Medicaid

Commentary

A Public Option Is Still the Wrong Way to Reform Health Care

There’s nothing ‘moderate’ about the suffering that will result from the supposed ‘middle ground’ between the status quo and a single-payer system. California officials have recently fined L.A. Care, America’s largest publicly operated health-insurance program, $55 million for letting poor Angelenos suffer and die as they waited months to see ...
Commentary

Sally Pipes Quoted in Ken Artz’s Column in April’s “Health Care News”: “Single-Payer Health Care Stalls in California”

By Ken Artz A bill to establish a state-run, single-payer health care system in California was stopped without a vote in the state Assembly after supporters realized they didn’t have enough votes to pass it. A.B.1400 would have begun a state takeover of private insurance, Medicare, and Medi-Cal at a ...
Commentary

Facts, Economic Reason No Match for Left’s Drug Pricing Fixation

Last week, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee held a hearing, “Prescription Drug Price Inflation: An Urgent Need to Lower Drug Prices in Medicare.” It’s rare to see so many falsehoods in so few words. The idea that drug-price inflation is especially bad or that it poses some sort of threat to ...
Blog

Why A Public Option Would Not Be Successful

Editor’s Note:  Last week, PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy Sally C. Pipes participated in a debate on the public option at the annual conference of the National Council of Insurance Legislators conference in Las Vegas.    Nevada Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton moderated the debate.  ...
Commentary

Put Patients in Charge to Keep Healthcare Spending in Check

New research suggests health insurers could take some negotiating tips from people who pay for health care out of pocket. According to an analysis from HealthCareInsider, hospital costs for patients with insurance are higher than for those who self-pay. That flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Insurers are in the business ...
Blog

The True Cost of Restrictive Healthcare Licensing Laws: Mother’s Lives

Becoming a mother in the United States is risky. Among developed nations, the US has the highest rate of maternal mortality, carrying double the risk than that of France, and 10 times the risk than that of Norway. Our maternal mortality rates are even increasing. Recently released data from the ...
Commentary

High Healthcare Spending Doesn’t Bolster Case for Single-Payer

Does the United States spend too much on healthcare? A look at the lower levels of healthcare spending in peer countries like Canada and the United Kingdom would seem to indicate as much. But a closer look at those numbers reveals a far more complex story. Take the matter of ...
Commentary

Plan to Expand Medi-Cal is a Costly Step Towards Single-Payer

It’s budget season in Sacramento. Governor Gavin Newsom’s spending proposal is the largest in the Golden State’s history. There’s no shortage of expensive and misguided policies in his budget. Chief among them is his push to expand Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, to cover all undocumented immigrants. Doing so would ...
Commentary

It’s time for hospitals to be transparent about their prices

More than a year after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services enacted a rule requiring hospitals to disclose prices for routine procedures, most still aren’t complying. That’s according to a new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. As of last month, CMS had issued 335 warnings ...
Commentary

Drug discount program padding hospital profits

Improving vulnerable populations’ access to medicines is clearly important. But something is amiss when a program that is supposed to improve access to healthcare has turned into a cash cow for hospitals. Yet, that is what has happened to the obscure 340B drug discount program. Too many hospitals across Massachusetts ...
Commentary

A Public Option Is Still the Wrong Way to Reform Health Care

There’s nothing ‘moderate’ about the suffering that will result from the supposed ‘middle ground’ between the status quo and a single-payer system. California officials have recently fined L.A. Care, America’s largest publicly operated health-insurance program, $55 million for letting poor Angelenos suffer and die as they waited months to see ...
Commentary

Sally Pipes Quoted in Ken Artz’s Column in April’s “Health Care News”: “Single-Payer Health Care Stalls in California”

By Ken Artz A bill to establish a state-run, single-payer health care system in California was stopped without a vote in the state Assembly after supporters realized they didn’t have enough votes to pass it. A.B.1400 would have begun a state takeover of private insurance, Medicare, and Medi-Cal at a ...
Commentary

Facts, Economic Reason No Match for Left’s Drug Pricing Fixation

Last week, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee held a hearing, “Prescription Drug Price Inflation: An Urgent Need to Lower Drug Prices in Medicare.” It’s rare to see so many falsehoods in so few words. The idea that drug-price inflation is especially bad or that it poses some sort of threat to ...
Blog

Why A Public Option Would Not Be Successful

Editor’s Note:  Last week, PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy Sally C. Pipes participated in a debate on the public option at the annual conference of the National Council of Insurance Legislators conference in Las Vegas.    Nevada Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton moderated the debate.  ...
Commentary

Put Patients in Charge to Keep Healthcare Spending in Check

New research suggests health insurers could take some negotiating tips from people who pay for health care out of pocket. According to an analysis from HealthCareInsider, hospital costs for patients with insurance are higher than for those who self-pay. That flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Insurers are in the business ...
Blog

The True Cost of Restrictive Healthcare Licensing Laws: Mother’s Lives

Becoming a mother in the United States is risky. Among developed nations, the US has the highest rate of maternal mortality, carrying double the risk than that of France, and 10 times the risk than that of Norway. Our maternal mortality rates are even increasing. Recently released data from the ...
Commentary

High Healthcare Spending Doesn’t Bolster Case for Single-Payer

Does the United States spend too much on healthcare? A look at the lower levels of healthcare spending in peer countries like Canada and the United Kingdom would seem to indicate as much. But a closer look at those numbers reveals a far more complex story. Take the matter of ...
Commentary

Plan to Expand Medi-Cal is a Costly Step Towards Single-Payer

It’s budget season in Sacramento. Governor Gavin Newsom’s spending proposal is the largest in the Golden State’s history. There’s no shortage of expensive and misguided policies in his budget. Chief among them is his push to expand Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, to cover all undocumented immigrants. Doing so would ...
Commentary

It’s time for hospitals to be transparent about their prices

More than a year after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services enacted a rule requiring hospitals to disclose prices for routine procedures, most still aren’t complying. That’s according to a new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. As of last month, CMS had issued 335 warnings ...
Commentary

Drug discount program padding hospital profits

Improving vulnerable populations’ access to medicines is clearly important. But something is amiss when a program that is supposed to improve access to healthcare has turned into a cash cow for hospitals. Yet, that is what has happened to the obscure 340B drug discount program. Too many hospitals across Massachusetts ...
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