Democrats profess great concern about the health care issue. Yet they avoided including any form of medical malpractice reform when passing their major health care legislation in 2010. This despite the fact that abusive tort litigation is one of the driving forces in the high cost of health care. Such litigation greatly increases malpractice-insurance costs, to the point where yearly premiums can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in some medical specialties. This not only raises the cost of health care, it actually drives providers out of business and decreases …
Last week the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based free-market advocacy group, filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to review the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement on the grounds it violates federal antitrust laws and is unconstitutional. The tobacco MSA is the result of 46 state attorneys general striking a deal with the four major tobacco companies in 1998 to settle Medicaid lawsuits over tobacco-related health care costs. Tobacco companies agreed to fork over $246 billion to the states over 25 years and adhere to restrictions on advertising, marketing …
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is one of the largest and most complicated overhauls ever enacted. Policy experts continue to debate the impact it will have. Among the issues that has raised concerns is its cost. Supporters point to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that the law will reduce the nation’s budget deficit by about $140 billion over the next 10 years. But according to an analysis by The Heritage Foundation, the health overhaul could end up costing American taxpayers millions of dollars in higher health …
Health Insurers Plan Hikes. That’s the headline of today’s Wall Street Journal story which reports: “Health insurers say they plan to raise premiums for some Americans as a direct result of the health overhaul in coming weeks, complicating Democrats’ efforts to trumpet their signature achievement before the midterm elections. Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1% and 9% to pay for extra benefits required under the law, according to filings with state regulators.” It’s exactly what conservatives predicted. While …
The President signed Obamacare into law last March as an attempt to get spending and costs under control, but the new law will likely fail at this mission. In fact, The Wall Street Journal reports that, in recent months, Americans have already begun to cut back on health care usage, which has the potential to lower the cost of medical care and insurance premiums. In a truly ironic turn of events, Obamacare may actually keep spending on its upward trajectory. The drop in health care usage could be a result …
Arizona v. President Obama. This time it’s not about immigration but health care. A recent letter from the Arizona Department of Administration to 135,000 state employees informed them that, depending on their type of coverage, they can expect their monthly health insurance costs to jump by as much as 37 percent. The letter cites the President’s health care overhaul as “responsible for all increases for employee premiums.” The Department points to two provisions of Obamacare as the primary reason for the premium increases: a new requirement for plans to cover …
With or without Obamacare, health insurance costs are on the rise. And that has businesses searching for more affordable options. One increasingly popular option: health plans covering services provided by a relatively small number of participating doctors and hospitals. These plans are most attractive to small employers, but The New York Times reports, “Large employers, as well, are starting to show some interest, and insurers and consultants expect that, over time, businesses of all sizes will gravitate toward these plans in an effort to cut costs.”
Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office released its annual long-term Budget Outlook, which provides a look at mandatory federal spending on health care after passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. One may have expected to see drastic changes after the passage of Obamacare. After all, this legislation was supposed to reduce costs and overall health spending. However, the CBO’s report highlights the unlikelihood that cost-containment strategies included in the new law will ever come to fruition. In its projections, CBO looks at two scenarios. The extended-baseline scenario assumes …
Recently, the New York Times highlighted a booming trend toward greater price transparency in medicine thanks to up-and-comers such as Castlight, a new company aiming to create a search engine of health care prices. Others sharing in this endeavor include both public and private entities in Tennessee and New Hampshire, as well as several insurance companies. Lack of transparency regarding pricing of medical services has often been attributed as one of the factors contributing to skyrocketing spending in the health care system, a concern which drew considerable attention during the …
Now that Obamacare passed, the Left is calling it a truly historic achievement, chalking it up as a victory for health care reformers everywhere. With the enactment of the House-Senate reconciliation bill, the so-called “fix” to the Senate bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) remarked that the bill did “something very important for the American people, very significant to their daily lives.” Well, Congressional liberals are correct about one thing. It’s historic. It is an unprecedented takeover of Americans’ health care now equal to one-sixth of the entire US economy. It …
