Progress on Obamacare Sign-ups

According to the N.Y. Times: Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to scale back the health law, about 300,000 more people have signed up for health insurance in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces in the first weeks of this enrollment period than last year. This is about a 25% increase from last year at this time.  However,…

Why shopping for health insurance is hard

The premise is simple.  Create markets, let consumers choose the products that fit them best, and the competition will lead to higher quality and lower prices.  That is the premise behind the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges.  A necessary condition for this to work, however, is that patients have visibility into the quality and…

Trump tax bill keeps the individual mandate

The Trump tax bill–potentially known as the “the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act“– includes provisions such as increasing the standard deduction and reducing the number of tax brackets from 7 to 4.  Additionally, a number of deductions are removed–such as capping local and state property tax deductions at $10,000 and only allowing mortgage interest deductions for…

What is Graham Cassidy?

The Republican’s latest health care bill is the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson (GCHJ) proposal or Graham Cassidy for short. Below is my super short summary of the bill. What does it propose? The Washington Post has a nice summary which shows that the bill would: Not force you to buy insurance (repeal the individual mandate) Not force employers to…

CBO Scores Better Care

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently scored the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017.  What did they conclude? The good news: The Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 is a fiscally responsible bill.  According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Better Care cuts taxes by $701 billion between 2017-2026 but would also cut spending by…