The clearest winner in the 2018 midterms was Medicaid. Voters in Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska approved ballot initiatives to expand Medicaid, making 363,000 more people eligible for the program next year. With Democrats winning the governorship in Wisconsin and Kansas, these two states, which have resisted the expansion, may become more open to it. In […]
Volume 74, no. 11 November 2018 There is no secret conspiracy to bring about a socialist revolution in the U.S. Barack Obama announced openly that we were going to see a “fundamental transformation” starting the day of his inauguration. (Arguably, it had started decades earlier.) He told small business owners that “You didn’t build that.” […]
Volume 74, no. 10 On the eve of midterm elections, America is violently divided. There are “deplorables” (Hillary Clinton’s term) or “dregs” (Joe Biden’s term), who are supposedly the enemies and “haters” of an amalgamation of “oppressed” minorities. The supposed champions of the latter are the ones wearing masks, shouting slogans and obscenities, throwing rocks, […]
Volume 74, no. 9 September 2018 A photograph of carriers of professionally made “I Am a Health Care Voter” signs heads a Forbes article about the most important mid-term elections “in our lifetime” or even “our country’s history” (https://tinyurl.com/y8xl6s75). There are also T-shirts and a Twitter hashtag. The HCVs appear to be mostly young, aggrieved, […]
LBJ and Nixon brought us the insatiable Medicare/Medicaid entitlement and the predatory managed-care monster that feeds off these cash cows (AAPS News, July 2018). They and their successor also set us up for the impending Baby Boom/Welfare State fiscal tsunami, as David Stockman describes it (tinyurl.com/yab4vh4u). Nixon’s 1972 Social Security amendments indexed earnings for wage […]
The Republican betrayal and Democrat intransigence on repealing “ObamaCare” may be partly related to reverence for the legacy of the first African-American President. But in fact the Affordable Care Act (ACA) builds on the legacy of far less popular Presidents. The most difficult part of ACA to touch—and the one most responsible for the touted […]
Volume 74, no. 6 June 2018 In about 2000, the number of publications indexed under “transparency in healthcare” started an exponential rise, reaching about 400 per year in the past few years. Politicians have also become very fond of the word. To AAPS, it should mean honest price signals and “government in the sunshine.” Support […]
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has sent out a Request for Information (RFI) concerning a new project called DPC. This stands for Direct Provider Contracting—not Direct Primary Care or Direct Patient Care, the growing type of practices that work for patients, not third parties. There are now about 770 such practices, the […]
Volume 74, no. 4 April 2018 The leading publication of organized medicine has published an extensive analysis of U.S. “health care” spending, which is twice as high per capita as in other comparable countries—although health outcomes are no better, and utilization is similar (Papanicolas et al. JAMA 3/13/18). Why? “It’s the prices, stupid!” editorializes Ezekiel […]
Volume 74, no. 3 March 2018 The Center for American Progress is proposing the next step toward the total government takeover of medicine: “Medicare Extra for All.” It calls the Affordable Care Act (ACA) “an historic accomplishment,” which is “remarkably resilient,” with steady enrollment “despite repeated acts of overt sabotage by the Trump Administration” and […]