Dark clouds hover over the nation’s finances and threaten a perfect storm of massive debt and crushing taxation unless Congress starts acting—soon. Washington must demonstrate that it is serious about reining in ever-rising spending and reducing annual deficits. Passing commonsense reforms to our major entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security), the main drivers of future spending and annual deficits, is crucial. As the population ages and health care costs rise, spending on entitlements is projected to more than double by 2050, as this Heritage Budget Chart Book chart shows. …
The Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently published its annual estimate of U.S. health spending in the journal Health Affairs. The report shows that growth in health spending remained slow in 2010. Medical expenditures grew at an annual rate of 3.9 percent, up just 0.1 percent from 2009. However, the slow growth doesn’t represent a decrease in health care costs, but a reduction in utilization and intensity of medicine. People are choosing the less costly alternative of avoiding the doctor and not …
Medicare is in dire need of reform. This week’s chart illustrates why the entitlement program is the largest driver of long-term runaway deficits. With the country’s population aging and increasingly dependent on health care, Medicare’s cost to taxpayers is projected to rise from $522.8 billion in 2010 to $932 billion in 2020. The Heritage Foundation has long championed reforms for Medicare, most recently as part of Saving the American Dream. Heritage’s Bob Moffit recently outlined a two-stage approach to reform. The first step is saving the current program, then moving …
Support for Obamacare sunk to 29 percent in the latest Associated Press poll. The widespread dissatisfaction with President Obama’s signature achievement is one reason Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) has developed health care reform that puts patients first rather than government. Price, chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, understands health care better than most. Before coming to Congress, he spent nearly 20 years in private practice as an orthopedic surgeon. He’s now using the lessons from that experience to undo the damage of Obamacare by promoting a plan called the …
Yesterday, the Administration released data from the 2011 National Health Interview Survey that shows, among other things, that the number of uninsured young adults declined over the last year. In a short press release, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) touted this as evidence that Obamacare is working, specifically attributing increased coverage of young adults age 19–25 to the Obamacare provision allowing those individuals to stay on their parents’ health plans. Undoubtedly, it’s true that some of those individuals did get coverage due to that provision, but HHS …
Medicare faces a dismal future that could threaten its very existence. In two recent papers, Stuart Butler, Ph.D., and Robert Moffit, Ph.D. of the new Heritage Center for Policy Innovation analyze the problem and offer detailed solutions on how to reverse course. Butler explains that many objections to Medicare reform are fueled by myths. For instance, many Americans believe that seniors have paid for their own Medicare through payroll taxes. But in reality, only Medicare Part A is financed through payroll taxes. Parts B and D are voluntary and financed …
As the fight continues against the one-size-fits-all changes enacted under Obamacare, some states continue to work on health care reform specific to the needs of their residents. Florida is one such state. Its Medicaid Reform Pilot passed with bipartisan support in 2005 and has been implemented in five counties over the last five years. It has been a remarkable success, shifting a failing government health program away from the status quo of top-down micromanagement toward consumer-driven, patient-centered care. In a detailed analysis written for The Heritage Foundation, Tarren Bragdon, CEO …
Sometimes the White House gets the easy questions wrong. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked about a controversial mandate stemming from Obamacare that would require religious employers to provide insurance coverage for birth control despite religious objections. The regulation in question, released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), falls under the category of “preventative services” and would require almost all health insurance plans to cover everything from all FDA-approved contraceptives to sterilizations—without cost to the insured. The mandate includes coverage of controversial drugs …
Last week’s Des Moines Register’s editorial page takes a sardonic view of the majority of Americans (51 percent as of last week) who are opposed to the health reform law. Saying they are trashing the law they call Obamacare—a word that supporters have openly embraced because of its widespread usage—the editorial charges “if you don’t agree with the law, then don’t use anything it offers.” Oh, if it was only that simple. While the editorial correctly notes that Obamacare is not a full government takeover of the private health sector, …
Even without Obamacare, the United States faces rising health care costs and an economy struggling to recover from the recent downturn. Despite its supporters’ promises, the health care law does not solve these problems. A study released today by the National Federation of Independent Business highlights the impact of Obamacare’s new health insurance tax alone on Americans’ health care costs and the health of the economy. Obamacare institutes a premium tax on health insurers that offer full coverage beginning in 2014. Before it became law, Heritage expert Edmund Haislmaier wrote …
