Fix Health Care Policy

Kaiser Study on Medicare Assumes Seniors Don’t Like Lower Prices

The Kaiser Family Foundation just released a study that grossly misrepresents the premium-support model of Medicare reform and apparently misunderstands normal market dynamics and the differences between efficiency, choice, and higher premiums.

The Kaiser study assumes that an entire class of Americans—senior citizens—is insensitive to price. In reality, seniors are price sensitive when they are presented with options. Already, 90 percent of retirees can and do choose the private health plans they like, ranging from supplemental insurance to Medicare Advantage and Medicare drug plans. Premium support encourages intense competition that will change premiums and hold down costs. The larger impact is that seniors would have a choice of the health options they want, while creating needed savings for themselves and the federal government.

Take a simple analogy: Assume that the price of a gallon of gasoline rose from $3 to $300. How much would this affect your driving habits? It is doubtful that you would still buy the same amount of gas every week. Yet that is the economic intuition embodied in the Kaiser study.

The authors of the Kaiser study assume that zero beneficiaries would switch from traditional Medicare to a cheaper plan, despite cost increases. Part of the gain from competition is that health plans must compete for beneficiaries in order to retain or gain market share. They have to secure high satisfaction, as they do today, for example, in Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage. To create a scenario that simply ignores the gains of market competition grossly misrepresents the economic impact of any consumer-driven market, including a health care market with premium support. The study’s headline is that 53 percent of enrollees in traditional Medicare would pay more, but within the study, when benificiaries respond to higher premiums, the number falls to as low as 33 percent.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: choice, efficiency, health plans, Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicare, premium support

Medicare Part D Proves That Competition Lowers Health Care Spending

Some policymakers have difficulty understanding competition’s role in health care. There is a historical reason: With a legacy of third-party micromanagement, something like Medicare Part D—a program where about 1,100 drug plans compete for enrollees—is remarkably foreign. Several analysts cite this program as a marked success for competition in health care. However, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation issue brief claimed that the effect of competition was overstated and unclear.

Interestingly, the arguments intended to downplay the role of competition actually provide evidence that Medicare Part D competition is working. Consider these examples.

(Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: competition, drug plans, issue brief, Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicare Part D

New Poll Shows Obamacare Less Popular by the Day

There’s more bad news for Obamacare. A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that 51 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, while only 34 percent see it favorably.

Kaiser reports that this is “a low point in Kaiser polls since the law was passed,” and that the reason for the law’s declining popularity is rooted in decreased Democrat support. (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: Kaiser Family Foundation, ObamaCare, poll, repeal the law, unpopular

Health Insurance Continues Unaffordable Trend After Obamacare

This week, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust released a major survey on employer-sponsored health benefits in the United States. Among the many important findings in the report, one fact stood out: Americans are paying more and more for their health insurance every year, a concerning trend that is only getting worse under Obamacare. The report explains that:

• The cost of insurance is increasingly unaffordable to American families. The cost of health insurance in the United States has grown significantly over the last decade. The Kaiser survey shows that the average annual premium for a family in 2011 is 31 percent higher than it was in 2006, and 113 percent higher than in 2001. This year marks the first year that the cost of family coverage will exceed $15,000, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Anna Wilde Matthews.

Small businesses especially struggle to offer health benefits to their employees because of cost. According to Kaiser, 55 percent of small firms surveyed that did not offer coverage cited the high cost of insurance as the primary reason.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: employer-sponsored insurance, health care costs, Kaiser Family Foundation, premiums, unaffordable

In Obamacare, the President’s Disregard for Consent of the Governed

Congress and the President have low approval ratings because Congress and the President continue to ignore the will of the American people. One reason for this disapproval is ObamaCare – the President’s signature health care “reform” law.

According to Real Clear Politics (RCP), the average approval rating for the President is 43.0% approval and 53.2% disapproval. RCP has Congressional job approval at a dismal 12.3% approval and 84.0% disapproval. These numbers indicate anger and rage toward federally elected politicians. (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: approval, disapproval, Kaiser Family Foundation, ObamaCare, Rasmussen Reports, Real Clear Politics, repeal the law

Health Care Voters Overwhelming Favor Repealing Obamacare

The Kaiser Family Foundation polled 1,502 adults ages 18 and older, including 1,017 adults who say they voted, in the days after last Tuesday’s election. KFF allowed respondents to name, in their own words, the biggest factors influencing their vote for Congress. The top response was economy/jobs (29%), followed by voting for or against a specific party (25%), and then voting for a specific candidate (21%). Health care came in fourth at 17%.

But among those voters who said health care was the top factor influencing their vote, repealing all or parts of Obama was extremely popular. A full 71% of health care voters either want to repeal Obamacare entirely (45%) or repeal parts of the law (26%). Only 11% of health care voters (and only 16% of all voters) want to leave the law as is. Obamacare is not very popular among the entire population either KFF reports: (more…)

Tags: Kaiser Family Foundation, ObamaCare, Public Opinion, repeal the bill, voters