Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., The Heritage Foundation
Tue, 2011-01-18
"The problem is that the board is prohibited by law from proposing real structural reforms. The only cuts it is allowed to make would be cutting providers’ reimbursements—including administrative costs and profit margins of Medicare Advantage plans, which are already slated for a payment freeze and future cuts under the new law."
Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., The Heritage Foundation
Tue, 2011-01-18
"The problems of the uninsured, including the 'free rider' issue, are best addressed through a judicious combination of positive economic incentives, such as tax credits and vouchers for insurance, creative new mechanisms to facilitate coverage (such as automatic enrollment with a right to refuse coverage), and transparency in personal choice and consequences, such as an upfront signed acknowledgement of financial liability for refusing coverage.[18] This policy encourages the adoption of coverage and individual responsibility while not compromising Americans’ personal freedom and responsibility."
Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., The Heritage Foundation
Tue, 2011-01-18
"The top-down federal approach to health care reform assaults the traditional state role in insurance regulation, squashes innovation, and undermines real choice and competition. PPACA is thus a bad deal for states, reducing them to mere agents of federal health and insurance policy. They could not make full use of their comparative advantages in coping with very different insurance markets, mending the safety net care for the poorest and most vulnerable of their citizens with new policies, or undertaking imaginative reforms without getting a permission slip from Washington."
Jagadeesh Gokhale, The Cato Institute
Tue, 2011-01-11
"Once ObamaCare becomes fully effective in 2014, the cost of newly eligible Medicaid enrollees will be almost fully covered by the federal government through 2019, with federal financial support expected to be extended thereafter. But ObamaCare provides states with zero additional federal financial support for new enrollees among those eligible for Medicaid under the old laws. That makes increased state Medicaid costs from higher enrollments by 'old-eligibles' virtually certain as they enroll into Medicaid to comply with the mandate to purchase health insurance. This study estimates and compares potential increases in Medicaid costs from ObamaCare for the five most populous states: California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas."
Peter Swanson, National Center for Policy Analysis
Tue, 2011-01-11
"An estimated 32 million to 34 million individuals will gain public or private health insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Insured individuals consume nearly twice as much health care as the uninsured, on the average. Thus, EMS utilization will likely increase; however, the ACA does not provide funds to pay for increased EMS use. This will force local governments to choose between raising taxes, finding alternative revenue sources or reducing emergency services."
Roger Stark, MD, FACS, Washington Policy Center
Thu, 2011-01-06
"The current Medicaid program is arguably the worst health insurance plan in the country. It has expanded massively beyond the original intent in 1965 and is now one of the two or three largest budget items for nearly every state. In spite
of massive annual increases in spending, Medicaid chronically experiences budgetbreaking costs. Expanding Medicaid, as the new health care reform law requires,
will only compound these problems."
Andrew J. Rettenmaier and Thomas R. Saving, National Center for Policy Analysis
Wed, 2011-01-05
"The ACA essentially imposes price ceilings on Medicare payments to providers. These price controls will lead to fewer health care options and lower quality of care for the Medicare population. In contrast, the Rivlin/Ryan approach would affect both the demand and supply side of the health care market - patients would shop and providers would respond. Provision for low-income beneficiaries in the form of health spending accounts could be structured to keep pace with the new system. The more realistic cost savings resulting from the Rivlin/Ryan proposal could be accomplished without the unintended consequences of price ceilings."
Robert A. Book, Ph.D., The Heritage Foundation
Tue, 2011-01-04
"Regional variation in Medicare spending is not correlated with variation in non-Medicare spending, and variation in non-Medicare spending is associated with measures of disease burden and health status. The data indicate that something is deeply wrong not with the doctors or the patients but with Medicare’s payment system, service mix, and incentives."
David A. Hyman, Regulation Magazine
Mon, 2010-12-13
The misaligned economic incentive structure in the health sector create waste and worsen care. ObamaCare does not fix this problem. "The legislation accordingly focuses
on broadening access by means of insurance reform and not on
changing the incentives driving health care treatment and overall spending. Indeed, on numerous occasions, Congress and
the administration pulled their punches in addressing those
problems — usually by trading stricter reforms in those areas
for coverage provisions that they valued more."
Robert Moffit, Ph.D. and James C. Capretta, The Heritage Foundation
Mon, 2010-12-13
"A better Medicare program, with a range of personal choice and a system of governance broadly similar to the FEHBP, will give Medicare patients control over the flow of dollars and freedom to make decisions about how they access medical services. This will stimulate intense market competition among plans and providers, control costs, and promote rapid innovation and higher productivity through the efficient delivery of quality care, thus guaranteeing value in return for retiree premiums and taxpayer dollars. Strong budgetary controls will back up the competitive structure, ensuring that the Medicare program remains affordable. Most important, these reforms will promote personal freedom of choice as well as stable and reliable health insurance."
