In 1988, Congress passed and President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act. Officials in Washington were firmly united in creating the single-largest expansion of Medicare since 1965. Fast-forward 22 years, and we’ve just witnessed a monumental government takeover of the private health care sector. But this …
We’ve all heard it before — the age-old saying “Better late than never.” Well, get ready to hear it again, this time from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, regarding the creation of high-risk pools under Obamacare. The pools were supposed to provide coverage for individuals who cannot get …
At a recent AEI conference entitled “Health Care Reform: An Initial Checkup,” experts from a range of sectors discussed the implications of the provisions of the PPACA that are already defined, and pondered the many that are not. The early morning discussion revolved around the new law’s impact on low-skilled …
A June Health Affairs briefing on the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) showed just how deep the chasm is between many of Washington’s policy experts and ordinary Americans. At the briefing, panelists discussed the potential impact and implementation of the PPACA amidst the public’s uncertainty …
The United States faces a major physician shortage, and it will only get worse. Aging baby boomers will create a growing demand for medical services at the same time Obamacare comes on line with its new demands. Complicating matters is the fact that many physicians are also baby boomers—meaning part …
It’s long been established that part of controlling rising health care spending in the United States will mean enacting meaningful medical malpractice, or “tort”, reform. Though tort reform is not a silver bullet to creating savings, it is one of many changes vital to containing patients’ medical costs. Unfortunately, in …
The Department of Health and Human Services has rolled out regulations governing health plans in effect prior to the passage of Obamacare. You know, the plans that “if you like it, you can keep it?” The new regs will mostly affect the 170 million-plus Americans who carry employer-sponsored coverage. The …
