FixHealthCarePolicy

Exclusive Video: Gov. Mitch Daniels on Obamacare’s Devastating Consequences

Editor’s Note: On the right, please watch our exclusive interview with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, and then below, please read an original guest blog to The Foundry from the Governor himself.

We’ve been through a global recession. Now we’re fighting through a stalled recovery. Revenues are the lowest they’ve been in half a century. Their finances a wreck, many states have effectively sunk into bankruptcy.

Indiana is still afloat. In fact, we’ve fared better than most. We continue to meet our obligations without raising taxes, and the reserves we carefully built and protected will get us through the downturn.

But as if we did not already have enough on our plates, the passage and implementation of Obamacare presents us with a whole new set of challenges and a costly to-do list.

(more…)

Tags: consumer-driven health care, Gov. Mitch Daniels, health savings accounts, Healthy Indiana Plan, Medicaid, ObamaCare

Another Public Option? How Many Do We Need?

The public option has reared its head once again. Last week, H.R. 5808 was introduced in the House Ways and Means Committee to add a public option to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

The plan would be administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Payment rates for providers would be set at Medicare rates plus 5 percent and would grow according to increasing physicians’ costs. The plan would be required to maintain solvency, so premiums would have to cover benefits offered and administrative costs.

Momentarily setting aside the major drawbacks of a public plan, this legislation isn’t necessary—the PPACA already lays the groundwork for a robust public option. The new law will allow the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which currently oversees federal employees’ health benefits, to administer plans in the exchanges. These plans would be offered by private insurers but run by unelected government officials. (more…)

Tags: limited choice, Medicaid, Medicare, Office of Personnel Management, public option

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

Side Effects: Obamacare’s Exploding Medicaid Costs

The states are in Big Trouble. While Americans are fearful of record federal deficits, the states also are facing increased costs. Most of the exponential growth comes from increased Medicaid costs, and the taxpayers in the states are going to pay for it.

A new Deloitte study gives predictions that by 2030 Medicaid costs could rise to somewhere between 35% and 50% of states budgets. The study referred to these exploding costs as a “ticking time bomb” that “has the potential to debilitate government effectiveness.” State budgets will be stretched by rapidly growing costs for long-term care, an aging population, and government mandates for increased access to health care. (more…)

Tags: aging population, government mandates, long-term care, Medicaid, ObamaCare, Side Effects, ticking time bomb

Side Effects: Obamacare Shifts Costs to the Privately Insured

President Obama promised to address the growing costs in health care with passage of his “reform” bill. But instead of reducing costs, Obamacare will succeed only at shifting the burden to taxpayers and the privately insured. Americans with private health insurance will indirectly subsidize care received by those reliant on Medicare and Medicaid. It is for this reason that for many Americans, Obamacare will actually cause medical costs to rise. Some reform, right.

A recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that the rate of growth in medical costs will slow to 9.0% in 2011, down from 9.5% in 2010. However, this good news is tempered by the complexity of the responsible factors, a combination of inflators and deflators. Medical costs will decrease as consumers of health care make more responsible decisions, due to greater use of consumer-driven health plans, as generic drugs gain more market share, and as government subsidies for COBRA, enacted as part of the stimulus, expire. (more…)

Tags: COBRA, consumer-driven health plans, health care costs, Medicaid, Medicare, ObamaCare, Side Effects

Bringing Leviathan to Life: Experts Look at ObamaCare Implementation

A June Health Affairs briefing on the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) showed just how deep the chasm is between many of Washington’s policy experts and ordinary Americans. At the briefing, panelists discussed the potential impact and implementation of the ObamaCare amidst the public’s uncertainty over the law’s provisions and unintended, consequences.

The panelists discussed three main issues: If the reform law would bend the cost curve down; the states’ role in reforming insurance markets; and the state impact of expanding Medicaid.

Harvard Professor David Cutler said the law could lower costs because there is so much waste in the health system. He focused on the potential for the general improvement of information technology. Following Cutler, Michael Ramlet spoke about his paper with Douglas Holtz-Eakin. They estimated that the new law will cost the government far more than projected, and that it would not, as promised, end up reducing health costs for the American worker. (more…)

Tags: deficit, federal takeover, HHS, Medicaid, ObamaCare

Time to Stop the Medicaid Bailouts

This week Congress, in its consideration of HR 4213 (American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010) is going to tap into taxpayers wallets once again to bailout Medicaid, a government health program administered by the states for the poor and the indigent. Many governors are feverishly lobbying for a six-month extension of the Medicaid bailout to their states. The first bailout was enacted in the so-called Stimulus Bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of February 2009. But if the Medicaid bailout is continued, Congress will add another $25 billion to the national debt.

Propping up the Status Quo. Meanwhile, states won’t make necessary budget cuts, delaying their return to fiscal sanity. Congress will refuse to pay for this additional spending with budget cuts elsewhere because they will deem it an ‘emergency’, which under the Congressional “pay-as-you-go” rules exempts this bailout from being “paid for.” (more…)

Tags: bailout, enormous budget deficits, FMAP, Medicaid, pay-as-you-go, stimulus funds, tax extenders bill