Sally C. Pipes
Commentary
Middlemen Are Ripping Off State Medicaid Programs
Kentucky’s Democratic attorney general just launched an investigation to determine if middlemen in the prescription drug supply chain are ripping off the state’s Medicaid program. He’s almost certainly onto something. These middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, administer drug benefit plans for Medicaid, Medicare Part D, and private insurers. In theory, ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 27, 2019
Commentary
Keep counterfeit drugs out of Florida
Florida’s House budget panel this week greenlit a bill that would allow the state to buy drugs from Canada. Lawmakers are poised to debate a companion bill in the Senate in the coming weeks. If the bill becomes law, officials would almost certainly need permission from the U.S. Department of Health ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 20, 2019
Commentary
A $44,000 Surgery Can Cost Just $16,000 Somewhere Else for One Reason: Competition
A hip replacement in Maine can run north of $44,000. Down the coast in Boston, it’s a different story. There, the same procedure costs just more than $16,000, a fraction of the price. Knee surgeries follow the same pattern. They cost up to $13,500 in Maine, but as little as $3,900 ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 20, 2019
Commentary
Here’s a prescription for mid-sized businesses providing workers with health care
Small businesses and large corporations have been spared some of Obamacare’s most burdensome regulations. Small firms are exempt from the employer mandate requiring them to offer coverage. Large ones don’t have to adhere to the law’s essential health benefits mandates. Mid-sized businesses haven’t been so lucky. These firms, which typically ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 19, 2019
Commentary
Medicare for All Won’t Result in Better Health Outcomes
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker claims Medicare for All would “save lives.” Vermont’s own Senator Bernie Sanders promises it would end “the disgrace of tens of thousands of Americans dying every year from preventable deaths.” But a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research finds little evidence to support those assertions. The authors examined ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 18, 2019
Commentary
Medicare expansion would make socialized health insurance inevitable
Several lawmakers want to pull more people into Medicare. This would hurt anyone with private insurance, and it would inevitably lead to single-payer, government funded healthcare, which would deprive people of any choice over their healthcare. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., recently introduced S.470, a bill that would let any citizen or ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 7, 2019
Commentary
Americans like Medicare for all — until they realize what’s in it
By Sally C. Pipes Fifty-six percent of Americans want to establish Medicare for All, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll published in January. A Reuters survey last August found even stronger support, with 70 percent of Americans backing single-payer. With favorability numbers like those, it’s no surprise that Democrats ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 7, 2019
Commentary
America Should Take Note of Britain’s Suffering Before Embracing Medicare-for-All
The United Kingdom’s single-payer healthcare system is struggling to retain doctors. More than half of those who work for the country’s National Health Service are thinking about reducing their hours or quitting altogether rather than deal with the 70-year-old Service’s infamously low salaries and heavy caseloads. The NHS had banked on replenishing its ranks ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 5, 2019
Commentary
Governors Are Laying the Groundwork for Single-Payer
Democrats can’t stop talking about single-payer health care. Most of those vying for the party’s presidential nomination in 2020 have declared their support for the idea, which first rose to national prominence during the 2016 Democratic primary that pitted Hillary Clinton against longtime single-payer champion Bernie Sanders. In February, Sanders — the pied piper of single-payer ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 4, 2019
Commentary
The New York Health Act Just Became Even More Expensive
New York’s progressive lawmakers are getting more ambitious with their plans for socialized medicine. Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and Senator Ricardo Rivera, the chief sponsors of the New York Health Act, just expanded their proposal for installing the state government as the sole payer for health care in New York and outlaw private ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 4, 2019
Middlemen Are Ripping Off State Medicaid Programs
Kentucky’s Democratic attorney general just launched an investigation to determine if middlemen in the prescription drug supply chain are ripping off the state’s Medicaid program. He’s almost certainly onto something. These middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, administer drug benefit plans for Medicaid, Medicare Part D, and private insurers. In theory, ...
Keep counterfeit drugs out of Florida
Florida’s House budget panel this week greenlit a bill that would allow the state to buy drugs from Canada. Lawmakers are poised to debate a companion bill in the Senate in the coming weeks. If the bill becomes law, officials would almost certainly need permission from the U.S. Department of Health ...
A $44,000 Surgery Can Cost Just $16,000 Somewhere Else for One Reason: Competition
A hip replacement in Maine can run north of $44,000. Down the coast in Boston, it’s a different story. There, the same procedure costs just more than $16,000, a fraction of the price. Knee surgeries follow the same pattern. They cost up to $13,500 in Maine, but as little as $3,900 ...
Here’s a prescription for mid-sized businesses providing workers with health care
Small businesses and large corporations have been spared some of Obamacare’s most burdensome regulations. Small firms are exempt from the employer mandate requiring them to offer coverage. Large ones don’t have to adhere to the law’s essential health benefits mandates. Mid-sized businesses haven’t been so lucky. These firms, which typically ...
Medicare for All Won’t Result in Better Health Outcomes
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker claims Medicare for All would “save lives.” Vermont’s own Senator Bernie Sanders promises it would end “the disgrace of tens of thousands of Americans dying every year from preventable deaths.” But a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research finds little evidence to support those assertions. The authors examined ...
Medicare expansion would make socialized health insurance inevitable
Several lawmakers want to pull more people into Medicare. This would hurt anyone with private insurance, and it would inevitably lead to single-payer, government funded healthcare, which would deprive people of any choice over their healthcare. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., recently introduced S.470, a bill that would let any citizen or ...
Americans like Medicare for all — until they realize what’s in it
By Sally C. Pipes Fifty-six percent of Americans want to establish Medicare for All, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll published in January. A Reuters survey last August found even stronger support, with 70 percent of Americans backing single-payer. With favorability numbers like those, it’s no surprise that Democrats ...
America Should Take Note of Britain’s Suffering Before Embracing Medicare-for-All
The United Kingdom’s single-payer healthcare system is struggling to retain doctors. More than half of those who work for the country’s National Health Service are thinking about reducing their hours or quitting altogether rather than deal with the 70-year-old Service’s infamously low salaries and heavy caseloads. The NHS had banked on replenishing its ranks ...
Governors Are Laying the Groundwork for Single-Payer
Democrats can’t stop talking about single-payer health care. Most of those vying for the party’s presidential nomination in 2020 have declared their support for the idea, which first rose to national prominence during the 2016 Democratic primary that pitted Hillary Clinton against longtime single-payer champion Bernie Sanders. In February, Sanders — the pied piper of single-payer ...
The New York Health Act Just Became Even More Expensive
New York’s progressive lawmakers are getting more ambitious with their plans for socialized medicine. Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and Senator Ricardo Rivera, the chief sponsors of the New York Health Act, just expanded their proposal for installing the state government as the sole payer for health care in New York and outlaw private ...