Consumer-directed health plans have been useful in controlling the rise of health costs over the last several years, but the survival of these plans is threatened by the new health overhaul law. Mercer’s latest National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans found that major employers held total health benefit cost increases per employee to 5.5 percent in 2009 – the lowest … [Read more...] about Market-Based Reform Initiatives Are Key To Health Law Success
Archives for June 2010
A Bad Omen on ObamaCare: Fears About Health Reform’s Costs Are Coming True
Shortly after President Obama signed the health overhaul law, several major corporations reported it would take a bite out of their future earnings. This group included AT&T, Caterpillar, John Deere, Verizon and several other large employers.Convinced these businesses were cooking their books to cast the new law in a bad light, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman … [Read more...] about A Bad Omen on ObamaCare: Fears About Health Reform’s Costs Are Coming True
Re-education Camp
What a bizarre week it has been, with oil still gushing into the Gulf, growing global political and economic instability, and virtually no private-sector jobs being created in our still-struggling economy. And the president spends yet another week talking about health reform?! Clearly, he knows this massively unpopular law is causing political trouble for Democrats or he wouldn't be trying so … [Read more...] about Re-education Camp
Consumerism in Europe
How extraordinary it was in London and Paris last week to hear broad agreement about the value of consumer choice, competition, portability, and the essential role that private providers play in health care in Europe. The world has turned upside down. I was in Paris to speak at the first pan-European conference focusing on the issue of private hospitals, organized by the European Union of … [Read more...] about Consumerism in Europe