Medicare
Commentary
To Save Medicaid, Hold States Accountable
Taxpayers spent a record $554 billion for Medicaid last year — a 12% rise from 2014 and much higher than forecast. President Obama deserves the credit — and blame — for that rapid increase. And the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services predicts that the program will cost $890 billion ...
Sally C. Pipes
August 19, 2016
Commentary
Hillary Won the Nomination, But Bernie Won On Healthcare
Many pundits speculated that Hillary Clinton would devote a significant portion of her Democratic Convention speech to health care. But she dedicated just one sentence to the topic. The reason? Earlier in the week, Bernie Sanders had already laid out her campaign’s position. In exchange for her formal rival’s endorsement, ...
Sally C. Pipes
August 8, 2016
Commentary
Dear America: Don’t Buy the Single-Payer Snake Oil
Americans have grown infatuated with single-payer health care. Gallup recently found that six in 10 people support replacing Obamacare with a “federally funded health care program providing insurance for all Americans.” This support is troubling. Single-payer systems are little more than snake oil. Both in the United States and abroad, ...
Sally C. Pipes
August 4, 2016
Commentary
A Better Way to Affordable, Quality Health Care
President Obama recently took to the Journal of the American Medical Association to defend his health-care law and recommend additional reforms. Among them? A government-run “public option” designed to compete against insurers on the exchanges. Instead of looking to increase the federal government’s role in health care yet again, he ...
Sally C. Pipes
August 1, 2016
Commentary
Dems Fiddle While Obamacare’s Exchanges Burn
This past weekend, Democrats finalized their 2016 election platform at a meeting in Orlando. Oddly enough, it calls for the destruction of Obamacare. “Americans should be able to access public coverage through Medicare or a public option” — that is, government-run health care — says the platform. In a nod ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 11, 2016
Commentary
Don’t buy the ColoradoCare single payer snake oil
The good people of Colorado must be smoking something these days. That’s the only explanation for the decision by 156,000 of the state’s more than 3 million registered voters to endorse a November ballot initiative that would create a statewide single-payer health care system. Patients in single-payer systems elsewhere must ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 11, 2016
Commentary
Pulling The Plug On ObamaCare’s Life Support
Health insurance premiums have risen rapidly in the three years since the launch of ObamaCare’s exchanges, despite the law’s multibillion-dollar efforts to keep a lid on them. ObamaCare created three mechanisms for bailing out insurers if they lost too much money through the exchanges — the so-called risk corridor, risk ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 5, 2016
Commentary
Need A Roadmap For Healthcare Reform? Look At Medicare Part D
Paul Ryan and his House Republican colleagues just released their much-anticipated plan to reform America’s healthcare system. Their 37-page proposal would, among other things, transform Medicare into a “premium support” program. Seniors would be able to use federal subsidies to buy their choice of health plans from private insurers, instead ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 1, 2016
Commentary
High-risk pools: the life jacket U.S. health care needs
Obamacare guarantees all Americans health insurance. But it doesn’t guarantee that coverage will be affordable. That’s becoming a bit of a problem. This year, premiums were up an average of 8 percent. In many states, double-digit premium hikes were the norm. Next year, they’re likely to be even bigger, according ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 30, 2016
California
The high price of “cheap” drugs
California is losing the battle against opioid addiction. Every 45 minutes, someone in the Golden State overdoses. Fifty percent more people overdose today than in 2006. Fortunately, the Food and Drug Administration just approved the anti-addiction treatment Probuphine. It’s an implant placed in a person’s upper arm, where it releases ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 27, 2016
To Save Medicaid, Hold States Accountable
Taxpayers spent a record $554 billion for Medicaid last year — a 12% rise from 2014 and much higher than forecast. President Obama deserves the credit — and blame — for that rapid increase. And the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services predicts that the program will cost $890 billion ...
Hillary Won the Nomination, But Bernie Won On Healthcare
Many pundits speculated that Hillary Clinton would devote a significant portion of her Democratic Convention speech to health care. But she dedicated just one sentence to the topic. The reason? Earlier in the week, Bernie Sanders had already laid out her campaign’s position. In exchange for her formal rival’s endorsement, ...
Dear America: Don’t Buy the Single-Payer Snake Oil
Americans have grown infatuated with single-payer health care. Gallup recently found that six in 10 people support replacing Obamacare with a “federally funded health care program providing insurance for all Americans.” This support is troubling. Single-payer systems are little more than snake oil. Both in the United States and abroad, ...
A Better Way to Affordable, Quality Health Care
President Obama recently took to the Journal of the American Medical Association to defend his health-care law and recommend additional reforms. Among them? A government-run “public option” designed to compete against insurers on the exchanges. Instead of looking to increase the federal government’s role in health care yet again, he ...
Dems Fiddle While Obamacare’s Exchanges Burn
This past weekend, Democrats finalized their 2016 election platform at a meeting in Orlando. Oddly enough, it calls for the destruction of Obamacare. “Americans should be able to access public coverage through Medicare or a public option” — that is, government-run health care — says the platform. In a nod ...
Don’t buy the ColoradoCare single payer snake oil
The good people of Colorado must be smoking something these days. That’s the only explanation for the decision by 156,000 of the state’s more than 3 million registered voters to endorse a November ballot initiative that would create a statewide single-payer health care system. Patients in single-payer systems elsewhere must ...
Pulling The Plug On ObamaCare’s Life Support
Health insurance premiums have risen rapidly in the three years since the launch of ObamaCare’s exchanges, despite the law’s multibillion-dollar efforts to keep a lid on them. ObamaCare created three mechanisms for bailing out insurers if they lost too much money through the exchanges — the so-called risk corridor, risk ...
Need A Roadmap For Healthcare Reform? Look At Medicare Part D
Paul Ryan and his House Republican colleagues just released their much-anticipated plan to reform America’s healthcare system. Their 37-page proposal would, among other things, transform Medicare into a “premium support” program. Seniors would be able to use federal subsidies to buy their choice of health plans from private insurers, instead ...
High-risk pools: the life jacket U.S. health care needs
Obamacare guarantees all Americans health insurance. But it doesn’t guarantee that coverage will be affordable. That’s becoming a bit of a problem. This year, premiums were up an average of 8 percent. In many states, double-digit premium hikes were the norm. Next year, they’re likely to be even bigger, according ...
The high price of “cheap” drugs
California is losing the battle against opioid addiction. Every 45 minutes, someone in the Golden State overdoses. Fifty percent more people overdose today than in 2006. Fortunately, the Food and Drug Administration just approved the anti-addiction treatment Probuphine. It’s an implant placed in a person’s upper arm, where it releases ...