Medicare
Commentary
More on the Insanity of the Medicare Payment System
The first example is a Bulgarian woman living in Greece, who is about to deliver a baby from an anonymous European egg donor, whose father is Italian. The mother who raises the baby will be the Italian man’s infertile Italian wife. The man who brought it all together is a ...
Commentary
Reflections on the Insanity of the Medicare Payment System
Suppose that in 1965, the federal government observed that great advances were taking place in aircraft design and manufacturing. In order to ensure that Americans were able to take advantage of this, the government legislated “Aircare.” Flash forward to 2010: “Aircare” pays for our ariplane tickets. It pays the airlines ...
Commentary
Medicare Limits Access to Care, As Will Obamacare
It is becoming increasingly clear to laymen that Medicare beneficiaries do not have the same access to care as the privately insured (or those in Medicare Advantage plans). The political challenge is obvious: It’s not possible that America’s seniors will tolerate politicians who allow this to happen. So, the political ...
Government Spending
Medicare needs systemic remedies
President Barack Obama signed a bill to “fix” payments to doctors by Medicare — until November. Although costing taxpayers $6.5 billion, this short-term patch will just have to be “fixed” again right after the next election. Throwing more money at a broken Medicare reimbursement schedule is what passes for bipartisan ...
Commentary
‘Extending the Life of Medicare’? Good Luck with That
White House adviser David Axelrod told ABC News that the president wants to focus on “extending the life of Medicare” through cutting payments to providers. Good luck with that. As I’ve written before in NRO’s Critical Condition, and described in excruciating detail in a recently published study, elderly Americans are ...
Commentary
More Medicare Patients Dropped
The first two we’ve known about for some time. However, “unfunded liabilities” are not an issue folks discuss at the kitchen-table. The cost shift, which is actually a hidden tax that the government levies on the privately insured, is opaque enough that ordinary citizens are unable to discover it. The ...
Commentary
Medicare for All or Medicare for None?
The primary cause of the Mayo Clinic’s dropping Medicare is its fees, which are too low for physicians to pay the rent. Some have argued that the physicians have been “crying wolf” on this for years. Well, the wolf is at the door, as I wrote in a recent study ...
Commentary
Health Care Legislation Turns Medicare Into Slush Fund
President Obama has repeatedly pledged never to sign any proposal that would add one dime to the federal deficit, yet he and Congress are finding it impossible to cover millions of uninsured Americans without increasing deficit spending or taking the money from the current Medicare system. Finding money to achieve ...
Commentary
Cutting Medicare Advantage hurts seniors
President Barack Obama has promised time and again that his health reforms won’t force Americans to change insurance plans if they like what they already have. He’s willing to break that promise. A key provision of the Democrats’ reform plan would cut benefits in the Medicare Advantage program by as ...
Commentary
Reduced Medicare Benefits Will Increase Cost of Private Insurance
However, the government will undoubtedly be successful in driving private insurers out of the Medicare Advantage program, threatening about 11 million seniors’ access to this valuable alternative. The key difference between Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare is that the latter operates according to a Soviet-style, centrally determined schedule of fees, ...
More on the Insanity of the Medicare Payment System
The first example is a Bulgarian woman living in Greece, who is about to deliver a baby from an anonymous European egg donor, whose father is Italian. The mother who raises the baby will be the Italian man’s infertile Italian wife. The man who brought it all together is a ...
Reflections on the Insanity of the Medicare Payment System
Suppose that in 1965, the federal government observed that great advances were taking place in aircraft design and manufacturing. In order to ensure that Americans were able to take advantage of this, the government legislated “Aircare.” Flash forward to 2010: “Aircare” pays for our ariplane tickets. It pays the airlines ...
Medicare Limits Access to Care, As Will Obamacare
It is becoming increasingly clear to laymen that Medicare beneficiaries do not have the same access to care as the privately insured (or those in Medicare Advantage plans). The political challenge is obvious: It’s not possible that America’s seniors will tolerate politicians who allow this to happen. So, the political ...
Medicare needs systemic remedies
President Barack Obama signed a bill to “fix” payments to doctors by Medicare — until November. Although costing taxpayers $6.5 billion, this short-term patch will just have to be “fixed” again right after the next election. Throwing more money at a broken Medicare reimbursement schedule is what passes for bipartisan ...
‘Extending the Life of Medicare’? Good Luck with That
White House adviser David Axelrod told ABC News that the president wants to focus on “extending the life of Medicare” through cutting payments to providers. Good luck with that. As I’ve written before in NRO’s Critical Condition, and described in excruciating detail in a recently published study, elderly Americans are ...
More Medicare Patients Dropped
The first two we’ve known about for some time. However, “unfunded liabilities” are not an issue folks discuss at the kitchen-table. The cost shift, which is actually a hidden tax that the government levies on the privately insured, is opaque enough that ordinary citizens are unable to discover it. The ...
Medicare for All or Medicare for None?
The primary cause of the Mayo Clinic’s dropping Medicare is its fees, which are too low for physicians to pay the rent. Some have argued that the physicians have been “crying wolf” on this for years. Well, the wolf is at the door, as I wrote in a recent study ...
Health Care Legislation Turns Medicare Into Slush Fund
President Obama has repeatedly pledged never to sign any proposal that would add one dime to the federal deficit, yet he and Congress are finding it impossible to cover millions of uninsured Americans without increasing deficit spending or taking the money from the current Medicare system. Finding money to achieve ...
Cutting Medicare Advantage hurts seniors
President Barack Obama has promised time and again that his health reforms won’t force Americans to change insurance plans if they like what they already have. He’s willing to break that promise. A key provision of the Democrats’ reform plan would cut benefits in the Medicare Advantage program by as ...
Reduced Medicare Benefits Will Increase Cost of Private Insurance
However, the government will undoubtedly be successful in driving private insurers out of the Medicare Advantage program, threatening about 11 million seniors’ access to this valuable alternative. The key difference between Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare is that the latter operates according to a Soviet-style, centrally determined schedule of fees, ...
