Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
What happens if you’re having Thanksgiving dinner and the topic turns to health care. Or worse, the status of Healthcare.gov and the Obamacare Health Insurance Exchanges. What do you do? How do you sound in the know, even if you’ve been slacking off any haven’t ready my blog for months? The Wall Street Journal provides…
As most people know, President Obama promised that everyone could keep their old insurance if they liked it. Although most people are able to keep their old insurance, some people certainly are not and the president has gotten major political heat for this. Today, the Obama administration responded to the critics. The Washington Post WonkBlog…
One lesser known provision of the Affordable Care Act is that it regulates insurers medical loss ratios (MLRs). What are MLRs? Does this matter? A research paper by Karaca-Mandic, Abraham and Simon (2013) examines the question. They explain the ACA’s MLR requirement as follows. One provision that has gained considerable attention is the establishment of…
Known as Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a long, confusing law But if you are an avid reader of the Healthcare Economist, you don’t have to be confused. For your reference I have created an Obamacare Overview page that summarizes the most important ACA provisions.
As describe in this recent Health Affairs article, as of 2011, your likelihood of being offered health insurance looked like this: Courtesy of Health Affairs. How will the ACA affect the share of individuals who receive coverage (and what type of insurance coverage they receive). This table describes some of the consequences. Courtesy…
The start of health insurance exchanges, the most important provision of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) began allowing individuals to enroll today. The start was somewhat inauspicious. The start of “Obamacare” coincides with a federal government shutdown. Additionally, some exchanges websites, including healthcare.gov, were not operational due to user volume. Nevertheless, today is a…
Views on the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare, a.k.a. Health Reform) are mixed. Despite the fact that many people support individual provisions, overall, the measure is unpopular. Why would that be the case? A revealing Health Affairs interview with Cythnia Morgan, may reveal the answer. Morgan is a fifty-eight-year-old former hotel manager, has been out…
In the health insurance exchange, premiums will rise significantly. At least according to Robert Laszewski of Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review: One of the reasons health insurance in the exchange will cost a lot more in most states is because the new health law outlaws many of the existing plans now being offered and…
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…
Today, Aetna, the third-largest U.S. health plan, agreed to buy Coventry Health Care for $5.6 billion. Aetna paid a 20 percent premium for Coventry. Why is Coventry such an attractive target? The answer is that President Obama’s Health Reform will greatly expand the number of people eligilbe for Medicaid. Since many states are moving towards…