Medicaid Rescissions Worse than Private Insurers

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

THe health control legislation [HR 3590] expands Medicaid eligibility.  John Goodman explains how Medicaid's denial of coverage are worse than private insurers: During the year leading up to the final passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the White House set up a special Web site and ...

Colorado Medicaid errors far exceed commercial insurers’

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Look forward to more costly errors at the expense of your tax dollars.  The new health control legislation (HR 3590) expands Medicaid eligibility. Linda Gorman points out that Colorado Medicaid's error rate in paying claims is much higher than private insurers. Her reference is the 2009 State of Colorado Statewide ...

Donald Berwick’s Five-Year Plan v. the iPhone

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Paul Howard and David Gratzer, MD write Last month, Apple released its new iPhone, a faster and more powerful version of its ever popular computer-phone. It's a remarkable device - particularly remarkable given that its machine ancestors were large and expensive, often filling whole buildings yet able to ...

Obama appoints Donald Berwick: Health Care Rationer-in-Chief

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

From Grace-Marie Turner at National Review (July 7): President Obama is making a huge end-run around the American people with his recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick. “This recess appointment is an insult to the American people,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), a physician and leading Berwick opponent. ...

Why we’re “crazy” about health care choice

Monday, February 1st, 2010

Originally published in the Aurora Daily Sentinel, January 29th, 2010.  This version has links to references. Why we're "crazy" about health care choice By Brian T. Schwartz and Linda Gorman Sentinel Editor Dave Perry dismisses the Colorado Right to Health Care Choice Initiative [Colorado Amendment 63] as "crazy" and says its supporters "clearly ...

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 ...

Dallas Medicaid patients have trouble finding doctors

Monday, July 20th, 2009

From the Dallas Morning News: As the state seeks ways to trim Medicaid, an increasing number of doctors frustrated with reimbursements are opting not to see new Medicaid patients. As a result, Medicaid patients often grow sicker while hunting for a doctor. "The inability to find a Medicaid doctor drives up the ...

CO Medicaid cuts reimbursement rates. Will your insurance premiums go up?

Monday, July 13th, 2009

"Doctors in Colorado began to see reductions in their reimbursements from the Medicaid program on Wednesday as an effort to fill financial gaps in the state’s budget," reports a recent Denver Business Journal article. This could mean higher premiums for those who with a non-government health plan. Last year Bloomberg ...

Physicians who do not see Medicare and Medicaid patients

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Medical internist and Professor of Medicine Mark Siegel in the Wall Street Journal: Here's something that has gotten lost in the drive to institute universal health insurance: Health insurance doesn't automatically lead to health care. And with more and more doctors dropping out of one insurance plan or another, especially government ...

Response to Denver Post: Medicaid and Medicare are not insurance

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Linda Gorman does a great job pointing out the misconceptions in a Denver Post news article: "Patients on Medicare or Medicaid do not have insurance. They have government provided health care." "[S]ince when is it a “major flaw” in the US health care system when people in it withdraw their labor because ...