Medicare
Commentary
Where to start in repealing Obamacare
On March 23, 2010, President Obama forever altered the American health care system by signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. Its advocates promised that the measure would reinvent American health care and reinvigorate the American economy. As House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., put it, “This ...
Commentary
Hi, Doc. I’m from the government
Officials in California just announced that they were working with Harvard University doctors Jerry Avorn and Michael Fischer to overhaul how painkillers are prescribed to disabled workers in the state. The federal health reform law aims to take this so-called “academic detailing” crusade nationwide. Proponents say it’s an effective way ...
Commentary
Forget The Doctor Fix, We Need A Medicare Fix
Just before they jetted off for the holidays, Congress and the president brokered a $33-billion deal that extends the payroll tax cut, provides additional unemployment benefits, and spares physicians from steep cuts in Medicare reimbursements. Unfortunately, the compromise simply postpones the day of reckoning for all three issues until March. ...
Commentary
Doctors Say Obamacare Is No Remedy for U.S. Health Woes
Americas doctors have conducted a full examination of the presidents health reform law and their diagnosis of its effects on our healthcare system isnt good. Nearly two-thirds of doctors expect the quality of care in this country to decline, according to a new survey from consulting giant Deloitte. Just ...
Commentary
Coal In Our Stockings: The Destruction of Medical Innovation
The holidays are fast approaching, and the “elves” are busy at the North Pole. No, not the presidential candidates. No, not the Capitol Hill pols. And no, not those unrelenting pursuers of objectivity and truth: the journalists. I refer instead to the bureaucrats, in particular those implementing the new “comparative ...
Health Care
The Federal Government’s Deeply Flawed System For Controlling Medicare Costs
Medicares hospital trust fund is set to be exhausted by 2024, according to the latest report from the programs trustees. Federal officials are understandably looking for easy ways to cut spending in the entitlement program in hopes of shoring up its finances. They believe theyve hit on one with a ...
Health Care
Medicare Is Increasingly A Benefit Enjoyed By The “One Percenters”
The Congressional Budget Office just released a major new investigation into household income trends over the last three decades. Researchers found that while the total amount of benefits paid out by government social safety-net programs rose between 1979 and 2007, the share going to the poor actually shrank. In other ...
Health Care
Just Say ‘No’ To New Health Insurance Taxes
This month, consulting firm Oliver Wyman released a new study revealing that surprise, surprise health insurance premiums will increase by several thousand dollars over the next ten years. Thats bad enough news for consumers. Even worse? The study only looked at the cost impact of Obamacares new tax ...
Health Care
The Medicare Auction Design and Incentives for Research and Development
Key Points: Government has incentives to focus far more heavily upon budget outlays than patient wellbeing in the operation of its health programs. So as to obtain medical devices and equipment for the beneficiaries of Medicare and Medicaid, the federal government uses auctions that are poorly designed, resulting in prices ...
Commentary
Health Spending and the “Supercommittee”: Seven Items from President Obama that Republicans And Democrats Should Embrace
Key Points: Congress has a unique opportunity to make a clean cut in government health spending by Christmas. President Obama’s deficit-reducing proposal contains seven items that shift Medicare and Medicaid spending closer to the people. Although these items represent a small fraction of President Obama’s deficit-reducing proposal, they offer the ...
Where to start in repealing Obamacare
On March 23, 2010, President Obama forever altered the American health care system by signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. Its advocates promised that the measure would reinvent American health care and reinvigorate the American economy. As House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., put it, “This ...
Hi, Doc. I’m from the government
Officials in California just announced that they were working with Harvard University doctors Jerry Avorn and Michael Fischer to overhaul how painkillers are prescribed to disabled workers in the state. The federal health reform law aims to take this so-called “academic detailing” crusade nationwide. Proponents say it’s an effective way ...
Forget The Doctor Fix, We Need A Medicare Fix
Just before they jetted off for the holidays, Congress and the president brokered a $33-billion deal that extends the payroll tax cut, provides additional unemployment benefits, and spares physicians from steep cuts in Medicare reimbursements. Unfortunately, the compromise simply postpones the day of reckoning for all three issues until March. ...
Doctors Say Obamacare Is No Remedy for U.S. Health Woes
Americas doctors have conducted a full examination of the presidents health reform law and their diagnosis of its effects on our healthcare system isnt good. Nearly two-thirds of doctors expect the quality of care in this country to decline, according to a new survey from consulting giant Deloitte. Just ...
Coal In Our Stockings: The Destruction of Medical Innovation
The holidays are fast approaching, and the “elves” are busy at the North Pole. No, not the presidential candidates. No, not the Capitol Hill pols. And no, not those unrelenting pursuers of objectivity and truth: the journalists. I refer instead to the bureaucrats, in particular those implementing the new “comparative ...
The Federal Government’s Deeply Flawed System For Controlling Medicare Costs
Medicares hospital trust fund is set to be exhausted by 2024, according to the latest report from the programs trustees. Federal officials are understandably looking for easy ways to cut spending in the entitlement program in hopes of shoring up its finances. They believe theyve hit on one with a ...
Medicare Is Increasingly A Benefit Enjoyed By The “One Percenters”
The Congressional Budget Office just released a major new investigation into household income trends over the last three decades. Researchers found that while the total amount of benefits paid out by government social safety-net programs rose between 1979 and 2007, the share going to the poor actually shrank. In other ...
Just Say ‘No’ To New Health Insurance Taxes
This month, consulting firm Oliver Wyman released a new study revealing that surprise, surprise health insurance premiums will increase by several thousand dollars over the next ten years. Thats bad enough news for consumers. Even worse? The study only looked at the cost impact of Obamacares new tax ...
The Medicare Auction Design and Incentives for Research and Development
Key Points: Government has incentives to focus far more heavily upon budget outlays than patient wellbeing in the operation of its health programs. So as to obtain medical devices and equipment for the beneficiaries of Medicare and Medicaid, the federal government uses auctions that are poorly designed, resulting in prices ...
Health Spending and the “Supercommittee”: Seven Items from President Obama that Republicans And Democrats Should Embrace
Key Points: Congress has a unique opportunity to make a clean cut in government health spending by Christmas. President Obama’s deficit-reducing proposal contains seven items that shift Medicare and Medicaid spending closer to the people. Although these items represent a small fraction of President Obama’s deficit-reducing proposal, they offer the ...
