Author: David Hogberg
Another Reason to Oppose the Medicare Doc Fix Bill
I’m trying really hard to support the “Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act” (MACR). Yesterday, I pointed out that it included a new Medicare payment system called the Medicare Incentive-Based Payment System (MIPS) that will incentivize physicians to avoid the ...
Medicare Doc Fix Bill Is IPAB-Lite
When the Senate returns from recess this week, it will consider the "Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act" (MACR). The bill has acquired many names, such as "The Doc Fix Fix" and "Budget Buster," but a more appropriate one is ...
Good News for Rare Diseases: Big Profits
For people who had a rare disease, defined as an ailment that strikes less than 200,000 Americans, there was often little hope, at least when it came to pharmaceuticals. Drug companies didn’t see much profit in sinking resources into developing ...
SGR Repeal Bill Will Harm Medicare Patients
The word "bipartisan" is considered by many inside the Beltway to be one of the highest honors that can be bestowed on a piece of legislation. That's unfortunate because, too often, bipartisanship means Republicans and Democrats are supporting a bill ...
Repealing the SGR Without Adding (Too Much) to the Deficit
Today the House passed the “Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015” which will repeal the dreaded Sustainable Growth Rate. Unfortunately, the bill is not without its problems, not the least of which is it will cost $141 billion ...
#StarbucksCoffeeIsMorallySuperior
I walked to the corner coffee shop this morning (not Starbucks) and ordered a mocha. I then asked the clerk if she could write #RaceTogether on it. She replied that she didn’t know what I was talking about. I smiled ...
ObamaCare At Five: Lipstick on a Pig
The Los Angeles Times editorialists today acknowledged some unpleasant reality about ObamaCare: “…surveys show little love for [ObamaCare]— a view that hasn’t shifted much over time.” But the Times can’t acknowledge that the law is unpopular without prefacing it with a distortion: ...
Health Care Odds & Ends: Government Incompetence Edition
1. Fixing The Doc Fix Is Tricky. Congress is finally getting around to eliminating Medicare’s Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), something it should have done a long time ago. The SGR is a system for cutting Medicare’s physician fees that has proven ...
Conservative and Libertarian Alternatives to ObamaCare
I was on the “Up Front” radio program on KTLF out of Minnesota this morning, and as I promised, here is a link to the spreadsheet showing all the health care reform plans offered by the political right. At issue ...
Many Changed Their ObamaCare Plans Because It Was Too Expensive Not To
According to the headline over at National Journal, “Obamacare Enrollees Are Surprisingly Smart Shoppers”. What makes them so smart? Well, about 1.2 million exchange enrollees “ended up switching plans.” Or perhaps they just aren’t inordinately stupid. After all, if keeping ...
