Medicare
Commentary
Obamacare Open Enrollment Brings Election Day “Gift” To Voters
We’re about a week away from two notable dates on America’s civic calendar. On November 1, open enrollment begins on Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges. One week later, voters head to the polls for the midterm elections. Democrats have been aware of this reality for months. It was one of the reasons they ...
Sally C. Pipes
October 24, 2022
Commentary
Simple Fix for Healthcare: Give Patients More Responsibility
Health costs have been rising at an astounding rate. Insurers believe that overuse of medical care and poor individual health habits are big reasons why, according to a new study from insurance advisory firm Willis Towers Watson. That conclusion runs counter to the narrative common among progressives that patients are hapless victims ...
Sally C. Pipes
October 24, 2022
Commentary
Market-based Principles Bring Us Quality Healthcare
A new poll from West Health and Gallup paints a grim picture of health care in the United States. Among the survey’s most striking findings is that three-quarters of the country grades the cost of care at either a D or an F. Critics of our nation’s market-based health system are sure ...
Sally C. Pipes
October 17, 2022
Education
Policy To-Do Lists
Policy to-do Lists for Congress “The new Congress faces unfinished business: they need to expand patient choice and competition in health care, including rolling back the new price controls on drugs that discourage innovation and competition, reverse the pandemic’s effects on student learning, and eliminate expensive and burdensome government energy ...
Pacific Research Institute
October 6, 2022
Commentary
The Regulatory Threat From Payment Do-Overs And Un-Economical Reimbursements
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued an update to the home health payment system on June 22nd. This proposed rule, rife with legalese and sheer complexity, should be held up as Exhibit A for why socialized healthcare schemes such as Medicare for All will never work. The proposal’s obsessions with “aggregate ...
Wayne Winegarden
October 3, 2022
Commentary
Pay No Attention To Biden’s Biotech Bluster
Speaking in Boston earlier this month, President Biden insisted that the United States can “end cancer as we know it and even cure cancers once and for all.” His “Cancer Moonshot” aims to do just that. Among its many lofty goals, it seeks to halve cancer deaths in the next 25 years. ...
Sally C. Pipes
September 26, 2022
Blog
In Political Speech, “Universal” Means Anything But
Every few months, the argument to “universalize” some sector of the economy captures national attention – be it for universal health care, universal childcare, or universal student loan forgiveness. All the arguments have an all-too-often overlooked fatal flaw: they assume goods are not scarce. In economic terms, all goods have ...
McKenzie Richards
September 21, 2022
Commentary
Medicare Advantage Is A Diamond In The Government Healthcare Rough
A record 28.4 million seniors get their insurance through Medicare Advantage, according to a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. They account for nearly half of all eligible Medicare beneficiaries. And that share will likely increase. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that more than 60% of the total Medicare population will be in ...
Sally C. Pipes
September 17, 2022
Commentary
No, Socialized Medicine Won’t Expand Life Expectancy
U.S. life expectancy has declined by nearly three years since 2019, according to data out this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The average person can expect to live 76 years. The COVID-19 pandemic is largely to blame for this regrettable trend. But many progressives believe the U.S. healthcare ...
Sally C. Pipes
September 2, 2022
Commentary
VA issues illustrate pitfalls of government health care
In the fall of 2020, a patient in Augusta, Georgia, went to the local Veterans Affairs medical center for a minimally invasive urologic surgery, according to a new report from the VA’s Office of Inspector General. Less than two weeks later, the OIG reports, he was dead. The Inspector General ...
Sally C. Pipes
August 15, 2022
Obamacare Open Enrollment Brings Election Day “Gift” To Voters
We’re about a week away from two notable dates on America’s civic calendar. On November 1, open enrollment begins on Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges. One week later, voters head to the polls for the midterm elections. Democrats have been aware of this reality for months. It was one of the reasons they ...
Simple Fix for Healthcare: Give Patients More Responsibility
Health costs have been rising at an astounding rate. Insurers believe that overuse of medical care and poor individual health habits are big reasons why, according to a new study from insurance advisory firm Willis Towers Watson. That conclusion runs counter to the narrative common among progressives that patients are hapless victims ...
Market-based Principles Bring Us Quality Healthcare
A new poll from West Health and Gallup paints a grim picture of health care in the United States. Among the survey’s most striking findings is that three-quarters of the country grades the cost of care at either a D or an F. Critics of our nation’s market-based health system are sure ...
Policy To-Do Lists
Policy to-do Lists for Congress “The new Congress faces unfinished business: they need to expand patient choice and competition in health care, including rolling back the new price controls on drugs that discourage innovation and competition, reverse the pandemic’s effects on student learning, and eliminate expensive and burdensome government energy ...
The Regulatory Threat From Payment Do-Overs And Un-Economical Reimbursements
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued an update to the home health payment system on June 22nd. This proposed rule, rife with legalese and sheer complexity, should be held up as Exhibit A for why socialized healthcare schemes such as Medicare for All will never work. The proposal’s obsessions with “aggregate ...
Pay No Attention To Biden’s Biotech Bluster
Speaking in Boston earlier this month, President Biden insisted that the United States can “end cancer as we know it and even cure cancers once and for all.” His “Cancer Moonshot” aims to do just that. Among its many lofty goals, it seeks to halve cancer deaths in the next 25 years. ...
In Political Speech, “Universal” Means Anything But
Every few months, the argument to “universalize” some sector of the economy captures national attention – be it for universal health care, universal childcare, or universal student loan forgiveness. All the arguments have an all-too-often overlooked fatal flaw: they assume goods are not scarce. In economic terms, all goods have ...
Medicare Advantage Is A Diamond In The Government Healthcare Rough
A record 28.4 million seniors get their insurance through Medicare Advantage, according to a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. They account for nearly half of all eligible Medicare beneficiaries. And that share will likely increase. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that more than 60% of the total Medicare population will be in ...
No, Socialized Medicine Won’t Expand Life Expectancy
U.S. life expectancy has declined by nearly three years since 2019, according to data out this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The average person can expect to live 76 years. The COVID-19 pandemic is largely to blame for this regrettable trend. But many progressives believe the U.S. healthcare ...
VA issues illustrate pitfalls of government health care
In the fall of 2020, a patient in Augusta, Georgia, went to the local Veterans Affairs medical center for a minimally invasive urologic surgery, according to a new report from the VA’s Office of Inspector General. Less than two weeks later, the OIG reports, he was dead. The Inspector General ...