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The tax reform panel, charged by President Bush with making bold recommendations to overhaul the federal tax code, is seriously considering a change that would cap the amount that employees can exclude from taxable income in the form of health insurance. As you know, health policy experts and economists strongly believe that this open-ended tax break is a root cause of spiraling health insurance … [Read more...] about Bold Moves

Assurant Health, which markets health insurance to individuals and small groups, has produced new data on who is buying Health Savings Accounts: The good news we've seen in earlier surveys by this company - and others - continues to hold true. HSAs are increasingly attractive to the uninsured: 44% of people applying for an HSA with Assurant did not report having prior insurance coverage, up from … [Read more...] about Good News All Around

The Senate still threatens to pass legislation that would allow imports of drugs from abroad to take advantage of other countries' price controls. But two recent conferences in Washington featuring European health care experts shed new light on the dangers. "Once you allow the importation of drugs from Europe, you allow the importation of drugs from everywhere," British security expert Graham … [Read more...] about A European Warning

Hurricane Katrina has created a spending storm on Capitol Hill, with intense battles over how to deliver aid that reflect basic differences in political philosophy. Traditionalists would increase spending on existing programs - which already is happening big time - but others would create new incentives by lowering taxes, getting government regulation out of the way, and empowering people to make … [Read more...] about Spending Storm

It is incomprehensible that any terrorist attack could have been more destructive and devastating than Katrina and its aftermath of floods. Washington and the nation are horrified and furious over the death and destruction along the Gulf Coast, and, like 9/11, the first impulse is to figure out who is to blame. Mother Nature is not a very useful target so the political blaming was almost … [Read more...] about Priorities

The Medicaid Commission on Thursday voted on six recommendations to save $10 billion over the next five years in federal Medicaid spending. Some changes involve the intricacies of Medicaid pricing formulas and others set out new incentives that plant the seeds for bigger changes to come. Former Govs. Don Sundquist and Angus King, chair and co-chair of the panel, created a chairman's mark which was … [Read more...] about Saving $10 Billion

You would never know that positive changes are taking place in the health sector from the Commonwealth Fund's newest paper, "Americans Driven into Debt by Medical Bills," released yesterday. It says an estimated 77 million adults "have difficulty paying medical bills, have accrued medical debt, or both." But nowhere does the study attempt to quantify the level of difficulty in paying the bills or … [Read more...] about Medical Debt

California grabbed the spotlight this week with a report by the state's insurance commissioner, John Garamendi, blasting Health Savings Accounts and consumer-directed care and stressing his demand for a universal, government-run health care system. But he has a small problem with actual facts: Consumer directed plans "put the entire health system at risk" because they attract the young and … [Read more...] about California Dreamin'