Commentary
Business & Economics
Eliminate Pharmaceutical Rebates to Improve Patient Welfare
Pfizer CEO Ian Read recently told investors that he believes pharmaceuticals will soon be sold without rebates. While this change, if it comes to pass, is undoubtedly positive for patients, a question naturally arises: why? After all, rebates and discounts are a normal part of most competitive markets. The problem ...
Wayne Winegarden
August 16, 2018
Commentary
Trump’s Health Reform Fixes Obama’s Mandate Mess
Open enrollment season for health insurance is just around the corner. Starting November 1, Americans who don’t get coverage through work or the government will be able to sign up for health plans that take effect in 2019. Fewer will do so this year than last, according to a recent ...
Sally C. Pipes
August 16, 2018
Commentary
Canadians Pay A High Price For Free Health Care
Senator Bernie Sanders and his army of supporters of government-run health care evidently believe that American workers could use a pay cut. That’s the natural consequence of single-payer health care, as a recent analysis of Canada’s healthcare system illustrates. Last year, Canadian patients forewent $1.9 billion in wages while waiting ...
Sally C. Pipes
August 14, 2018
Business & Economics
Reforming Medicare’s Competitive Bidding Program To Improve Health And Lower Costs
Through its purchases of durable medical equipment (DME), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) helps many patients remain in their home and out of hospitals or other long-term care settings. These purchases cover a wide array of medical equipment including diabetes testing strips, wheelchairs, and oxygen tanks. Previously, ...
Wayne Winegarden
August 7, 2018
Commentary
Democrats Going All In On ‘Medicare For All’
Democrats have decided to stop worrying and embrace government-run, single-payer health care. On July 19, 70 House members launched a new Medicare for All caucus. A House bill to implement single-payer — H.R. 676 — already has 122 cosponsors, about two-thirds of House Democrats. Democratic National Committee Deputy Chair Rep. Keith Ellison ...
Sally C. Pipes
August 6, 2018
Commentary
Obamacare’s Risk Adjustment Payments Should Have Stayed Frozen
In early July, the Trump administration announced that it would suspend $10 billion in transfer payments to insurers after a federal court ruled that Obamacare’s “risk-adjustment” program was flawed. The program authorizes the federal government to take money from exchange insurers with an above-average share of healthy enrollees and redistribute ...
Sally C. Pipes
August 6, 2018
Commentary
Medicaid work requirements are common sense
The Trump administration wants to require Medicaid recipients to work in exchange for their benefits. That means working, volunteering, attending school, or job training for 80 hours a month. Yet this reasonable reform has provoked howls of outrage from progressives, who say the requirements would deprive low-income people of healthcare. ...
Sally C. Pipes
August 2, 2018
California
California’s move away from retrogressive politics?
Public employee unions took a deserved beating when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Janus vs. AFSCME ruling, and their pain will eventually trickle down to the Democratic Party. The worst, though, is not over for them. What’s ahead has the potential to alter California’s political landscape. The 5-4 Court ...
Kerry Jackson
July 30, 2018
Commentary
Sally Pipes Challenges ‘Medicare for All’ in USA Today
‘Medicare for all’ is a loser Letter to the editor: In her USA TODAY column “Medicare for all is a winner for Democrats, as Ocasio-Cortez and others have shown,” Erica Payne argued that Democrats should endorse Medicare for all because “it’s more than just good policy. It’s good politics.” But ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 30, 2018
Commentary
Schumer’s Trash Is America’s Treasure
The Trump administration recently finalized a rule that will enable millions of Americans to join association health plans. AHPs allow small businesses and self-employed individuals in the same geographic area or industry to link up to purchase coverage. Such plans can be significantly cheaper than those sold through ObamaCare’s insurance ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 30, 2018
Eliminate Pharmaceutical Rebates to Improve Patient Welfare
Pfizer CEO Ian Read recently told investors that he believes pharmaceuticals will soon be sold without rebates. While this change, if it comes to pass, is undoubtedly positive for patients, a question naturally arises: why? After all, rebates and discounts are a normal part of most competitive markets. The problem ...
Trump’s Health Reform Fixes Obama’s Mandate Mess
Open enrollment season for health insurance is just around the corner. Starting November 1, Americans who don’t get coverage through work or the government will be able to sign up for health plans that take effect in 2019. Fewer will do so this year than last, according to a recent ...
Canadians Pay A High Price For Free Health Care
Senator Bernie Sanders and his army of supporters of government-run health care evidently believe that American workers could use a pay cut. That’s the natural consequence of single-payer health care, as a recent analysis of Canada’s healthcare system illustrates. Last year, Canadian patients forewent $1.9 billion in wages while waiting ...
Reforming Medicare’s Competitive Bidding Program To Improve Health And Lower Costs
Through its purchases of durable medical equipment (DME), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) helps many patients remain in their home and out of hospitals or other long-term care settings. These purchases cover a wide array of medical equipment including diabetes testing strips, wheelchairs, and oxygen tanks. Previously, ...
Democrats Going All In On ‘Medicare For All’
Democrats have decided to stop worrying and embrace government-run, single-payer health care. On July 19, 70 House members launched a new Medicare for All caucus. A House bill to implement single-payer — H.R. 676 — already has 122 cosponsors, about two-thirds of House Democrats. Democratic National Committee Deputy Chair Rep. Keith Ellison ...
Obamacare’s Risk Adjustment Payments Should Have Stayed Frozen
In early July, the Trump administration announced that it would suspend $10 billion in transfer payments to insurers after a federal court ruled that Obamacare’s “risk-adjustment” program was flawed. The program authorizes the federal government to take money from exchange insurers with an above-average share of healthy enrollees and redistribute ...
Medicaid work requirements are common sense
The Trump administration wants to require Medicaid recipients to work in exchange for their benefits. That means working, volunteering, attending school, or job training for 80 hours a month. Yet this reasonable reform has provoked howls of outrage from progressives, who say the requirements would deprive low-income people of healthcare. ...
California’s move away from retrogressive politics?
Public employee unions took a deserved beating when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Janus vs. AFSCME ruling, and their pain will eventually trickle down to the Democratic Party. The worst, though, is not over for them. What’s ahead has the potential to alter California’s political landscape. The 5-4 Court ...
Sally Pipes Challenges ‘Medicare for All’ in USA Today
‘Medicare for all’ is a loser Letter to the editor: In her USA TODAY column “Medicare for all is a winner for Democrats, as Ocasio-Cortez and others have shown,” Erica Payne argued that Democrats should endorse Medicare for all because “it’s more than just good policy. It’s good politics.” But ...
Schumer’s Trash Is America’s Treasure
The Trump administration recently finalized a rule that will enable millions of Americans to join association health plans. AHPs allow small businesses and self-employed individuals in the same geographic area or industry to link up to purchase coverage. Such plans can be significantly cheaper than those sold through ObamaCare’s insurance ...