Health Care Policy and Reform Insights | NCPA

Tag: "Health Care Costs"

How Medicaid Works in California

And how it controls costs:

In an office decorated with Chinese art and diagrams of body parts, Dr. George Ma cares for more than 4,000 patients. Nearly three-quarters are covered by Medi-Cal, the state’s public insurance program for low-income Californians, and Ma said he receives $10 a month to treat most of them. This summer, when California makes a controversial 10% cut to Medi-Cal rates, he could get paid less…

State officials argue the 10% decrease is necessary to keep healthcare spending under control, but medical providers fear it will devastate an already shrinking workforce and jeopardize patient care. (LA Times)

Jun 14, 2013 | 14 comments | by John Goodman

When Hospitals Charged Real Prices (1942)

Reproductions from a hospital pamphlet.

Jun 12, 2013 | 16 comments | by John Goodman

Rate of Return on College Degrees, and Other Links

Is a college degree worth what it costs?

How much would we save if every doctor worked for free?

For ex-Yazuka members: prosthetics to replace severed fingers. HT: Tyler Cowen

Henderson on Keynes. Unusual and interesting.

Jun 10, 2013 | 12 comments | by John Goodman

Reinhart vs. Rogoff, and Other Links

Kotlikoff: The real problem with Reinhart and Rogoff: they are not measuring the right debt.

Henderson: California has a budget surplus only because it’s underfunding teachers’ pensions.

Two-thirds of the uninsured may not enroll under ObamaCare.

Jun 04, 2013 | 12 comments | by John Goodman

Fall Out from California Premium Controversy

Rick Ungar (Forbes) attacks Avik Roy (Forbes) over his use of eHealth data. EHealth responds to Ungar.

Roy weighs in with round two.

Jun 03, 2013 | 13 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Fast food eaters underestimate the calories they are consuming.

“A multimillionaire president nominated a billionaire who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his campaigns, and he sent her to be confirmed by the millionaires’ club that is the U.S. Senate.”

Smart phones have killed the three-day weekend.

When patients get more involved in their care, the bills are often higher.

May 29, 2013 | 10 comments | by John Goodman

Variation in Spending Due to Variation in Health Status

The idea that uneven Medicare health care spending around the country is due to wasteful practices and overtreatment — a concept that influenced the federal health law ― takes another hit in a study published Tuesday. The paper concludes that health differences around the country explain between 75 percent and 85 percent of the cost variations…

Their conclusions are based on the wide differences in spending, which in 2011 ranged from an average of $14,085 per Medicare beneficiary in Miami, to $5,563 per beneficiary in Honolulu, even after Medicare’s cost of living and other regional adjustments — but not health status — were taken into account….

The new paper is one of the sharpest attacks yet on the work of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, whose three decades of research has popularized the theory that the unexplained regional differences in spending are due to the aggressiveness of some physicians to do more, in large part because it enriches them. The theory, popularized by a 2009 New Yorker article on high spending in McAllen, Texas, has divided health policy experts. (KHN)

May 29, 2013 | 16 comments | by John Goodman

Why Your Health Insurance Benefits May Be Shrinking

The trend is accelerating. The percentage of employers revising their plans as a result of the [Cadillac] tax has increased to 17 percent this year from 11 percent in 2011, according to a survey of United States companies released this month by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

Although the tax does not start until 2018, employers say they have to start now to meet the deadline and they are doing whatever they can to bring down the cost of their plans. Under the law, an employer or health insurer offering a plan that costs more than $10,200 for an individual and $27,500 for a family would typically pay a 40 percent excise tax on the amount exceeding the threshold. (NYT)

May 28, 2013 | 11 comments | by John Goodman

How Small Business May Escape the Effects of ObamaCare

UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Humana Inc. will begin offering smaller employers — including firms with as few as 10 members in UnitedHealth’s case — the option of so-called self-insurance in some markets later this year. Self-insured businesses pay their workers’ medical costs directly, instead of joining a traditional managed-care plan. Usually, they hire benefits firms or insurance companies just to administer their plans.

Most big companies choose the approach, because it gives them more control over benefits and can lower costs.

For small businesses, being self-insured would let them avoid new requirements under the law that call for traditional small group plans to include richer benefits, such as mental-health and maternity care. Self-insured companies can also avoid changes to pricing rules that could increase costs for groups of healthy workers. (WSJ)

May 28, 2013 | 11 comments | by John Goodman