The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released a report that reviewed 10 Medicare demonstrations designed with the intention of reducing spending and improving quality of care. Unfortunately, the demonstrations did not produce the desired results. The CBO report concluded, “The results of the demonstrations illustrate the challenges of developing, implementing, and evaluating policies that reduce Medicare expenditures while improving or maintaining quality of care.” However, Heritage policy analyst Kathryn Nix has analyzed research that shows that the answer to the challenge is right under everyone’s nose: the private market. Nix …
Medicare patient Ann Lorenz has relied on the advice and recommendations of her neurologist, Dr. Jeffrey English, since she was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 13 years ago. So the dramatic changes coming to Medicare via the Affordable Care Act—and its potential to limit seniors’ access to care as doctors foresee dropping Medicare patients—already worry Lorenz. “One of the first things you ask a new doctor is if they accept Medicare,” Lorenz, who lives in Atlanta, says in a new Impact of Obamacare video. “And we have always seemed to …
Earlier this week in New Hampshire, Republican presidential candidates touted the benefits of a Medicare premium support system — the approach to entitlement reform embraced by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and The Heritage Foundation. Ryan’s recent partnership with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) helped thrust the idea of premium support back into the national spotlight. Their bipartisan framework represented a breakthrough on Capitol Hill after liberals spent much of the year making false charges about Ryan’s plan. Given the misleading information about premium support, let’s first take a moment …
Conservatives, including The Heritage Foundation, support reforming Medicare to provide seniors with a defined contribution to apply to the health care plan of their choice. This approach would address the program’s insolvency, and it is superior to other options—including the President’s plan to allow an unelected board of officials to ratchet down spending—because it would allow consumer choice to catalyze patient-centered innovations and better value in the health care system. Among the straw man arguments liberals have made against this “premium-support” model is the claim that it would be too …
Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius testified last week at the House Ways and Means Committee on the fiscal year 2012 budget—although the question period centered on Obamacare. Sebelius opined that the new health care law will increase patient access to physicians and hospitals, provide more choices for Medicare beneficiaries, create jobs, and allow those who are happy with their current plans to keep them. However, reality paints a different picture. First, Obamacare will not increase access to health care for many seniors. For example, as a …
Before passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), President Obama made several promises to the American people in an attempt to build support for his health care plan. Among them was a promise that “nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.” However, since the PPACA was signed into law and began down the long road of enactment, the truth has proven to be the opposite: No matter how much individuals may like their current health plan, under the new law, there’s no guarantee …
Earlier this year, Richard Foster, the Chief Actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), issued a report projecting that about half of all seniors and disabled Americans enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans will be pushed out of that program due to the new health care reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). In response to a request from Sen. Charles Grassley (R–IA) and three other Republican Senators, Foster recently confirmed that in addition to losing access to the health plan of their choice, those …
The outlook for seniors’ Medicare Advantage (MA) plans is grim under the new health care law. Though seniors’ premiums will drop 1 percent in the new year, this will be the exception to the rule over the next decade. Medicare Advantage is a popular alternative to traditional fee-for-service, allowing seniors to choose their health plan from among participating private plans. If seniors choose a plan that is less expensive than the benchmark price, they receive a rebate that can be used to add extra benefits, such as dental or vision …
President Barack Obama’s promise that “if you like it you can keep it” may be this generation’s “read my lips—no new taxes,” claim. New Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Donald Berwick recently said “Medicare Advantage remains strong and a robust option for millions of seniors who choose to enroll or stay in a participating plan today and in the future.” But seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans offered through one Massachusetts insurer are about to find out otherwise. Harvard Pilgrim, the state’s second largest insurance company, plans to …
President Barack Obama has repeatedly said, “If you like your health plan, you can keep it.” But is that true? Most likely not, if your plan is a Medicare Advantage (MA) plan. MA is the “private option” within Medicare in which private health insurers are paid a fixed monthly fee to provide health benefits to their enrollees. They must provide at least the same minimum benefits as traditional fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare, but most MA plans provide more benefits, often with lower co-pays and deductibles, and some provide a rebate of …
