Kaiser Health News, in conjunction with the PBS News Hour, has an article on “Quick Facts About High-Deductible Health Plans.” It is refreshing to see coverage of this increasingly popular form of health coverage. America's Health Insurance Plans reports that enrollment reached more than 11.4 million in January 2011, up from 10 million in January 2010. While most of the article provides … [Read more...] about HSAs also work for lower-income individuals
Archives for April 2012
Avik Roy: How George W. Bush Would Have Replaced Obamacare
In January of 2007, George W. Bush was entering the final stretch of his two-term presidency. Bush, however, chose not to ride off simply into the sunset. Instead, he put forth a comprehensive plan to reform the private health insurance market. It’s long-forgotten now, because Democrats had just regained control of Congress, and these newly-empowered legislators pronounced the Bush plan “dead on … [Read more...] about Avik Roy: How George W. Bush Would Have Replaced Obamacare
Jim Capretta: The 2009–2010 Slowdown in Health Spending
Newly reported official estimates from the actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) show nationwide health spending rose just 3.8 percent in 2009 and 3.9 percent in 2010 — the slowest rates of growth in five decades. The average rate of annual spending growth from 1997 to 2008 was 6.9 percent. Naturally, speculation has started — as in this story from this past … [Read more...] about Jim Capretta: The 2009–2010 Slowdown in Health Spending
Scott Gottlieb: Toss gran in an HMO
If you like your doctor, you can keep her — unless you’re poor or disabled. The latest installment of ObamaCare is a scheme that’s uprooting the elderly poor and disabled who get care under Medicare and herding many into state-run Medicaid plans. All of these folks are dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid; they are low-income people who are elderly or have disabilities. But it’s … [Read more...] about Scott Gottlieb: Toss gran in an HMO
ObamaCare: A Dozen (More) Damaging Disclosures
The bad news just keeps getting worse for ObamaCare, creating election-year headaches for the White House. Here are a dozen new damaging disclosures: 1.The Obama administration got slapped by the Government Accountability Office for using an $8.3 billion slush fund to temporarily cushion the blow from cuts that ObamaCare requires to a program called Medicare Advantage. Millions of … [Read more...] about ObamaCare: A Dozen (More) Damaging Disclosures
Status Quo is Sending Medicare Over the Cliff
The latest Medicare trustees’ report inconclusively demonstrates that Medicare is going broke. Former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin and former House Budget Chairman Jim Nussle explain in a post for National Review Online what it would have taken for Medicare to have had a positive cash flow in 2011. If the program had not been able to draw on general revenues from the Federal government – … [Read more...] about Status Quo is Sending Medicare Over the Cliff
Why the (Un)Affordable Care Act Should Be Repealed and Replaced
Grace-Marie Turner, Tom Miller, and Jim Capretta, co-authors of Why ObamaCare Is Wrong for America, strongly recommend that PPACA be repealed and replaced as soon as possible. Read their latest piece published in The American Journal of Medicine. … [Read more...] about Why the (Un)Affordable Care Act Should Be Repealed and Replaced
Avik Roy: Stifling New Cures: The True Cost of Lengthy Clinical Drug Trials
Though the United States urgently needs new treatments for common illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, the nation’s system for drug approval discourages innovation and investment, especially for our most pressing public health challenges. In this paper, we find that the main culprit is the high cost of Phase III clinical trials, which are required for FDA approval of most drugs. … [Read more...] about Avik Roy: Stifling New Cures: The True Cost of Lengthy Clinical Drug Trials