Boosting Medicare Advantage can improve health care quality and costs

May 25, 2023May 24, 2023 healthcare, News, Opinion

Ongoing concerns about rising health care costs and the looming fiscal insolvency of the Medicare program put increasing pressure on policymakers to rein in health care spending and preserve Medicare for future generations. One policy change could help maintain the program and move the health care system, as well as the way we pay for medical services, in a more sustainable direction. And, unlike most health care reforms, this one is remarkably simple.

The Hill

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Will millennials stay quiet in 2024?

May 24, 2023May 24, 2023 News, Opinion

The start of campaign season will bring potentially heated and awkward political conversations between average Americans and their coworkers, family and acquaintances. While voters and pundits alike will use their anecdotal experience in these interactions to claim to know which way the country is headed, new polling data suggests that might not be the best evidence.

According to a recent poll from State Policy Network (where I am a fellow), three out of five voters keep their...

Work requirements are a policy failure: Why are they still an option?

May 23, 2023May 22, 2023 News, Opinion

Bringing people into the workforce and helping them stay there should be a national priority. So should be ensuring that everyone has their basic needs met.

We’ve reached an inflection point in our economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The unemployment rate currently stands at 3.4 percent — one of the lowest on record and far below the nearly 15 percent rate at the outset of the pandemic. But the labor force participation rate (the s...

Work requirements are a policy failure: Why are they still an option?

May 23, 2023May 22, 2023 News, Opinion

Bringing people into the workforce and helping them stay there should be a national priority. So should be ensuring that everyone has their basic needs met.

We’ve reached an inflection point in our economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The unemployment rate currently stands at 3.4 percent — one of the lowest on record and far below the nearly 15 percent rate at the outset of the pandemic. But the labor force participation rate (the s...

It’s time to address the unaffordability of affordable health care

April 21, 2023April 21, 2023 healthcare, News, Opinion

President Biden’s proposal to open Obamacare plans and Medicaid to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients marks the most recent effort to expand federally subsidized health insurance programs. These expansions, however, come with an inconvenient truth: They inflate prices for unsubsidized commercial patients and payers.

Our new study documents that between 2011 and 2021, after adjusting for medical price inflation, median unsubsidized premiums for in...

It’s time to address the unaffordability of affordable health care

April 21, 2023April 21, 2023 healthcare, News, Opinion

President Biden’s proposal to open Obamacare plans and Medicaid to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients marks the most recent effort to expand federally subsidized health insurance programs. These expansions, however, come with an inconvenient truth: They inflate prices for unsubsidized commercial patients and payers.

Our new study documents that between 2011 and 2021, after adjusting for medical price inflation, median unsubsidized premiums for in...

Will Biden’s zigzag strategy work?

April 19, 2023April 19, 2023 News, Opinion

In 1996, President Clinton pursued a reelection strategy of “triangulation” — politically, a made-up term that meant running to the middle in order to win, a tried-and-true strategy that worked for Clinton as it has for many others in American presidential politics.

For President Biden, “triangulation” is not on the table given the highly polarized nature of American politics. His own progressive left base won’t hear of it. Instead, Biden is pursuing a more modest “zigzag” str...

No, Biden can’t let ‘Dreamers’ join ObamaCare

April 18, 2023April 18, 2023 News, obamacare, Opinion

There’s just one little, teensy weensy problem with President Biden’s announcement that he will let “Dreamers” join the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) or Medicaid — it’s illegal. I know what you’re thinking: When has an action being illegal ever stopped Biden? And you’re right, it usually doesn’t. But while illegality won’t stop him, the U.S. Supreme Court almost certainly will.

The DREAM Act (hence, the name Dreamers) was first introduced in 2001, often with some bipartisan ...

How the end of free preventative health care could affect us all

April 6, 2023April 6, 2023 healthcare, News, Opinion

A federal district court last week ruled that health insurers are no longer required by the Affordable Care Act to provide "free" preventative care for services identified as important by the Preventative Services Task Force.

Judge Reed O'Connor ruled that the volunteer members of that task force are officers of the United States and need to be appointed by the president or at least by the head of a governmental department. What Congress thought was a feature i...

How the end of free preventative health care could affect us all

April 6, 2023April 6, 2023 healthcare, News, Opinion

A federal district court last week ruled that health insurers are no longer required by the Affordable Care Act to provide "free" preventative care for services identified as important by the Preventative Services Task Force.

Judge Reed O'Connor ruled that the volunteer members of that task force are officers of the United States and need to be appointed by the president or at least by the head of a governmental department. What Congress thought was a feature i...