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The Tyranny of Electronic Systems
Some eight years ago the media was excited that Hillary Clinton and Newt Gingrich had formed an alliance about reforming health care. In 2005 Dana Milbank wrote in the Washington Post about a joint...
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The Biggest Failure of Obamacare: Increasing the Number of Uninsured
Some people have been surprised by the failure of the Obamacare web site and more broadly of the federal exchanges generally. But those of us who have followed this legislation closely weren’t...
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Van Hollen Was Right — Sorta
I got a fair amount of push-back from Chris Van Hollen’s office over my post that called him a liar for saying that only 5% of employers were affected by Obama’s delay in the employer mandate. To their...
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The Biggest Failure of Obamacare: Increasing the Number of Uninsured
Some people have been surprised by the failure of the Obamacare web site and more broadly of the federal exchanges generally. But those of us who have followed this legislation closely weren’t...
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Schizophrenia about High Deductibles
You may remember that when Health Savings Accounts were introduced there was almost universal outrage among liberals about the horrendous burden cost-sharing places on all but “the healthy and...
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Schizophrenia About High Deductibles
You may remember that when Health Savings Accounts were introduced there was almost universal outrage among liberals about the horrendous burden cost-sharing places on all but “the healthy and...
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Health Savings Accounts: Ten Years On
On a wintery Monday night in Washington about 70 people gathered at a banquet to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the signing of Health Savings Accounts into law. Fittingly, the dinner, organized by...
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Will Insurers Ever Say Enough’s Enough To Obamacare?
I’ve been working professionally in health policy since 1979 when I was hired to write the consumer contracts and other communications in plain English for the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan in Maine. I...
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The Next Wave of Obamacare Cancellations
Employers are already starting to get the same cancellation letters that went to millions of people in the individual market late last year. The Washington Post reports that the big surge should take...
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What The Washington Post’s Factchecker Gets Wrong About Obamacare
If you set yourself up as the arbiter of all that is factual in the nation, you’d better keep your own facts straight. The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler is just such an arbiter, tossing out...
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The Buck Stops – Where?
Writing in the National Journal, Sam Baker tries his darnedest to minimize some of the effects of Obamacare. He notes that some people are concerned about the limited networks offered by some of the...
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Why Bundled Payments Aren’t Working
The New England Journal of Medicine recently ran an article by Clay Ackerly, MD, and David Grabowski, PhD, calling for “Post-Acute Care Reform.” They use a (presumably) fictional patient to illustrate...
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In Defense of the Uninsured
The entire premise of the trillions of dollars being spent on Obamacare is that it is essential that every single person have health insurance coverage at all times under all circumstances. Health...
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Ezra Klein’s Misleading Explainer on the Individual Mandate
Ezra Klein recently released a 2-minute clip explaining the need for individual mandates under Obamacare. Man, does that guy talk fast! Mr. Klein gets most of his explanation about right, with one big...
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Mandates Never Work: The Case of Auto Insurance
Some readers of my recent piece on Ezra Klein’s misleading explanation of the “individual mandates” were surprised that, despite being mandated, 14 percent of drivers are uninsured. This really should...
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Zeke Goes Off the Rails
Ezekiel Emanuel, Rahm’s brother and one of the key ObamaCare advisors, has been on quite a roll lately. Consider some of the headlines just from the past few weeks or so – “Insurance Companies as We...
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Can Anyone Tell How Obamacare is Doing?
I don’t agree with the New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn very often, but in a recent article he said, “everybody should be cautious about making firm pronouncements about how the Affordable Care Act is...
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Health Care Is So Expensive Because You Don’t Pay For It Yourself
Almost everyone involved in health care will tell you that the greatest problem in our system is that we pay on a fee-for-service basis. Almost everyone is wrong. The logic is obvious: paying a fee for...
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