Medicare
Commentary
Congress should put Medicare out of its misery now
As Republican leaders in Congress prepare to negotiate over the federal budget with their Democratic counterparts in the aftermath of the election, its time for everyone to face a hard truth we must end Medicare as we know it. The entitlement is bleeding to death. Without major changes, it ...
Business & Economics
Fiscal mess deeper than ‘cliff’
To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, nothing focuses the mind like a crisis. And, perhaps that is why the political class continually manufactures fiscal crises. The manufactured crises can be used to focus the collective political mind and help solve the underlying fiscal problem. The fiscal cliff the tax increases and ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s Cruel War On Patient-Centered Healthcare
In just a few weeks, when the calendar flips to 2013, millions of Americans will get their first taste of Obamacare a $2,500 cap on their flexible spending accounts. Thats down from the previous $5,000 cap and thus equivalent to a tax hike for any family that had ...
Commentary
A free market will help fix health care
Neurologists are about to feel the sting of the Affordable Care Act. Beginning Jan. 1, Medicare will be paying them less for electrodiagnostic procedures used in identifying and treating a wide range of nerve and muscle disorders. Reimbursement rates for some tests will be slashed by more than 50 percent, ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s Rationers Employ The “It’s Good For You” Defense
Obamacares backers have a plan to justify their attempts to ration medicine by saying that its good for you. Through 2019, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act otherwise known as Obamacare will allocate some $3.5 billion toward Comparative Effectiveness Research, or CER, which pits drug versus ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s doctor depression
Thanks to Obamacare, America’s corps of doctors appears to have a case of the blues. The Physicians Foundation recently asked more than 13,000 doctors about their morale, their career plans, their practices and their views of the Affordable Care Act. The results were grim. Nearly six in 10 doctors said ...
Commentary
NPR Audience Wants End of Life Care Rationed for the Elderly
By centralizing control of health care, Obamacare will cause us to turn on each other to grab bigger pieces of the medical pie. The elderly will be among the first victims, as has already happened in the UK. Recently, NPR held a debate with utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer and an ...
Commentary
Another Broken Obama Promise: The Healthcare Cost Monster Emerges
The New England Journal of Medicine recently published an article for its special Election 2012? edition signed by nearly two dozen economists and healthcare experts calling for a systematic approach to health cost control. Several of the co-authors used to be advisers to President Obama, including former budget chief Peter ...
Commentary
Medical Students Need Second Opinion About Obamacare
The board can’t make any changes to Medicare’s fee-for-service structure or adjust the benefits seniors receive. That leaves two options for bringing Medicare’s costs into balance. IPAB could cut payments to doctors or Congress could raise taxes. Reimbursements for doctors are already low. Doctors receive 20% less from the ...
Commentary
ACOs not as popular as government hoped
Despite health reform efforts calling for accountable care organizations, ACOs aren’t growing as fast as the government had hoped, according to Sally Pipes, president and CEO of the public policy think tank Pacific Research Institute. Out of the of the 270 ACOs the Obama administration predicted for this year, only ...
Congress should put Medicare out of its misery now
As Republican leaders in Congress prepare to negotiate over the federal budget with their Democratic counterparts in the aftermath of the election, its time for everyone to face a hard truth we must end Medicare as we know it. The entitlement is bleeding to death. Without major changes, it ...
Fiscal mess deeper than ‘cliff’
To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, nothing focuses the mind like a crisis. And, perhaps that is why the political class continually manufactures fiscal crises. The manufactured crises can be used to focus the collective political mind and help solve the underlying fiscal problem. The fiscal cliff the tax increases and ...
Obamacare’s Cruel War On Patient-Centered Healthcare
In just a few weeks, when the calendar flips to 2013, millions of Americans will get their first taste of Obamacare a $2,500 cap on their flexible spending accounts. Thats down from the previous $5,000 cap and thus equivalent to a tax hike for any family that had ...
A free market will help fix health care
Neurologists are about to feel the sting of the Affordable Care Act. Beginning Jan. 1, Medicare will be paying them less for electrodiagnostic procedures used in identifying and treating a wide range of nerve and muscle disorders. Reimbursement rates for some tests will be slashed by more than 50 percent, ...
Obamacare’s Rationers Employ The “It’s Good For You” Defense
Obamacares backers have a plan to justify their attempts to ration medicine by saying that its good for you. Through 2019, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act otherwise known as Obamacare will allocate some $3.5 billion toward Comparative Effectiveness Research, or CER, which pits drug versus ...
Obamacare’s doctor depression
Thanks to Obamacare, America’s corps of doctors appears to have a case of the blues. The Physicians Foundation recently asked more than 13,000 doctors about their morale, their career plans, their practices and their views of the Affordable Care Act. The results were grim. Nearly six in 10 doctors said ...
NPR Audience Wants End of Life Care Rationed for the Elderly
By centralizing control of health care, Obamacare will cause us to turn on each other to grab bigger pieces of the medical pie. The elderly will be among the first victims, as has already happened in the UK. Recently, NPR held a debate with utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer and an ...
Another Broken Obama Promise: The Healthcare Cost Monster Emerges
The New England Journal of Medicine recently published an article for its special Election 2012? edition signed by nearly two dozen economists and healthcare experts calling for a systematic approach to health cost control. Several of the co-authors used to be advisers to President Obama, including former budget chief Peter ...
Medical Students Need Second Opinion About Obamacare
The board can’t make any changes to Medicare’s fee-for-service structure or adjust the benefits seniors receive. That leaves two options for bringing Medicare’s costs into balance. IPAB could cut payments to doctors or Congress could raise taxes. Reimbursements for doctors are already low. Doctors receive 20% less from the ...
ACOs not as popular as government hoped
Despite health reform efforts calling for accountable care organizations, ACOs aren’t growing as fast as the government had hoped, according to Sally Pipes, president and CEO of the public policy think tank Pacific Research Institute. Out of the of the 270 ACOs the Obama administration predicted for this year, only ...
