One of the least substantiated notions behind the modern American doctrine that people should allow insurers or governments to control our health spending is that these third parties can negotiate fees with hospitals and physicians that are better than those which would prevail if patients controlled these dollars ourselves.
Years of evidence show that these third parties have little idea what they are doing when they fix fees paid to providers.
Read the entire entry at the Independent Institute's Beacon blog.
Research and commentary from a former senior executive in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Thursday, December 31, 2015
French Doctors Lose Strike Against "Free" Health Care
After a long and arduous fight, French politicians have approved a law abolishing patients’ upfront payments to physicians, which was a promise of President François Hollande’s Socialist Party.
Currently, patients usually pay about £23 ($25) when they see a general practitioner. However, some of this fee is reimbursed by the national health scheme or private supplemental insurance. I suppose the closest comparison to the United States would be Medicare and Medicare supplemental (Medigap) insurance.
The Socialist Party promised eliminating this co-pay would increase access to care. Remarkably, it is doctors who resisted.
Read the entire entry at the Independent Institute's Beacon blog.
Currently, patients usually pay about £23 ($25) when they see a general practitioner. However, some of this fee is reimbursed by the national health scheme or private supplemental insurance. I suppose the closest comparison to the United States would be Medicare and Medicare supplemental (Medigap) insurance.
The Socialist Party promised eliminating this co-pay would increase access to care. Remarkably, it is doctors who resisted.
Read the entire entry at the Independent Institute's Beacon blog.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Health Services Spending Continues To Grow Faster Than Gross Domestic Product
The third estimate of Gross Domestic Product for the third quarter indicates growth in health services spending is maintaining a disproportionate share of still slow GDP growth. Over the four quarters, growth in health services spending accounted for one fifth of GDP growth. This means that health services spending continues to devour more of our budgets.
Read the entire entry at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.
Read the entire entry at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Obamacare Beneficiaries' Bleak Future
One might be forgiven for thinking health insurers are cracking under the strain of Obamacare’s broken insurance exchanges. But don’t be fooled: it is the 10 million Obamacare enrollees who are in trouble, not the insurers.
To be sure, new nonprofit cooperative insurers, set up with special subsidies to compete in the exchanges, have had a terrible run. They deliberately underpriced their premiums to gain market share, expecting the federal government to bail out their losses. Once the Republicans took over the House of Representatives, then the Senate, this became unlikely. As a result, the administration announced in November that 12 of 23 nonprofit cooperative insurers were shutting down.
However, these nonprofit cooperative insurers, which did not exist before Obamacare, are not important overall. That is why UnitedHealth Group’s November 19 announcement that it is losing $500 million on the Obamacare exchanges and might withdraw from Obamacare in 2017 is a big deal. Just a few weeks earlier, UnitedHealth Group had announced it would expand into 11 new states’ Obamacare markets.
Read the entire column at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.
To be sure, new nonprofit cooperative insurers, set up with special subsidies to compete in the exchanges, have had a terrible run. They deliberately underpriced their premiums to gain market share, expecting the federal government to bail out their losses. Once the Republicans took over the House of Representatives, then the Senate, this became unlikely. As a result, the administration announced in November that 12 of 23 nonprofit cooperative insurers were shutting down.
However, these nonprofit cooperative insurers, which did not exist before Obamacare, are not important overall. That is why UnitedHealth Group’s November 19 announcement that it is losing $500 million on the Obamacare exchanges and might withdraw from Obamacare in 2017 is a big deal. Just a few weeks earlier, UnitedHealth Group had announced it would expand into 11 new states’ Obamacare markets.
Read the entire column at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.
Friday, December 18, 2015
What is Driving Health Prices Up?
The recent arrest of Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, for securities fraud, reminds us that high prescription drug prices are today’s whipping boy for the costs of health care. Hillary Clinton and other politicians have promised to impose federal controls on pharmaceutical prices.
However, prescription drugs have not been the fastest growing item in health care since the economy started to enter the Great Recession in 2007. That distinction belongs to health insurance (specifically, medical and hospital insurance, not workers’ compensation, income replacement, or long-term care).
Read the entire entry at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.
However, prescription drugs have not been the fastest growing item in health care since the economy started to enter the Great Recession in 2007. That distinction belongs to health insurance (specifically, medical and hospital insurance, not workers’ compensation, income replacement, or long-term care).
Read the entire entry at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.
Congress Set to Deficit Fund Obamacare Almost $40 Billion
I had always feared that Congress’ alternative to Obamacare was deficit funded Obamacare, and it looks like that is coming to pass. This is being done through the so-called “taxibus”, a legislative package that combines popular “tax extenders” (items like research and development tax credits that are legally temporary but practically permanent) with funding the federal government through September 2016.
The bill proposes a couple of years delay in three Obamacare taxes: The medical-device excise tax, he health insurance fee, and the excise tax on high-cost employer benefit plans. All three taxes are bad. However, the bill just delays them without cutting any Obamacare spending.
Read more at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.
The bill proposes a couple of years delay in three Obamacare taxes: The medical-device excise tax, he health insurance fee, and the excise tax on high-cost employer benefit plans. All three taxes are bad. However, the bill just delays them without cutting any Obamacare spending.
Read more at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
CPI: Hospitals Under Pressure as Physican Prices Rise
November’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicates health prices are moderating, though still increasing higher than non-heath consumer goods. In the third piece of bad news for hospitals (from their perspective, at least, after the Quarterly Services Survey and the Producer Price Index), prices for hospital services actually dropped.
However, physicians’ fees jumped significantly, by 1.1 percent on the month.
Read more at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.
However, physicians’ fees jumped significantly, by 1.1 percent on the month.
Read more at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.
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