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All of the attention over President Bush's health care proposals this week has focused on his proposed "cuts" in Medicare spending. But what the media defines as cuts are in fact reductions in the increase in spending. Medicare spending would still grow by 5%, which is faster than inflation but slower than the projections that are rapidly propelling the program toward insolvency. … [Read more...] about Moving Forward

All of the attention over President Bush's health care proposals this week has focused on his proposed "cuts" in Medicare spending. But what the media defines as cuts are in fact reductions in the increase in spending. Medicare spending would still grow by 5%, which is faster than inflation but slower than the projections that are rapidly propelling the program toward insolvency. … [Read more...] about Moving Forward

Investor’s Business Daily yesterday published an article I wrote for them about how rising health costs are gobbling up the take-home pay of workers who have job-based health insurance. This helps explain why people feel they are working harder and harder and just can’t seem to get ahead. A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that only one in five Americans feels they are … [Read more...] about What happened to your pay raise?

Among the bad ideas floating around Washington to stimulate the lagging economy is a proposal that would boost the federal government's matching payments to the states for Medicaid. Our colleague Bob Helms of the American Enterprise Institute has done excellent original research on the flaws with "the FMAP" -- Federal Medical Assistance Percentage. The Federal government … [Read more...] about Bad Ideas

So what will 2008 bring? We certainly can anticipate a hot political debate over the future direction of our health sector, and hopefully this time the candidates will be talking to a better informed and even more skeptical electorate. Sixteen years ago, voters were swayed by utopian campaign promises that clashed with the hard reality of change and costs. This time, voters will ask tougher … [Read more...] about The Year Ahead

Earlier this year, President Bush called the executives of major insurance companies to a meeting at the White House to urge them to focus on ways to improve the individual market for health insurance. Grace-Marie was invited to participate in a meeting with President Bush at the White House earlier this year when he urged health insurance executives to improve access to coverage in the … [Read more...] about A Sensible Plan

Congress is tied in knots trying to pass legislation that will keep the federal government operating for another year (no jokes, please), and the leadership now hopes to pass one big bill next week that will roll the budgets for nearly all departments, agencies, and programs into one huge package costing more than half a trillion dollars. This is a dangerous time for the Republic because it is … [Read more...] about A Courageous Stance

A heated debate is taking place in the Democratic presidential primary between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over whether the government should mandate health coverage. If the Democrats are having trouble agreeing on whether to impose a mandate requiring individuals to obtain health insurance, that strongly suggests this would be a very heavy lift for the next president. None of the … [Read more...] about Clinton vs. Obama