the trend of growing opposition to a single payer health care plan PRI noticed in our first poll watch in December 2019. With the ...
Evan Harris
March 30, 2020
Commentary
A Surprise in the Congressional Stimulus Package?
A proposed fix for surprise medical bills may end up on the cutting-room floor as negotiations over the multi trillion-dollar economic stimulus package wrap up on Capitol Hill. Last week, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., were trying to get their plan, which would essentially cap bills ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 27, 2020
Commentary
As Coronavirus Spreads, Private Sector Offers Hope—And Treatments
Optimism is in short supply as the coronavirus pandemic grows deadlier by the day. COVID-19 has taken thousands of lives around the world and upended nearly every aspect of daily life. But there is at least one bright spot in this global public health emergency. That’s the astounding speed with ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 25, 2020
Commentary
Obamacare’s 10th anniversary: A trillion dollars and nothing to show for it
President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law a decade ago on March 23, 2010, promising an era of affordable healthcare. Instead, for the past decade, insurance premiums have skyrocketed while coverage options have declined. Clearly, this anniversary is no cause for celebration. Proponents of Obamacare point to increased rates of insurance ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 23, 2020
Commentary
A Decade Of Obamacare Has Been Ten Years Too Many
Ten years ago, President Barack Obama signed his eponymous healthcare reform package into law. What does the nation have to show for a decade of Obamacare? Nothing worth celebrating. Nearly every major provision of the Affordable Care Act has proven a failure. And yet, the Democrats’ approach to this failure ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 22, 2020
Fighting coronavirus – billionaires, private sector deserve thanks for medical progress
Bill Gates announced on April 2 that his foundation would fund the construction of facilities to produce seven possible coronavirus vaccines. The Microsoft founder acknowledges that only two of those vaccines will likely succeed – and the foundation will thus waste billions of dollars on the failed candidates. That’s a small ...
Coronavirus deregulating health care — this should continue after pandemic is beaten
In response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has rolled back regulations on hospitals and health care providers. Hospitals are no longer barred from treating COVID-19 patients in outpatient facilities. The feds are also freeing nurse practitioners, physician assistants and medical residents to provide more care on their own. ...
The Medicare Bureaucracy Is Unnecessarily Putting Kidney Patients At Risk
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued guidance for healthcare facilities in response to the COVID-19 virus including asking all U.S. healthcare facilities to “explore alternatives to face-to-face triage and visits.” The CDC has issued this recommendation to help contain the spread of the virus, protect healthcare workers from ...
Telehealth should stay long after COVID-19 goes
The new coronavirus outbreak has put enormous pressure on the American health care system. In response, federal officials and private insurers have rushed to improve patient access to video consultations and other forms of virtual care. It may have taken a public health emergency to bring “telehealth” to the mainstream, ...
In coronavirus battle, price controls would make it harder to develop lifesaving drugs
As scientists race to develop vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, Democrats in Congress have renewed their push for price controls on drugs designed to protect us from the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, along with other illnesses. The Democrats claim many Americans will only be able to afford the therapies that ...
Single Payer Poll Watch: Coronavirus Update
Coronavirus is impacting everything and anything it touches. In the March PRI Single Payer Poll Watch, average opposition to a single payer plan overtook support, continuing the trend of growing opposition to a single payer health care plan PRI noticed in our first poll watch in December 2019. With the ...
A Surprise in the Congressional Stimulus Package?
A proposed fix for surprise medical bills may end up on the cutting-room floor as negotiations over the multi trillion-dollar economic stimulus package wrap up on Capitol Hill. Last week, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., were trying to get their plan, which would essentially cap bills ...
As Coronavirus Spreads, Private Sector Offers Hope—And Treatments
Optimism is in short supply as the coronavirus pandemic grows deadlier by the day. COVID-19 has taken thousands of lives around the world and upended nearly every aspect of daily life. But there is at least one bright spot in this global public health emergency. That’s the astounding speed with ...
Obamacare’s 10th anniversary: A trillion dollars and nothing to show for it
President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law a decade ago on March 23, 2010, promising an era of affordable healthcare. Instead, for the past decade, insurance premiums have skyrocketed while coverage options have declined. Clearly, this anniversary is no cause for celebration. Proponents of Obamacare point to increased rates of insurance ...
A Decade Of Obamacare Has Been Ten Years Too Many
Ten years ago, President Barack Obama signed his eponymous healthcare reform package into law. What does the nation have to show for a decade of Obamacare? Nothing worth celebrating. Nearly every major provision of the Affordable Care Act has proven a failure. And yet, the Democrats’ approach to this failure ...