Fix Health Care Policy

On Monday Politico ran a column by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) taking issue with my critique of his proposal to accelerate the granting of waivers under Obamacare. Unfortunately, he missed a central point I was making about limitations on the waivers that could be granted.

Apparently the senator was offended by this paragraph, from my New England Journal of Medicine piece on his bill:

Even more problematic to proponents of state flexibility on both the left and the right is that states would not be able to fold other health programs into their waiver request. Liberal skeptics at the Physicians for a National Health Program, for instance, point out that provisions of Medicare, Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Taft–Hartley plans, and other programs could not be waived, leaving large obstacles in the path of a potential single-payer system. And on the other hand, by leaving Medicaid intact, including the required expansion of the program under the ACA, Wyden–Brown does little to comfort conservatives who envision a privatized voucher approach. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: ObamaCare, Politico, state flexibility, Wyden-Brown bill

Last week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final cost projections for Obamacare, finding that, contrary to White House claims, the legislation will increase national health spending by $311 billion over the next decade and will cause 14 million Americans to lose their current employer-based health coverage. President Barack Obama unleashed his staff to attack Foster’s work. Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, and White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer downplayed and criticized Foster’s analysis on the White House website. As Heritage’s Rob Bluey reports this was not the first time the author of the report, Medicare and Medicaid chief actuary Rick Foster, had been attacked by a White House: (more…)

Tags: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS Chief Actuary Rick Foster, employer mandate, Individual Mandate, Medicare Advantage, ObamaCare, Politico, welfare spending