The Obama administration is using its last year to try to kill the option that has the most promise to engage consumers in transforming our health sector around higher value, greater efficiency and lower costs. Liberals have a knee-jerk opposition to Health Savings Accounts, but until now, they have tolerated them and even allowed HSA plans to be offered in the ACA exchanges, largely because … [Read more...] about HSAs Under Attack in Obamacare Exchanges
‘Are Out-of-Pocket Medical Costs Too High?’ – NO: Artificially Lowering Costs Will Impede Crucial Innovation
Doctors who stare at computer screens rather than look at their patients. Mountains of incomprehensible medical bills and statements. Soaring premiums and deductibles. What do these have in common? They are the result of a system that does not provide meaningful incentives for innovation, cost-efficiency or higher-quality, consumer-friendly health care. Of course people want no out-of-pocket … [Read more...] about ‘Are Out-of-Pocket Medical Costs Too High?’ – NO: Artificially Lowering Costs Will Impede Crucial Innovation
Obamacare: The Gazillion-Dollar Startup Machine
Seth Sternberg was visiting his 65-year-old mother in Connecticut when he got the idea for his home-health-aide business, Honor. She'd picked him up at the airport, and he noticed that she was driving really slowly. He asked why. "And she was like, 'Well, driving's just harder than it used to be,' " he recalls. This got Sternberg's mind working. What if his mother were 75 or 85, and tasks like … [Read more...] about Obamacare: The Gazillion-Dollar Startup Machine
Prescription drug price controls pose lethal problems
The Democratic primaries may be contentious, but both candidates agree on one point: government fiat must rein in prescription drug prices. Hillary Clinton proposes caps on drug prices and a mandate that pharmaceutical companies spend a preset percentage of revenues on research and development. She’d confiscate any excess to subsidize public biomedical research institutions like the National … [Read more...] about Prescription drug price controls pose lethal problems
ObamaCare At Six: Usurping Congress To Try To Rescue A Broken Law
The White House is celebrating this week the sixth anniversary of enactment of the Affordable Care Act—celebrating but trying to avoid discussing its failure to achieve widely heralded goals. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell wants to “broaden the conversation” and talk instead about delivery system reform and bundled payments—issues certain to move people toward euphoric … [Read more...] about ObamaCare At Six: Usurping Congress To Try To Rescue A Broken Law
A $5 Billion Obamacare Windfall for Insurers?
Oregon’s health insurance co-operative is yet another Obamacare failure. It squandered taxpayer-backed handouts and loans, disappointed its customers and now has shuttered its operations. But with an audacity that would make even Donald Trump blush, Health Republic of Oregon wants more taxpayer money. Its executives are suing the federal government to demand more government handouts. The … [Read more...] about A $5 Billion Obamacare Windfall for Insurers?
Drug Importation Equals Unsafe Drugs, Mr. Trump
American politicians have been promising for years they could lower the price of prescription drugs by allowing imports from abroad. Federal legislation has fizzed as politicians and the American people wisely concluded the risks are definitely not worth any savings. Republican candidate Donald Trump has not read this history and therefore appears doomed to repeat the mistake. In his … [Read more...] about Drug Importation Equals Unsafe Drugs, Mr. Trump
UnitedHealthcare launches a smaller, ‘very, very different’ insurer
UnitedHealthcare is facing competition this year in Atlanta and Chicago from a new name in health insurance — a carrier that’s actually one of its subsidiaries. For the first time, individual shoppers are buying coverage from Harken Health, a company with about 100 employees based at an office on the UnitedHealthcare corporate campus in Minnetonka. Harken is being run as an independent entity, … [Read more...] about UnitedHealthcare launches a smaller, ‘very, very different’ insurer