No argument for Obamacare’s repeal can top the simple fact that Members of Congress do not want it to apply to them. Today’s Politico reports that the House and Senate congressional leadership—both Democrats and Republicans working in cahoots with Obama Administration officials—have been secretly negotiating for months trying to find …
In the past 24 hours, cancer patients’ access to Medicare treatment has been the focus of an alarming headline. In this case, the budget sequestration—an idea originally proposed and now routinely derided by President Obama—is identified as the culprit. But policymakers and taxpayers alike may want to take a closer …
The congressional formula that determines the annual Medicare payment update for physicians, the sustainable growth rate (SGR), was supposed to cut Medicare doctors’ pay each year starting in 2002. But that congressional formula is so flawed and unworkable that every year since 2003, Congress has stepped in to stop it …
Two hospice care centers are struggling to make ends meet, and Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare are to blame. Hospices—health care facilities for the terminally ill—along with other Medicare providers are facing Medicare pay cuts. Of the $716 billion in payment reductions, hospice care was hit by a $17 billion payment …
The editorial board of The Washington Post, no organ of conservative opinion, is absolutely right: “Medicare as we know it is not sustainable,” and the “ultimate solution” is structural reform. Bingo. The right structural reform is to expand Medicare’s defined-contribution financing (routinely called “premium support”) as it broadly exists today …
As the Medicare debate intensifies, there still seems to be popular confusion regarding the $716 billion in “savings” from Obamacare’s Medicare payment cuts. Let us end the confusion. Which Parts of Medicare Will Be Cut? In Obamacare, the payment cuts are across-the-board cuts (modifications of Medicare’s complex payment formulas) made …
On September 8, 2011—well after the enactment of Obamacare—President Obama told Congress: “Millions of Americans rely on Medicare in their retirement. And millions more will do so in the future.… But with an aging population and rising health care costs, we are spending too fast to sustain the program. And …
Senators Richard Burr (R–NC) and Tom Coburn (R–OK) have just unveiled a bold Medicare reform proposal based on the free-market forces of choice and competition. The Senators’ proposal adds further momentum to the effort to reform and improve America’s largest and most challenging entitlement program. “Premium support” is at the …
Congressman Paul Ryan (R–WI) and Senator Ron Wyden (D–OR) have proposed a new bipartisan framework for structural Medicare reform. It continues the conversation with the American people on a solution to save the popular but financially troubled entitlement program. While there are differences between the proposal and the Heritage plan …
