Archive for the ‘Medicaid/Medicare/SCHIP’ Category

CNN: Doctors opt out of Medicare

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Should we expect more of this if politicians expand government-run health programs? From CNN: When you think of low-paying jobs, doctor doesn't usually come to mind.But with a 21% cut in Medicare payments slated to take effect later this month, physicians who say they are making an OK living ...

How much is Medicare costing taxpayers?

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Keith Hennessey reviews the disagreement between Paul Krugman (on one side) and Rep. Paul Ryan, New Gingrich, and John Goodman (on the other) about how to change Medicare so it does not bankrupt the country.  How much is Medicare spending? Consider what Hennessey points out: The policy reality is that if ...

Liberty vs. Newt’s “Top 10 GOP” health care ideas

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Last week the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Newt Gingrich and John Goodman titled "Ten GOP Health Ideas for Obama."  John Goodman is a great resource on health care policy, and I read his blog regularly. But this article is one example of how Republicans (given the article's ...

Obama Care: prohibit buying what you want, mandate what you don’t want

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Dr. Paul Hsieh points out some scary aspects of the House health bill (HR 3962) and the Senate health bill (HR 3590): Under ObamaCare, patients will be forced to pay for certain kinds of medical care whether they want it or not — thus raising their health care costs. And patients ...

Medicare “buy in”: more deficits, higher premiums, & step toward single-payer

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

A Wall Street Journal editorial summarizes: [Harry Reid] is claiming that a Medicare "buy-in" for people from ages 55 to 64 has overcome the liberal-moderate impasse over the "public option." But if anything, this gambit is an even faster road to government-run health care. ... Mr. Reid's buy-in simply cuts out the ...

One more victim of Medicaid and employer-based insurance

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

John R. Graham of the Pacific Research Institute offers a great critique of Nicholas D. Kristof's recent New York Times column.  Kristof relates a distressing story about a John Brodniak, who lost his job due to illness, exhausted his COBRA benefits, and ended up on Medicaid.   Yet, Kristof reaches an ...

Government health care cost overruns

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

Harry Reid's Senate health bill up for a procedural vote on Saturday, which could allow it to move forward to debate. (Yet Republicans are pushing to read the whole thing, which could take 34 hours!) In any case, be wary of how this bill will cut the deficit: remember how ...

Medicare: unfair, inefficient, fraudulant, costly

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons describes key problems with Medicare.  But of course any kind of "Medicare for All," or Medicare Part E (E for everyone, get it?!) will have these problems. Of course not. It is structured as a Ponzi scheme. Its low administrative costs are a mirage. It is ...

Feds bail out Massachusetts, but who bails out feds?

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Writes Grace-Marie Turner in the Wall Street Journal: Massachusetts is a problematic model on which to base federal health-care reform because the state relies heavily on Medicaid. Washington in 2008 agreed to provide the state with $10.6 billion over three years as part of its Medicaid waiver request, which allows the ...

Medicare & Medicaid fraud far exceeds insurance company profits

Friday, October 30th, 2009

A wonderful post by John Goodman: Competition from a “Public Plan”: What to Expect 60 Minutes: Medicare fraud is $60 billion a year YouTube versions w/o commercials: Part 1, Part 2. GAO: Medicaid fraud was $33 billion in 2007 alone [page 32] Fortune Magazine: The top 14 insurers earned $8.6 billion last year These figures per ...