Public Option
Commentary
Today’s “Public Options” Are Already Bankrupt
Mr. Wulsin reports the Congressional Budget Office’s conclusion that private insurers pay providers 20 percent to 30 percent above their costs; Medicare’s payments lay somewhere above or below the line; and Medicaid pays about 20 percent below costs. We call this the cost-shift, which increases private health insurance premiums by ...
Commentary
Dangerous Health-Care Myths
Sally C. Pipes’s latest title, The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care, is a useful handbook for the health-care policy battle ahead. Pipes, the president of the Pacific Research Institute, shatters much of the conventional wisdom about American health care and offers conservatives bountiful ammunition for the coming showdown. ...
Health Care
Obama’s Healthcare Reform Malpractice
OBAMA’S HEALTHCARE REFORM MALPRACTICE Josiah Swampoodle – The only people Obama and congressional leaders are barring from the table in discussions of healthcare reform are people who advocate healthcare reform. You can’t solve a problem by only talking to those who created it. James Ridgway, Unsilent Generation – In a ...
Commentary
Obama’s public plan will be a disaster for American health care
High-ranking Democrats recently signaled that they might exploit a procedural maneuver in congressional protocol to pass major healthcare legislation without a single Republican vote. Through “budget reconciliation,” a fast-track process that allows the Senate to pass the government’s budget without debate and with just a simple majority, Democratic leaders hope ...
Commentary
The “Congressional” Health Care Plan
With the highly publicized White House Forum on Health Reform now in the rearview mirror, President Obama has taken his show on the road. The administration is in the midst of holding five other such forums across the country. These gatherings are intended to set the stage for congressional action ...
Commentary
Bipartisan Ground Hard to Glimpse on Health Overhaul Legislation
Democrats and Republicans at a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing on Tuesday didn’t disagree with each other on everything. Several agreed on support for community health centers and the need to provide the public with more information about medical prices. But on most other issues raised at ...
Commentary
At Summit, President Obama Says He’s Open To Compromise On His Health Care Proposal, New York Times Reports
Medical News Today, March 9, 2009 President Obama on Thursday during a White House health care summit “indicated for the first time that he was open to compromise on details of the proposal he put forth in the 2008 campaign,” the New York Times reports (Pear/Stolberg, New York Times, 3/6). ...
Commentary
Obama’s healthcare plan: Not healthy, not wealthy, and certainly not wise.
The Examiner (Washington, D.C.), March 7, 2009 In his recent speech to Congress, President Barack Obama touted his administration’s “historic commitment” to “the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American.” But the plan he’s poised to enact would provide care that is neither quality nor ...
Commentary
Health-care budget realities
Before President-elect Barack Obama attempts to overhaul America’s health-care system and put us on the road toward “universal” coverage, he should have a chat with his new budget director, Peter Orszag. As former head of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the agency responsible for estimating the cost of federal legislation, ...
Health Care Reform
Instead of Universal Coverage, Reforms that Will Work
Tens of millions of Americans lack health insurance. Extending coverage to them has been a core goal of health reform proposals since the 1960s. President Richard Nixon offered a universal health plan in his first administration, but since then Republicans have hesitated to commit the nation to so costly an ...
Today’s “Public Options” Are Already Bankrupt
Mr. Wulsin reports the Congressional Budget Office’s conclusion that private insurers pay providers 20 percent to 30 percent above their costs; Medicare’s payments lay somewhere above or below the line; and Medicaid pays about 20 percent below costs. We call this the cost-shift, which increases private health insurance premiums by ...
Dangerous Health-Care Myths
Sally C. Pipes’s latest title, The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care, is a useful handbook for the health-care policy battle ahead. Pipes, the president of the Pacific Research Institute, shatters much of the conventional wisdom about American health care and offers conservatives bountiful ammunition for the coming showdown. ...
Obama’s Healthcare Reform Malpractice
OBAMA’S HEALTHCARE REFORM MALPRACTICE Josiah Swampoodle – The only people Obama and congressional leaders are barring from the table in discussions of healthcare reform are people who advocate healthcare reform. You can’t solve a problem by only talking to those who created it. James Ridgway, Unsilent Generation – In a ...
Obama’s public plan will be a disaster for American health care
High-ranking Democrats recently signaled that they might exploit a procedural maneuver in congressional protocol to pass major healthcare legislation without a single Republican vote. Through “budget reconciliation,” a fast-track process that allows the Senate to pass the government’s budget without debate and with just a simple majority, Democratic leaders hope ...
The “Congressional” Health Care Plan
With the highly publicized White House Forum on Health Reform now in the rearview mirror, President Obama has taken his show on the road. The administration is in the midst of holding five other such forums across the country. These gatherings are intended to set the stage for congressional action ...
Bipartisan Ground Hard to Glimpse on Health Overhaul Legislation
Democrats and Republicans at a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing on Tuesday didn’t disagree with each other on everything. Several agreed on support for community health centers and the need to provide the public with more information about medical prices. But on most other issues raised at ...
At Summit, President Obama Says He’s Open To Compromise On His Health Care Proposal, New York Times Reports
Medical News Today, March 9, 2009 President Obama on Thursday during a White House health care summit “indicated for the first time that he was open to compromise on details of the proposal he put forth in the 2008 campaign,” the New York Times reports (Pear/Stolberg, New York Times, 3/6). ...
Obama’s healthcare plan: Not healthy, not wealthy, and certainly not wise.
The Examiner (Washington, D.C.), March 7, 2009 In his recent speech to Congress, President Barack Obama touted his administration’s “historic commitment” to “the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American.” But the plan he’s poised to enact would provide care that is neither quality nor ...
Health-care budget realities
Before President-elect Barack Obama attempts to overhaul America’s health-care system and put us on the road toward “universal” coverage, he should have a chat with his new budget director, Peter Orszag. As former head of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the agency responsible for estimating the cost of federal legislation, ...
Instead of Universal Coverage, Reforms that Will Work
Tens of millions of Americans lack health insurance. Extending coverage to them has been a core goal of health reform proposals since the 1960s. President Richard Nixon offered a universal health plan in his first administration, but since then Republicans have hesitated to commit the nation to so costly an ...
