Medicare
Commentary
Costs of Medicare/Medicaid Have Outpaced Other Health Costs by 1/3 Since 1970
Ezra Klein has posted a blog criticizing the claim (made by Bill Kristol on the Daily Show Monday night) that the costs of government-run health care have greatly outpaced other health costs. But Klein is mistaken. Advocates of ObamaCare like to rely on studies comparing the cost-increases of government-run care ...
Health Care
Medicaid’s Costs, Like Medicare’s, Have Risen Far More Than the Costs of Private Health Care
As the congressional debate heats up over President Obama’s proposed “public option” and his proposed expansion of Medicaid, the debate largely centers on the question of controlling costs. The president claims that more government control would make health care more affordable. The empirical evidence, however, confirms that more government control ...
Commentary
Medicare: The Problem and the Solution?
What has the most potential to mire the United States in long-term debt? According to White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag, the answer is Medicare and Medicaid. Orszag writes that every other federal program’s effect on future deficits and debt is “swamped” by the effects of ...
Commentary
Public Option To Cut Health Costs? Medicare’s Record Says Dream On
“First, the rising cost of health care must be brought down.” That’s what President Obama recently declared when outlining the basic principles of his health care plan. His supporters have echoed his emphasis. The New York Times writes that, when it comes to health policy, “The president’s main focus is ...
Health Care
Medicare Costs Have Risen Far More than the Costs of Private Health Care
As Americans contemplate a significant expansion of government’s role in health care, in the form of the Medicare-like “public option” proposed by President Obama, we must consider how successful Medicare has been at controlling costs in relation to privately purchased health care. This analysis takes all health spending in the ...
Commentary
Fewer Alaska Doctors Take New Medicare Patients
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), June 1, 2009 Fewer than 20 percent of physicians surveyed in Alaska’s largest city are accepting new patients covered by Medicare, according to a study by the University of Alaska-Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research. Only 38 percent of that total are in private ...
Commentary
Medicare Benefits Fall Short of Employer-Provided Health Care Plans
Employer-provided health plans provide more generous benefits to seniors than Medicare does, according to an analysis conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Hewitt Associates. The study compared the traditional fee-for-service Medicare benefit package, including the prescription drug benefit, with typical large employer-provided health plans. The study found ...
Health Care
Medicare Means Testing: Test the Deductible, Not the Premium
The looming insolvency of Medicare is disappointingly absent from the list of policy issues on the carte du jour for the November general election. Fortunately, the current Administration recognizes the clear and present danger of Medicare insolvency. “Time is running out. Medicare is drifting toward disaster,”1 said U.S. Secretary of ...
Commentary
Let seniors control Medicare’s exploding expenses
This year, Medicare will begin paying out more in benefits than it collects in payroll taxes. If trends continue, the so-called trust fund will bust by 2019. This is all according to the Medicare Board of Trustees, who recently warned that the “projected long run program costs are not sustainable ...
Health Care
Why Consumer-Driven Health Care is Crashing on the Shoals of Medicare
Last month’s Medicare Trustees’ report confirms that Medicare is going bankrupt faster than Social Security, even though they serve the same population. Social Security subsidizes demand by seniors for all goods and services, whereas Medicare subsidizes the supply of health goods and services to seniors at fixed prices, which creates ...
Costs of Medicare/Medicaid Have Outpaced Other Health Costs by 1/3 Since 1970
Ezra Klein has posted a blog criticizing the claim (made by Bill Kristol on the Daily Show Monday night) that the costs of government-run health care have greatly outpaced other health costs. But Klein is mistaken. Advocates of ObamaCare like to rely on studies comparing the cost-increases of government-run care ...
Medicaid’s Costs, Like Medicare’s, Have Risen Far More Than the Costs of Private Health Care
As the congressional debate heats up over President Obama’s proposed “public option” and his proposed expansion of Medicaid, the debate largely centers on the question of controlling costs. The president claims that more government control would make health care more affordable. The empirical evidence, however, confirms that more government control ...
Medicare: The Problem and the Solution?
What has the most potential to mire the United States in long-term debt? According to White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag, the answer is Medicare and Medicaid. Orszag writes that every other federal program’s effect on future deficits and debt is “swamped” by the effects of ...
Public Option To Cut Health Costs? Medicare’s Record Says Dream On
“First, the rising cost of health care must be brought down.” That’s what President Obama recently declared when outlining the basic principles of his health care plan. His supporters have echoed his emphasis. The New York Times writes that, when it comes to health policy, “The president’s main focus is ...
Medicare Costs Have Risen Far More than the Costs of Private Health Care
As Americans contemplate a significant expansion of government’s role in health care, in the form of the Medicare-like “public option” proposed by President Obama, we must consider how successful Medicare has been at controlling costs in relation to privately purchased health care. This analysis takes all health spending in the ...
Fewer Alaska Doctors Take New Medicare Patients
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), June 1, 2009 Fewer than 20 percent of physicians surveyed in Alaska’s largest city are accepting new patients covered by Medicare, according to a study by the University of Alaska-Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research. Only 38 percent of that total are in private ...
Medicare Benefits Fall Short of Employer-Provided Health Care Plans
Employer-provided health plans provide more generous benefits to seniors than Medicare does, according to an analysis conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Hewitt Associates. The study compared the traditional fee-for-service Medicare benefit package, including the prescription drug benefit, with typical large employer-provided health plans. The study found ...
Medicare Means Testing: Test the Deductible, Not the Premium
The looming insolvency of Medicare is disappointingly absent from the list of policy issues on the carte du jour for the November general election. Fortunately, the current Administration recognizes the clear and present danger of Medicare insolvency. “Time is running out. Medicare is drifting toward disaster,”1 said U.S. Secretary of ...
Let seniors control Medicare’s exploding expenses
This year, Medicare will begin paying out more in benefits than it collects in payroll taxes. If trends continue, the so-called trust fund will bust by 2019. This is all according to the Medicare Board of Trustees, who recently warned that the “projected long run program costs are not sustainable ...
Why Consumer-Driven Health Care is Crashing on the Shoals of Medicare
Last month’s Medicare Trustees’ report confirms that Medicare is going bankrupt faster than Social Security, even though they serve the same population. Social Security subsidizes demand by seniors for all goods and services, whereas Medicare subsidizes the supply of health goods and services to seniors at fixed prices, which creates ...
