Medicare
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 ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s Deficit of Savings
The Congressional Budget Office appears to have delivered a victory to Obamacare’s cheerleaders. The agency’s latest estimate puts the cost of scrapping the law at $137 billion over the next decade. “Any way you slice it, repealing the Affordable Care Act will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the ...
Commentary
Medicare at 50: Hello, Mid-Life Crisis
July 30 marks 50 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare into law. The only birthday gift this middle-age government program merits is a reality check. Health insurance for senior citizens was part of LBJ’s expansion of the welfare state, all in the service of establishing a “Great Society.” ...
Commentary
Here’s Why States Must Resist The Temptation To Expand Medicaid
Last week, Alaska became the 30th state to expand Medicaid with federal funding from the Affordable Care Act. “Alaska and Alaskans cannot wait any longer,” said Gov. Bill Walker. “We‘re not going to step away from this opportunity to help fellow Alaskans, period.” Some “help.” Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is saddling ...
Commentary
Two More Pieces Of Obamacare May Be On Their Way Out
House Republicans have launched another assault on Obamacare. This time, they have some support from their foes on the other side of the aisle. Two bipartisan bills that would repeal parts of Obamacare are scheduled to reach the House floor this week. One would get rid of a job-killing tax ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s ‘Accountable Care’ experiment is all hype, no substance
Good news about Obamacare keeps coming out of the White House. In May, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that the law’s “Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations” have saved Medicare $385 million. HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell proudly proclaimed that this “innovative payment model”has produced “substantial savings,” so she’s now ...
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 ...
Obamacare’s Deficit of Savings
The Congressional Budget Office appears to have delivered a victory to Obamacare’s cheerleaders. The agency’s latest estimate puts the cost of scrapping the law at $137 billion over the next decade. “Any way you slice it, repealing the Affordable Care Act will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the ...
Medicare at 50: Hello, Mid-Life Crisis
July 30 marks 50 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare into law. The only birthday gift this middle-age government program merits is a reality check. Health insurance for senior citizens was part of LBJ’s expansion of the welfare state, all in the service of establishing a “Great Society.” ...
Here’s Why States Must Resist The Temptation To Expand Medicaid
Last week, Alaska became the 30th state to expand Medicaid with federal funding from the Affordable Care Act. “Alaska and Alaskans cannot wait any longer,” said Gov. Bill Walker. “We‘re not going to step away from this opportunity to help fellow Alaskans, period.” Some “help.” Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is saddling ...
Two More Pieces Of Obamacare May Be On Their Way Out
House Republicans have launched another assault on Obamacare. This time, they have some support from their foes on the other side of the aisle. Two bipartisan bills that would repeal parts of Obamacare are scheduled to reach the House floor this week. One would get rid of a job-killing tax ...
Obamacare’s ‘Accountable Care’ experiment is all hype, no substance
Good news about Obamacare keeps coming out of the White House. In May, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that the law’s “Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations” have saved Medicare $385 million. HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell proudly proclaimed that this “innovative payment model”has produced “substantial savings,” so she’s now ...
