Medicare
Commentary
Failed federal housing policy undermines Trump’s opioid reforms
By Lance Izumi and Michele Steeb Over the past two years, President Trump has promoted bold reforms designed to address the opioid crisis. Congress, in a rare bipartisan effort, wholeheartedly supported Trump’s significant reforms, but these initiatives are being undermined by the failures of federal housing policy. In October 2018, ...
Pacific Research Institute
April 8, 2019
Commentary
Britain’s Version Of ‘Medicare For All’ Is Collapsing
Nearly a quarter of a million British patients have been waiting more than six months to receive planned medical treatment from the National Health Service, according to a recent report from the Royal College of Surgeons. More than 36,000 have been in treatment queues for nine months or more. Long waits for care are endemic ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 1, 2019
Business & Economics
Price Controls Are Never The Answer
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has just doubled down on one of the Trump Administration’s unsound ideas. His proposal is disappointing for many reasons, particularly because Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, has proposed an alternative reform that, if Congress implemented, would meaningfully improve the affordability of prescription drugs ...
Wayne Winegarden
April 1, 2019
Commentary
Middlemen Are Ripping Off State Medicaid Programs
Kentucky’s Democratic attorney general just launched an investigation to determine if middlemen in the prescription drug supply chain are ripping off the state’s Medicaid program. He’s almost certainly onto something. These middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, administer drug benefit plans for Medicaid, Medicare Part D, and private insurers. In theory, ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 27, 2019
Commentary
Medicare for All Won’t Result in Better Health Outcomes
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker claims Medicare for All would “save lives.” Vermont’s own Senator Bernie Sanders promises it would end “the disgrace of tens of thousands of Americans dying every year from preventable deaths.” But a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research finds little evidence to support those assertions. The authors examined ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 18, 2019
Blog
We Need to Budget for Growth
Spring is in the air, which of course means it’s time to start thinking about the federal budget. Our latest Beyond the New Normal analysis examined what it would take to transform our current unaffordable federal budget. And while it would take political discipline and courage beyond what current leadership ...
Wayne Winegarden
March 13, 2019
Commentary
Medicare expansion would make socialized health insurance inevitable
Several lawmakers want to pull more people into Medicare. This would hurt anyone with private insurance, and it would inevitably lead to single-payer, government funded healthcare, which would deprive people of any choice over their healthcare. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., recently introduced S.470, a bill that would let any citizen or ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 7, 2019
Commentary
Americans like Medicare for all — until they realize what’s in it
By Sally C. Pipes Fifty-six percent of Americans want to establish Medicare for All, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll published in January. A Reuters survey last August found even stronger support, with 70 percent of Americans backing single-payer. With favorability numbers like those, it’s no surprise that Democrats ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 7, 2019
Commentary
America Should Take Note of Britain’s Suffering Before Embracing Medicare-for-All
The United Kingdom’s single-payer healthcare system is struggling to retain doctors. More than half of those who work for the country’s National Health Service are thinking about reducing their hours or quitting altogether rather than deal with the 70-year-old Service’s infamously low salaries and heavy caseloads. The NHS had banked on replenishing its ranks ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 5, 2019
Commentary
Governors Are Laying the Groundwork for Single-Payer
Democrats can’t stop talking about single-payer health care. Most of those vying for the party’s presidential nomination in 2020 have declared their support for the idea, which first rose to national prominence during the 2016 Democratic primary that pitted Hillary Clinton against longtime single-payer champion Bernie Sanders. In February, Sanders — the pied piper of single-payer ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 4, 2019
Failed federal housing policy undermines Trump’s opioid reforms
By Lance Izumi and Michele Steeb Over the past two years, President Trump has promoted bold reforms designed to address the opioid crisis. Congress, in a rare bipartisan effort, wholeheartedly supported Trump’s significant reforms, but these initiatives are being undermined by the failures of federal housing policy. In October 2018, ...
Britain’s Version Of ‘Medicare For All’ Is Collapsing
Nearly a quarter of a million British patients have been waiting more than six months to receive planned medical treatment from the National Health Service, according to a recent report from the Royal College of Surgeons. More than 36,000 have been in treatment queues for nine months or more. Long waits for care are endemic ...
Price Controls Are Never The Answer
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has just doubled down on one of the Trump Administration’s unsound ideas. His proposal is disappointing for many reasons, particularly because Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, has proposed an alternative reform that, if Congress implemented, would meaningfully improve the affordability of prescription drugs ...
Middlemen Are Ripping Off State Medicaid Programs
Kentucky’s Democratic attorney general just launched an investigation to determine if middlemen in the prescription drug supply chain are ripping off the state’s Medicaid program. He’s almost certainly onto something. These middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, administer drug benefit plans for Medicaid, Medicare Part D, and private insurers. In theory, ...
Medicare for All Won’t Result in Better Health Outcomes
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker claims Medicare for All would “save lives.” Vermont’s own Senator Bernie Sanders promises it would end “the disgrace of tens of thousands of Americans dying every year from preventable deaths.” But a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research finds little evidence to support those assertions. The authors examined ...
We Need to Budget for Growth
Spring is in the air, which of course means it’s time to start thinking about the federal budget. Our latest Beyond the New Normal analysis examined what it would take to transform our current unaffordable federal budget. And while it would take political discipline and courage beyond what current leadership ...
Medicare expansion would make socialized health insurance inevitable
Several lawmakers want to pull more people into Medicare. This would hurt anyone with private insurance, and it would inevitably lead to single-payer, government funded healthcare, which would deprive people of any choice over their healthcare. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., recently introduced S.470, a bill that would let any citizen or ...
Americans like Medicare for all — until they realize what’s in it
By Sally C. Pipes Fifty-six percent of Americans want to establish Medicare for All, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll published in January. A Reuters survey last August found even stronger support, with 70 percent of Americans backing single-payer. With favorability numbers like those, it’s no surprise that Democrats ...
America Should Take Note of Britain’s Suffering Before Embracing Medicare-for-All
The United Kingdom’s single-payer healthcare system is struggling to retain doctors. More than half of those who work for the country’s National Health Service are thinking about reducing their hours or quitting altogether rather than deal with the 70-year-old Service’s infamously low salaries and heavy caseloads. The NHS had banked on replenishing its ranks ...
Governors Are Laying the Groundwork for Single-Payer
Democrats can’t stop talking about single-payer health care. Most of those vying for the party’s presidential nomination in 2020 have declared their support for the idea, which first rose to national prominence during the 2016 Democratic primary that pitted Hillary Clinton against longtime single-payer champion Bernie Sanders. In February, Sanders — the pied piper of single-payer ...