Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
The Healthcare Economist has a new report out for the Institute of Medicine. The report is co-authored with a number of outstanding individuals at Acumen including: Thomas MaCurdy, Jay Bhattacharya, Daniella Perlroth, Anita Au-Yeung, Hani Bashour, Camille Chicklis, Kennan Cronen, Brandy Lipton, Shahin Saneinejad, Elen Shrestha, and Sajid Zaidi. IOM summarizes the goals of the…
Could it be the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a Obamacare)? Some small businesses think so. The Washington Post speaks with a number of small business owners: These changes are less than a year away, and I still have no information about how much our premiums are going to cost…It definitely gives me pause when thinking about…
Health reform has expanded Medicaid access to millions of Americans. The question is, will the poor even want Medicaid insurance? As finances are tightening, many states are attempting to reduce the generosity of their current Medicaid benefits. In California, (where Medicaid is known as Medi-Cal), Governor Jerry Brown wants to reduce Medicaid’s benefit generosity. He…
I have written numerous posts about the pros and cons of Accountable Care Organizations. In 2012, Medicare begame allowing providers to form ACOs. An article by Pope and Kautter provides an overview of the initiative. The Medicare program, which covers the elderly and disabled, is the largest medical insurance system in the USA. One major…
One of the key components of Health Reform (a.k.a. Obamacare, a.k.a. the Affordable Care Act) is the creation of Health Insurance Exchanges. Not any plan can participate in the exchanges however. First, these plans must cover certain Essential Health Benefits (EHB). Second, the plans must meet certain actuarial value (AV) thresholds. Health Plans are grouped…
…are not very strong. Here are the penalties individuals will have to pay if they don’t have insurance: These penalties are not steep. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the cost of a single employer health insurance plan in 2012 was $5,615 and the cost of a family plan was $15,745. This means that in…
The answer is $0. “But Healthcare Economist,” you may say, “I know that my employer contributes $X to my health insurance so this must be false. Further, businesses always complain about the high cost of health insurance.” Although businesses do contribute to your health insurance in a nominal way, these contributions are almost entirely offset…
There has much debate in the Presidential debates about IPAB, the Independent Payment Advisory Board. IPAB can make cuts to Medicare spending, but the question is whether any of these recommended cuts would ever actually be enacted, since Congress can reverse any IPAB recommendation. According to an article in The Hill, the answer may be…
Yes and no: The conservative case for Obamacare. There is no conservative case for Obamacare. Other interesting reads for your Thursday morning. How Salma Hayek can help you pick the President. “The worst case of hyping cancer cures I’ve ever seen” Variation in hospital use of intensive care. What share of Americans has less than…
Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates may be more similar than they at fist appear. Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney stated the following on Meet the Press: “I’m not getting rid of all of healthcare reform.” What types of things would Romney keep? “Of course there are a number of things that I like in healthcare reform…