FixHealthCarePolicy

The Public Option Threat Still Buried in the Senate Bill

Most Americans now believe that major health care legislation will not pass this year. But as Heritage Vice President Stuart Butler explains in The New England Journal Medicine one seemingly minor proposal in the Senate health care bill could end up having huge repercussions for our entire health care system:

“The Senate legislation contains strong directives to the OPM, requiring it to negotiate medical-loss ratios (the percentage of premiums that insurers actually spend on medical care for enrollees), minimum benefits, profit margins, premiums, and “such other terms and conditions of coverage as are in the interests of enrollees in such plans.” Crucially, the legislation also specifies that the OPM-administered plans would automatically be deemed to meet all the requirements for plans to be offered through the health exchanges created by the legislation.1 This means that OPM-administered plans could in practice operate free of many of the financial regulations that exchanges might impose on other plans, allowing the plans to operate under their own OPM-designed regulations.” (more…)

Tags: New England Journal of Medicine, OPM, public option, Senate Bill, Stuart Butler

Big Tort Means Big Problems for US Health Care

America is the land of litigation. A tort lawyer’s paradise. In America, you can sue anyone for just about anything. This has affected the cost of America’s health care, and has demoralized the medical profession. In fact, abusive tort litigation has added billions of dollars to health care costs, both directly, through settlements and high malpractice insurance rates, and indirectly, through the practice of “defensive medicine” to avoid litigation. For health care reform to be successful in bending the cost curve and improving quality of care, policymakers, particularly at the state level, cannot ignore medical liability reform.

Despite this, throughout the health care debate, medical liability reform has been glaringly omitted. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) recently spoke at the Heritage Foundation about the positive impact that reform could have on the health care system. Sen. Cornyn acknowledged that basic medical liability laws are necessary to protect patients against negligence and medical errors. However, the current legal environment—one without consistent state-wide oversight on punitive and non-economic damages—has fostered excessive litigation. In fact, The New England Journal of Medicine estimates that 40 percent of medical liability lawsuits are brought without merit. Excessive litigation encourages the practice of defensive medicine—ordering unnecessary tests, procedures, and referrals for the sole purpose of protecting the doctor against malpractice claims. A recent report found that 93 percent of physicians admit to practicing defensive medicine. Several studies show that this raises the cost of health care by approximately $200 billion annually. (more…)

Tags: medical malpractice, ObamaCare, plaintiffs bar, tort reform

Fighting the Nuclear Option

With the victory of Senator-elect Scott Brown (R-MA), Democrats are turning to a secret “Nuclear Option” to push ObamaCare through the Senate and avoid a Republican filibuster. Now it appears, though, that Republicans have a procedural tactic of their own to fight back.

The Hill reports today that “Republicans say they have found a loophole in the budget reconciliation process that could allow them to offer an indefinite number of amendments. Though it has never been done, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) says he’s prepared to test the Senate’s stamina to block the Democrats from using the process to expedite changes to the healthcare bill. Experts on Senate procedural rules, from both parties, note that such a filibuster is possible.” A close reading of the rules allows for unlimited numbers of amendments to a reconciliation package after debate is complete.

(more…)

Tags: budget reconciliation, nuclear option, ObamaCare, Sen. Jim DeMint, Sen. Scott Brown

Another Taxpayer-Funded Medicaid Bailout

As President Obama’s recently-released budget for 2011 reveals, with or without a health care reform bill, Medicaid stands to receive a big, taxpayer-funded bailout. Again. The 2011 Budget includes $25 billion in additional funding for state Medicaid programs as an extension of the bailout that was included in the 2009 economic stimulus bill.

As Heritage analysts Dennis Smith and Nina Owcharenko argued then, depending on federal bailouts to carry Medicaid through economic hardships is bad policy.

The stimulus bill provided increased federal matching rates for Medicaid programs in all fifty states. This splurge in spending was accompanied by no caveats or strings attached to require true Medicaid reform, which is sorely needed. Instead, the federal government succeeded only in propping up the failed policies behind the broken government program, encouraging continued sluggishness in actual improvements to the system. (more…)

Tags: 2011 budget, Medicaid, state fiscal irresponsibility, stimulus bill, taxpayer bailout

The States Fight Back: Virginia Rejects Obamacare’s Individual Mandates

Yesterday the U.S. Constitution and federalism won a key battle. The Virginia Senate, which has a Democrat Majority, passed a bill prohibiting a requirement for Virginians to purchase health-care insurance. Five Democrats from swing districts joined all of the Senate Republicans in voting in favor of the measure. And with a Republican State House and Governor, this bill is expected to make it into law.

Some would argue that the legislative implications are negligible as the federal government, if it wants, can override state law and that an individual mandate could be authored in such a way to not run afoul of this Virginian measure. However, the practical implications of this effort are widespread. What are these?

The Constitution is Back in Vogue. Many of the elite politicians and media insiders ridicule anybody who questions health care federalism and the Constitution. The liberal leaders in Congress could not believe that the American people would value our nation’s Founding principles over their precious health care reforms. However, the fact of the matter is that these are serious issues that deserve deep thought and discussion. (more…)

Tags: individual mandates, ObamaCare, U.S. Constitution, Virginia

Welcome and Get Well Soon!

The United States health care system is not nearly as free market and consumer driven as it should be. And while government continues to slowly takeover our health care system, and Obamacare would fast-forward that development, the U.S. system is still more free than the Canadian “single-payer” system. And how is government run health care working for Canada? This past summer the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority considered cutting more than 6,000 surgeries to make up for a $200 million budget shortfall. British Columbia Medical Association president Dr. Brian Brodie called the proposed surgical cuts “a nightmare.” Access problems are not new to Canadian’s single payer system. Since 2003, Timely Medical Alternatives Inc. has helped Canadians “leave the queue” and get timely health care in the United States. Now The Globe and Mail reports: (more…)

Tags: Canada, consumer-driven, free market, single-payer system

VIDEO: You Asked for Health Care Ideas, Mr. President. Here Are Three.

President Barack Obama asked Congress not to “walk away” from health care reform in his State of the Union address and to send him ideas for improving health care.

Heritage’s Bob Moffit, director of the Center for Health Policy Studies, says there’s a problem with the Congressional health care plan the President would like to sign – the American people don’t want it. Moffit also has three specific ideas for health care reform that Congress should consider.

Watch the video below, then join the debate in our comments forum:

Tags: Bob Moffit, President Barack Obama, State of the Union address