Fix Health Care Policy

Two Cheers for the Coburn–Lieberman Medicare Proposal

Senators Tom Coburn (R–OK) and Joseph Lieberman (I–CT) unveiled a major Medicare proposal. Based on preliminary estimates provided by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the proposal would reduce total Medicare spending by more than $600 billion in the next 10 years and cut the program’s long-term (75-year) unfunded liability by approximately $10 trillion.

This is a serious start. Without remedial action, Medicare faces a long-term unfunded liability of almost $37 trillion. The Medicare hospitalization trust fund is running a deficit of $34.1 billion this year alone. While the program has become an engine of deficits and debt, the first step toward reform is revamping the traditional Medicare program. That is what the Coburn–Lieberman proposal would accomplish. The next step would be to move the program from a defined benefit to a defined contribution for the coming generation of retirees.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: deficit, entitlement reform, Medicare reform, Sen. Joe Lieberman, Sen. Tom Coburn

VIDEO: Sen. Orrin Hatch Outlines Comprehensive Plan to Reform Medicaid

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, outlined a comprehensive plan for reforming Medicaid yesterday at Heritage. Medicaid is a program for low-income Americans, one of the big three entitlements.

Hatch’s vision corresponds with the wishes of more than two dozen Republican governors, who wrote him this week to express their desire for greater flexibility with Medicaid. Democrats, including 41 of Hatch’s Senate colleagues, have publicly voiced their opposition to any meaningful reforms to the program offered by Republicans.

Before his Heritage speech, Hatch sat down to talk about why reform is needed, how he would do it and why it matters in the context of the debt crisis facing America. Hatch also used the opportunity to attack Obamacare, legislation that made the Medicaid problem even more challenging.

Tags: entitlement reform, Medicaid, Medicare, Republican Governors, Sen. Orrin Hatch

Obamacare Is Not Entitlement Reform

The United States faces financial collapse due to out-of-control government spending, and entitlement programs have a lot to do with it. Washington has promised more than it could ever possibly deliver.

Medicare in particular puts the government on the hook for $38 trillion in long-term unfunded liabilities, and reform to address this is sorely needed. Change must address not only spending but also the system by which the program operates, which currently encourages inefficient use of health services. This trend has penetrated the health care system at large.

According to the Obama Administration, the health care overhaul passed in March addressed the need for entitlement reform. However, at a recent event hosted by the Galen Institute, expert James Capretta introduced his research that shows that this is not the case. (more…)

Tags: bend cost curve, entitlement reform, financial collapse, Medicare, unfunded liabilities

Federal Bailouts of Medicaid Encourage the Unsustainable Status Quo

In the past few months, the Senate has made several attempts to extend the Medicaid bailout included in the stimulus package. States share the cost of Medicaid with the federal government, and because of the influx of new beneficiaries due to increased job loss, the federal government increased the portion of the cost that it would cover.

This was bad policy. Congress should avoid another bailout that would treat low-income Americans inequitably from state to state and further delay reforms to increase the fiscal sustainability of Medicaid.

Recent analysis by Heritage’s Brian Blase shows that when Washington increases Medicaid matching rates, aid is unfairly distributed. Richer states with more lavish Medicaid programs receive more assistance.

According to Blase’s analysis, of Americans living in poverty, 6.6 percent live in New York, yet New York received 15 percent of bailout money in the first stimulus. Conversely, Georgia is home to 3.6 percent of Americans living in poverty but received only 2 percent of federal assistance. (more…)

Tags: entitlement reform, Medicaid, stimulus, unemployment

Lessons from Canada: Stay Away from Nationalized Medicine

The United States isn’t the only country in North America grappling with the fiscal problems caused by an aging population and mounting federal deficits—Canada faces a similar fate. The difference is that, while the United States just passed a $1 trillion-plus government overhaul of health care, incorrectly justified by claims that it will reduce health care spending, Canada’s provinces are trying to figure out how to pay for their nationalized health care system, a major source of out-of-control growth in government spending.

Reuters reports that each province is scavenging for its own fix. In Ontario, the solution will be severe price controls for generic drugs. British Columbia is looking at a fee-for-service payment system. And Quebec implemented a new flat health tax.

This will just be the beginning of tightened belt straps for Canadians’. According to Derek Burleton, a senior economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank, “We can’t continually see health spending growing above and beyond the growth rate in the economy because, at some point, it means crowding out of all the other government services…At some stage we’re going to hit a breaking point.” (more…)

Tags: Canada, entitlement reform, government spending, Medicaid, Medicare, nationalized medicine

The President’s Bipartisan Outreach: Doesn’t Meet the Laugh Test

The President has spent the past week trying to convince the American people that he was in search of a bipartisan health care reform. But as yesterday’s speech revealed, the President is not serious about building support for a product that Americans can feel good about.

If the President were serious about building bipartisanship, he would scrap the existing proposals and start fresh with the items that both sides can agree to – like letting states take the lead on health reform; tackling that tax treatment of health insurance; getting serious about entitlement reform; and putting in place sensible insurance market reform. Instead the President is trying to cast his proposal as bipartisan by indicating he is open to adding so-called conservative ideas. (more…)

Tags: bipartisan outreach, changing tax treatment, entitlement reform, insurance market reform, President's proposal, state-based health reform

Morning Bell: Conservatives Deserve a Voice Toward Real Health Reform

Tuesday’s election in Massachusetts sent shockwaves across Capitol Hill as voters rejected the idea that the only true course for health reform was to raise taxes, raise spending, raise premiums and put the federal government in charge of yet another unpaid-for entitlement crisis. Campaigning as the 41st vote against Obamacare and the fiscally-irresponsible policies of the Obama administration, Senator-elect Scott Brown (R-MA) seized on the frustration Americans feel toward the direction Washington is heading. But saying ‘no’ to Obamacare is only a first step. It’s also critical that conservatives continue to offer alternative solutions to the health care and entitlement problems that our nation faces.

Make no mistake; conservatives have been offering solutions to our health care problems throughout 2009. You wouldn’t think so if you listened to liberal leaders in Congress who continue to label Republicans as the “party of no” and accuse them of offering no alternatives. As Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) incorrectly stated: “The minority has offered no alternatives, just apocalyptic rhetoric.” Just because liberals like Senator Levin choose to ignore conservative solutions does not confirm they don’t exist. (more…)

Tags: entitlement reform, ObamaCare, state-based reform, tax equity