Federal and state governments are under increasing pressure to limit Medicaid spending without negative health consequences. We examine a unique policy effort in West Virginia aimed at reducing spending and improving health through personal responsibility and preventive care. These efforts show promise for reducing emergency-room (ER) visits among those who chose the personal-responsibility plan … [Read more...] about Tami Gurley-Calvez: Medicaid reforms and emergency room Visits: evidence from West Virginia’s Medicaid redesign
Tom Miller: When Obamacare fails: The playbook for market-based reform
Amid a protracted rollout, the real-world evidence keeps mounting: the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is too costly to finance, too difficult to administer, too burdensome on doctors, and too disruptive of health care arrangements that Americans prefer. The need to replace it has never been stronger, yet full repeal is unviable in the short-term. The long-term task for reformers is to lay out a … [Read more...] about Tom Miller: When Obamacare fails: The playbook for market-based reform
A Resistance Movement Rises Against ObamaCare
ObamaCare may be the law, but a major resistance movement has already sprouted across the U.S. Though approval of the unpopular law stood at only 38% on Nov. 6, the elections were not a referendum on ObamaCare mainly because Governor Romney was unable to prosecute the case against its most despised provisions – the individual mandate, employer mandate and state-run health exchanges – since all … [Read more...] about A Resistance Movement Rises Against ObamaCare
Stephen Parente and Paul Howard: Potential ObamaCare privacy nightmare
By mid-December, the federal government is planning to quietly enact what could be the largest consolidation of personal data in the history of the republic. If you think identity theft is a problem now, wait until Uncle Sam serves up critical information on 300 million American citizens on a platter. Hyperbole? Unlikely. Here's why: As the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act lurches … [Read more...] about Stephen Parente and Paul Howard: Potential ObamaCare privacy nightmare
In The Fight At The Fiscal Cliff, Don’t Throw The Valuables Over The Side
While Washington political leaders are clashing at the edge of the Fiscal Cliff, they need to make sure they don’t throw the valuables over the side during the fight. One of the ideas “on the table” in the Fiscal Cliff negotiations would target the Medicare Prescription Drug program with a new layer of rebates. This is a misguided idea that was included in a deficit-reduction plan by the … [Read more...] about In The Fight At The Fiscal Cliff, Don’t Throw The Valuables Over The Side
Yes, You Can!
For those of us still seeking a voice of optimism in today’s difficult political climate, the words of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, speaking to a conference of the William F. Buckley Jr. Program at Yale University on Nov. 30, offer wisdom and even encouragement. See below for an excerpt printed in The Wall Street Journal: Over the next few years and maybe just months, the debts we have accumulated … [Read more...] about Yes, You Can!
The Mail (U.K.): Now sick babies go on death pathway: Doctor’s haunting testimony reveals how children are put on end-of-life plan
Sick children are being discharged from NHS hospitals to die at home or in hospices on controversial ‘death pathways’. Until now, end of life regime the Liverpool Care Pathway was thought to have involved only elderly and terminally-ill adults. But the Mail can reveal the practice of withdrawing food and fluid by tube is being used on young patients as well as severely disabled newborn … [Read more...] about The Mail (U.K.): Now sick babies go on death pathway: Doctor’s haunting testimony reveals how children are put on end-of-life plan
Avik Roy: Long-Awaited Health Insurance Rules
If the low point in the weekly news cycle – when politicians release bad news they hope few will notice – is late on a Friday afternoon, then the low point in the biannual news cycle has to be right before Thanksgiving after an election. The election’s winners are still elated, the losers are still subdued, and most ordinary Americans, regardless of politics, are long forward to a long weekend … [Read more...] about Avik Roy: Long-Awaited Health Insurance Rules