Medicare
Commentary
Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders plans will gut Medicare Part D
Hillary Clinton just released her plan to restructure Medicare “Part D,” a program that provides affordable prescription drug insurance to 37 million Americans. Clinton’s proposal comes hot on the heels of Bernie Sanders’ bill, S. 2023, which would likewise radically alter Medicare Part D by allowing federal officials to negotiate ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s penalties shoot for quality, hit patients
Medicare’s doctors are revolting against Obamacare’s new system for paying them. Soon enough, patients will, too. This year, Medicare implemented a system of “value-based care,” whereby the government pays health care providers for the supposed quality of the care they provide, rather than the quantity. But value-based care isn’t what ...
Commentary
Hillary Clinton’s Answer To Obamacare: More Government
Late last month, Hillary Clinton began releasing the details for her vision for health reform. That vision is little more than Obamacare on steroids. “I will defend the Affordable Care Act, but as president I want to go further,” the Democratic presidential hopeful said at a recent community forum in ...
Commentary
Insurance mergers: Weddings mean funeral for health care
Merging insurance companies could be a disaster for U.S. health care. Welcome to Unholy Matrimony: Healthcare Edition. Insurance giant Aetna has made an offer to combine with Humana, and Anthem has bid to buy Cigna. If regulators allow these multibillion-dollar deals to go through, three corporate behemoths will dominate the ...
Commentary
Obamacare Is Back In Court
Obamacare is back in court. This month, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has standing to sue the Obama administration over how it spent federal money implementing the Affordable Care Act. The lawsuit, brought by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), ...
Commentary
Four Healthcare Questions for the GOP Presidential Contenders
The U.S. healthcare system is a mess. Premiums and deductibles are soaring. Consumers have fewer choices when it comes to doctors and hospitals. And the United States could be short 90,000 physicians within a decade. Voters want to know how the next president will reverse these trends. Yet the 24 ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s Bad Blast from the Past
The ’90s are calling. They want their health policy back. Remember health maintenance organizations? HMOs were meant to replace the old fee-for-service model, which supposedly encourages doctors to overtreat patients. The new entities would pay doctors a flat fee for keeping patients healthy. Primary care physicians would coordinate care across ...
Commentary
Bungled bundling of hospital payments for joint replacements
Federal officials are about to make orthopedic surgery a lot more painful. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services soon may order hospitals in 75 metropolitan regions to change the way they pay health care providers for knee and hip replacements for seniors on Medicare. Instead of paying for each ...
California
California’s reckless Medi-Cal expansion a disservice to the poor
California under Obamacare has enrolled three times as many people as originally projected in Medi-Cal, the welfare program that subsidizes low-income Californians’ access to health care. The total is now 12 million, about one-third of the state’s population. The overenrollment is provoking yet another fiscal crisis for the state, which ...
Commentary
The Doctor Won’t See You Now
Only three in ten enrollees in Obamacare’s exchanges report being satisfied with their health coverage, according to a new poll from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. Among the primary reasons for these poor numbers? Many exchange policies limit patients’ choices of doctors and hospitals in order to keep premiums ...
Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders plans will gut Medicare Part D
Hillary Clinton just released her plan to restructure Medicare “Part D,” a program that provides affordable prescription drug insurance to 37 million Americans. Clinton’s proposal comes hot on the heels of Bernie Sanders’ bill, S. 2023, which would likewise radically alter Medicare Part D by allowing federal officials to negotiate ...
Obamacare’s penalties shoot for quality, hit patients
Medicare’s doctors are revolting against Obamacare’s new system for paying them. Soon enough, patients will, too. This year, Medicare implemented a system of “value-based care,” whereby the government pays health care providers for the supposed quality of the care they provide, rather than the quantity. But value-based care isn’t what ...
Hillary Clinton’s Answer To Obamacare: More Government
Late last month, Hillary Clinton began releasing the details for her vision for health reform. That vision is little more than Obamacare on steroids. “I will defend the Affordable Care Act, but as president I want to go further,” the Democratic presidential hopeful said at a recent community forum in ...
Insurance mergers: Weddings mean funeral for health care
Merging insurance companies could be a disaster for U.S. health care. Welcome to Unholy Matrimony: Healthcare Edition. Insurance giant Aetna has made an offer to combine with Humana, and Anthem has bid to buy Cigna. If regulators allow these multibillion-dollar deals to go through, three corporate behemoths will dominate the ...
Obamacare Is Back In Court
Obamacare is back in court. This month, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has standing to sue the Obama administration over how it spent federal money implementing the Affordable Care Act. The lawsuit, brought by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), ...
Four Healthcare Questions for the GOP Presidential Contenders
The U.S. healthcare system is a mess. Premiums and deductibles are soaring. Consumers have fewer choices when it comes to doctors and hospitals. And the United States could be short 90,000 physicians within a decade. Voters want to know how the next president will reverse these trends. Yet the 24 ...
Obamacare’s Bad Blast from the Past
The ’90s are calling. They want their health policy back. Remember health maintenance organizations? HMOs were meant to replace the old fee-for-service model, which supposedly encourages doctors to overtreat patients. The new entities would pay doctors a flat fee for keeping patients healthy. Primary care physicians would coordinate care across ...
Bungled bundling of hospital payments for joint replacements
Federal officials are about to make orthopedic surgery a lot more painful. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services soon may order hospitals in 75 metropolitan regions to change the way they pay health care providers for knee and hip replacements for seniors on Medicare. Instead of paying for each ...
California’s reckless Medi-Cal expansion a disservice to the poor
California under Obamacare has enrolled three times as many people as originally projected in Medi-Cal, the welfare program that subsidizes low-income Californians’ access to health care. The total is now 12 million, about one-third of the state’s population. The overenrollment is provoking yet another fiscal crisis for the state, which ...
The Doctor Won’t See You Now
Only three in ten enrollees in Obamacare’s exchanges report being satisfied with their health coverage, according to a new poll from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. Among the primary reasons for these poor numbers? Many exchange policies limit patients’ choices of doctors and hospitals in order to keep premiums ...
