Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Here are a few highlight’s from the March 2021 report on Medicare Payment Policy from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Leading causes of death The leading cause of death are heart disease, cancer, and respiratory disease. Note that these figures are from 2018. MedPAC notes that the 3rd leading cause of death in 2020…
In 2020, Medicare premiums and cost sharing were estimated to consume 24 percent of the average Social Security benefit, up from 14 percent in 2000. The Medicare Trustees estimate that in another 20 years, these costs will consume 31 percent of the average Social Security benefit. Medicare Payment Advisory Committee (MedPAC), March 2021 report
Let’s say you need a surgery. Let’s say that it’s a serious surgery. There are a number of choices that you (or your doctor) may make. The surgery could be done in a hospital where you are admitted as an inpatient. On the other hand, you could get the procedure at a hospital, but perhaps…
A number of different federal agencies buy prescription drugs. However, the price at which these pharmaceuticals are purchased varies dramatically. To quantify this variation, a 2021 report from the Congressional Budget Office examines the following prices: Medicare Part D: the prescription drug program for Medicare beneficiaries. Prices are set when private insurers (or pharmacy benefit…
Poor, elderly individuals who may qualify for both Medicaid (for being poor) and Medicare (for being elderly, blind, disabled or have ESRD). In these cases, Medicaid serves as a supplemental insurer, covering Medicare coinsurance and deductibles. The generosity of this supplemental coverage for so-called ‘dual-eligibles’ varies across states. These differences in Medicaid payments arise from…
The Oncology Care Model is slated to end soon. Specifically, the last set of six-month episodes would initiate no later than December 31, 2020 and thus all episodes will be completed in June 30, 2021. Nevertheless, CMS is proposing a successor to the Oncology Care Model called the Oncology Care First (OCF) Model. CMS describes…
Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) gave an update to its federal budget projections between 2020 and 2030. As expected, things look grim for 2020. CBO projects a federal budget deficit of $3.3 trillion in 2020, more than triple the shortfall recorded in 2019. That increase is mostly the result of the economic…
Today, the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds released their 2020 report on the financial status of both programs (report, summary). The numbers don’t look good. I say this noting also that the projections do not take into account any impacts on mortality, health care costs and taxes revenue from COVID-19. Thus,…
There is a large literature on this topic including fairly recent work from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment (see Finkelstein et al. (QJE 2012), Baicker et al. AER 2014, Finkelstein et al. JPE 2019). Many of these studies look at the population level; as the majority of people are healthy, the incremental benefit for health…
A nice overview is provided by Johnson, Kishore and Berwick (2020). They review the HR13841 and S 1129.8 in detail [Note: HR 1384 and S 1129 were also proposed in the last Congressional session and they have an overview of that as well] HR 1384 and S 1129 both establish a single payer federal insurance…