Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
One of the goals of health reform was to expand coverage to poor childless adults who previously did not qualify for Medicaid. One unintended (or perhaps intended) consequence of this expansion is that a large number of individuals formerly convicted of crimes will be eligible for the this coverage. Policymakers face a number of questions. …
Avalere Health provides a nice summary of some of the estimates of how health reform will affect the rate at which employers offer health insurance. The provisions which may have an impact on health insurance offering include: Free-rider penalties (+) Exchanges (?) Medicaid expansion (-) Individual mandate (+) Small business tax credit (+) Insurance market…
The Healthcare Economist predicts a religious revival in 2014. Let me be more specific, in January 2014. How do I know this? Am I a religious man? Has God spoken to me? Let’s just say I have a certain insight. In 2014, the individual mandate goes into effect. All individuals must buy health insurance or…
While walking around in San Francisco’s Presidio, I noticed a refurbished building which happened to be a former Public Health Service Hospital. After investigating its origins, I dug up the following information regarding one of the United States’ first efforts to provide an individual health insurance mandate: “In July of 1798, Congress passed – and…
Is the Massachusetts health reform a success? Yes and no. In terms of increasing access to health care, it has been an unqualified success. According to the Economist, only1.9% of Massachusetts residents were uninsured in 2010. Massachusetts’ health reform has not been able to offer universal access to health care or to constrain costs. ” One…
Much of health reform’s efforts has been focused on expanding coverage to those without employer-sponsored insurance (ESI). For instance, the ACA mandated expanded Medicaid eligibility and the creation of a health insurance exchange for those not eligible for a group plan or those who work for small employers. One area of study which has been neglected, however,…
Section 1311 of the ACA requires a state to establish an Health Insurance Exchanges for the individual and small group market. How will states actually implement these Exchanges? A brief from the National Academy of Social Insurance reviews some of the program parameters which States will have to establish. What type of entity will the…
Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget proposal has made significant waves. Many will fear that the Ryan proposal means the end of Medicare and Medicaid. Although these programs will not end, there will be significant changes. One can think of many of these changes as a transfer of risk. Consider the Medicare program. Although Medicare will not…
The Purple Health Plan is supposed to be a “moderate” plan for health reform–purple is after all a mix of red and blue. The plan is endorsed by five Nobel laureates. So what is the Purple Health Plan? Key provisions of the plan include the following: All Americans receive a voucher each year to purchase a…
Research by the Dartmouth Atlas team has indicated that Medicare spending is concentrated regionally. States such as Florida spend much more per beneficiary than do doctors who treat similar patients in low cost states like Minnesota. A recent paper by Reschovsky and co-authors, however, has determined that variation in supply-induced demand is not a major driver…