Medicare
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
Commentary
A Birthday Wish For Medicare And Medicaid: Less Waste And Better Care
This Saturday, July 30, marked 57 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law as part of his “Great Society.” For almost six decades, the healthcare entitlements have grown increasingly costly and expansive while delivering subpar care to beneficiaries. Consider Medicare, the health plan for Americans 65 and ...
Sally C. Pipes
August 1, 2022
Commentary
Nothing Curative About Dems Inflation, Higher Taxes and Prices
Congressional Democrats are one step closer to passing their trillion-dollar “Build Back Better” spending package. On July 6 U.S. Senate leaders hashed out a key proposal that would allow Medicare to “negotiate” with pharmaceutical companies over prescription drug prices. The effort is part of Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer’s, D- N.Y., drive ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 7, 2022
Commentary
A look under the hood of ‘Medicare for All’
“Medicare for All” is back. For the fifth time in the last decade-plus, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has introduced legislation that would launch a government takeover of the U.S. health insurance system. “Health care is a human right, not a privilege,” he insisted from the Senate floor May 12. But Americans also ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 10, 2022
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 ...
A Birthday Wish For Medicare And Medicaid: Less Waste And Better Care
This Saturday, July 30, marked 57 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law as part of his “Great Society.” For almost six decades, the healthcare entitlements have grown increasingly costly and expansive while delivering subpar care to beneficiaries. Consider Medicare, the health plan for Americans 65 and ...
Nothing Curative About Dems Inflation, Higher Taxes and Prices
Congressional Democrats are one step closer to passing their trillion-dollar “Build Back Better” spending package. On July 6 U.S. Senate leaders hashed out a key proposal that would allow Medicare to “negotiate” with pharmaceutical companies over prescription drug prices. The effort is part of Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer’s, D- N.Y., drive ...
A look under the hood of ‘Medicare for All’
“Medicare for All” is back. For the fifth time in the last decade-plus, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has introduced legislation that would launch a government takeover of the U.S. health insurance system. “Health care is a human right, not a privilege,” he insisted from the Senate floor May 12. But Americans also ...