Mission Impossible: Medicare's Independent Payment Advisory Board

The Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is a new bureaucracy established by Obamacare that will limit Medicare beneficiaries’ access to certain medical goods and services—especially new prescription drugs.

Key Points:

• IPAB puts Medicare beneficiaries’ access to prescription drugs and certain other medical goods and services under control of a board of 15 presidential appointees, while leaving decisions about other medical goods and services under control of Congress.

• IPAB will be called upon to cut much more Medicare spending than officially estimated, because physicians and hospitals are highly likely to succeed in restoring the cuts that Obamacare imposes upon them.

• IPAB could deny Medicare beneficiaries access to every innovative prescription drug introduced every year, but still have little effect on Medicare spending.
• As long as Congress exerts political control over Medicare beneficiaries’ access to medical care, all treatments and providers should be treated equally, which implies that IPAB should be abolished.

Read this month's Health Policy Prescription here.

Obamacrats Play Chicken Little — Again

The Obamacrats published a "research brief" attempting to prove that the flood of uninsured people in emergency rooms is driving the health crisis. It upset me because the author appears to be skilled at crunching numbers and I hate it when those skill are abused for political gain. Anyway, the Obamacrats keep trafficking this myth because it feeds the line that we need "universal" coverage to control health costs.

Well, I printed it out and was planning to write about it, but Michael Cannon of the CATO Institute beat be to the punch. Read his analysis at the folliwing link: HHS Plays Chicken Little — Again.

Politicians Cannot Control Health Costs

My column in the Orange County Register, opposing California legislation that would give politicians the power to review health-insurance premiums, is here.  It argues that politicians cannot control health costs; that rate-review laws are ineffective; and that the experience of Massachusetts demonstrates that giving politicians' this power in the age of Obamacare is incredibly risky.

Shooting the Messenger: California’s Proposal to Control Health Plans’ Rate Increases

California legislators are considering a bill, AB 52, that would give the executive branch the power to decide whether health plans should be allowed to increase their premiums at rates that keep pace with medical costs. Health plans may be a politically attractive target, but giving politicians the power to approve premiums causes other problems — and doesn't even hold down rate increases.

Another Voice on Obamacare Exchanges

Some opponents of Obamacare have suggested that states should establish Health Benefits Exchanges because they can provide a "firebreak" against federal regulations.  According to Twila Brase of the Citizens' Council for Health Freedom, this is impossible.  Her article makes a compelling read: Here.

Cold & Allergy Meds by Prescription Only? A Recipe for Higher Costs and Violent Crime

Sometimes we face problems to which there are no great - or even good - solutions.  One of those is the abuse of cold and allergy medicines by people who buy them as inputs to methamphetamine.  A few years ago, Oregon attempted an apparently reasonable solution to this problem, buy making pharmacies dispense many of these medicines by prescription only.

Now, California legislators are seeking to replicate this law.  Unfortunately, the harmful consequences to legitimate patients of making these drugs available by prescription only are pretty clear: It adds cost and hassle to acquiring necessary medicines.  The benefits to society - reducing criminal production and abuse of methamphetamine - are far less clear.  The prescription-only rule will likely drive the vile business into the hands of even worse criminals than control it now.

Read the rest of my column in the Sacramento Business Journal (subscription only).

Canada Still Working Towards Universal Health Care

You probably didn’t notice, but Canada is having a federal election today. It’s a big deal up there — and the number one issue is — you’ll never guess — health care! It’s eleven percentage points more critical than jobs and the economy.

Read the entire post at John Goodman's Health Policy Blog.