Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
There has been much discussion over whether the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) created by the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare), can ration care. Mitt Romney claims “an unelected board that’s going to tell people ultimately what kind of treatments they can have,” whereas President Obama notes that no provision in the law that empowers…
Source: MedScape. Also useful: How to Prime Your BS Detection Skills Before the Presidential Debates.
“Memo to Romney and Obama: First guy to come out publicly in favor of deposing Goodell will carry Wisconsin in November.” —Ryan Flippo, regarding NFL replacement referees blown call in Packers-Seahawks game (evidence). As a lifelong Packers fan and Wisconsin native, this may not be far from the truth.
Here’s my take on President Obama’s health care plan. Tax credits for Health Insurance Premiums. This will do nothing to change how much health care costs, it will just change who pays the premiums. For middle class individuals, these subsidies will help make health insurance more affordable. Because the wealthy won’t receive any subsidy (the…
How did Obama’s Healthcare Summit go? It was basically a pile of bad ideas. Senator Harkin gave the best explanation of what’s truly needed, but I’ll save that for last. Examples of BAD IDEAS include Starting over. John McCain asked to “Go back to the beginning” and Republican Senator Lamar Alexander said “If we can start…
Below are healthcare-related excerpts from President’s Obama’s State of the Union Address with my comments afterward. Now let’s be clear – I did not choose to tackle this issue to get some legislative victory under my belt. And by now it should be fairly obvious that I didn’t take on health care because it was…
A Health Reform Bill passed in the House despite declining support among the American people. The Kaiser Family Foundation has a nice summary of what is included in the bill. Today, I will review who wins and who loses from different aspects of the bill. Individual Mandate. Winners: High cost individuals. Premiums (may) decline if…
The lobbying group America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) is touting a study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers showing that health reform would increase premiums significantly. The findings claim that insurance premiums would rise between “26 percent between 2009 and 2013 under the current system and by 40 percent during this same period” if these four health reform provisions…
In 2009, President Barack Obama addressed the nation calling for healthcare reform. In 1974, President Richard Nixon also addressed the nation calling for healthcare reform. Let us analyze Nixon’s speech and compare it to Obama’s. “Today the need [for reform] is even more pressing because of the higher costs of medical care.” Obama echoes this…
Today, I will review the Republican Response to President Obama’s health care reform speech. To sum up, Republicans propse: malpractice reform (likely damage caps) allowing individuals to buy health insurance across state lines, allowing small businesses and individuals to pool together (not the same as creating a health insurance exchange), refundable tax credits for low-…