November 6, 2009
A Closer Look at the House Democrats' Health Care Bill
By the Staff of the Center for Health Policy Studies and the Staff of the Center for Data Analysis
(WebMemo #2684)
A Closer Look at the House Democrats' Health Care Bill
November 6, 2009
Pelosi Health Care Plan: Who Pays the Surtax?
By Rea S. Hederman, Jr., and Guinevere Nell
(WebMemo #2687)
The Pelosi health care plan relies on a large surtax that would gradually encompass all American taxpayers, much like the dreaded Alternative Minimum Tax does. ...
November 5, 2009
Union Contracts of Health Care Workers Would Inflate Health Care Costs
By James Sherk
(WebMemo #2681)
Widespread unionization of the health care sector would make a government-run "public plan" much more expensive than currently advertised.
November 5, 2009
Doing Health Care Reform Right: The Empowering Patients First Act
By Greg D'Angelo and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2682)
The Empowering Patients First Act could accomplish needed reforms while minimizing Washington's role in health care.
November 5, 2009
The Pelosi Health Care Plan: Employer Mandate Penalties on Small Businesses
By John L. Ligon
(WebMemo #2683)
The Pelosi health care reform plan would create an employer penalty system that would apply to small businesses--even those with 25 or fewer workers.
November 4, 2009
Federalization of Medicaid: Health Reform Bill Would Reduce State Authority
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2678)
But under H.R. 3962, the ability of states to run Medicaid and SCHIP to reflect state variations and preferences would be substantially diminished.
November 2, 2009
How Many Americans Could End Up on the Public Health Plan? A Look at the Estimates
By Greg D’Angelo
(Backgrounder #2334)
Congress will soon vote on massive health care legislation -- and on the amount of power the federal government will have over the entire U.S. ...
November 2, 2009
Health Care Reform and the Threat to the Dollar
By J. D. Foster, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2674)
Health care reform as currently constructed will either weaken the economy or balloon the deficit while it weakens the economy.
November 2, 2009
New Health Care House Bill Has Plenty of New Taxes
By Rea S. Hederman, Jr.
(WebMemo #2675)
The new House health care bill still contains painful tax increases that will affect more and more Americans every year.
October 30, 2009
The Wrong Medicare Advantage Reform: Cutting Benefits, Limiting Choices, and Increasing Costs
By James C. Capretta and Robert A. Book, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2671)
The Medicare Advantage program reforms currently being considered by Congress would lead toward a system of less choice, less accountability, and eventually lower-quality health care ...
October 30, 2009
Medicaid Funding of Abortion: Setting the Record Straight
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2672)
Unless a specific prohibition on abortion funding is included in the final health care bill, the government will end up funding the procedure.
October 29, 2009
Tax on High-End Health Insurance Policies Takes the Low Road
By J. D. Foster, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2667)
The Joint Tax Committee recently shed important new light on the proposed "Cadillac excise tax" contained in the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill.
October 28, 2009
Health Care Reform: Rational Alternatives to the Congressional Leadership Bills
By Greg D’Angelo and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D
(WebMemo #2666)
Three major bills sponsored by congressional Republicans contain promising conservative approaches to health care reform.
October 21, 2009
Health Care Bills' Medicaid Expansion: How States Can Lose the Battle Behind Closed Doors
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2661)
The President wants federal taxpayers to pick up a greater share of the cost of the Medicaid expansion.
October 21, 2009
Why Congress Wants to Force More Americans into Medicaid
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2662)
Congress's response to Medicaid's problems is not to fix them but rather to add another 14 million people to the program.
October 20, 2009
Obama's $250 Bonus Turns Social Security into Welfare
By David C. John
(WebMemo #2655)
President Obama wants to give each Social Security recipient $250. But this would start converting the program to a welfare program.
October 20, 2009
The Baucus Plan: Implications for Small- and Medium-Sized Firms
By John L. Ligon
(WebMemo #2656)
The Baucus health care plan will have a strong negative impact on small- and medium-sized employers.
October 19, 2009
Baucus Health Insurance Excise Tax Misses the Mark
By Curtis S. Dubay
(WebMemo #2654)
The Baucus plan's excise tax on "Cadillac" health insurance plans would fall mostly on low- and middle-income workers.
October 16, 2009
The End of Federalism: How Obamacare Will Impact States
By heritage.org
(Fact Sheet #42)
The bills before Congress would place an unprecedented amount of power in the hands of the federal government to determine health insurance rules and benefits. ...
October 15, 2009
Adding Insult to Injury: The Baucus Health Plan Imposes New Taxes on the Sick
By Robert A. Book, Ph.D., Guinevere L. Nell, and Paul L. Winfree
(WebMemo #2651)
The Baucus health care plan would harm those it should help and help those who need help the least.
October 15, 2009
The Baucus Medicaid Provisions: The Senate’s Massive Welfare Expansion
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2652)
Expanding Medicaid is not reform. Adding more people to a flawed system would only compound the problem.
October 13, 2009
Preserving Freedom and Federalism: What's at Stake for Americans in the Health Care Debate
By Thomas C. Feeney
(Backgrounder #2327)
"Federalism" is no outdated concept. The founding fathers of the American Republic are the authors of a brilliant design of the distribution of political power ...
October 9, 2009
Congress's Health Care Reform Bills: The Unknown Costs
By Greg D'Angelo
(WebMemo #2646)
The CBO should produce a comprehensive assessment of the health care reform proposals--similar to the one produced during the Clinton era--before any legislation moves forward. ...
October 7, 2009
Congress Breaks Obama Promise on Government Role in Health Care
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2644)
A government "takeover" in the form of greater government control over health care financing and the practice of medicine is inevitable.
October 5, 2009
The Baucus Bill: Medicare Advantage and Medicare Savings Lost to Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2641)
Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) is proposing major changes to the Medicare program under the America's Healthy Future Act of 2009.
September 25, 2009
Baucus Plan Increases Out-of-Pocket Costs for Many Families
By Rea S. Hederman, Jr., and Paul L. Winfree
(WebMemo #2628)
The mandates in Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus's health care reform bill will hurt individuals, families, and businesses.
September 25, 2009
The Baucus Health Bill: A Medicare Physician Payment Shell Game
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2629)
For all of the bold talk of reform, the Baucus health bill is just another flawed, big-government solution.
September 25, 2009
The Baucus Individual Health Insurance Mandate: Taxing Low-Income and Moderate-Income Workers
By Robert A. Book, Ph.D., Guinevere Nell, and Paul L. Winfree
(Backgrounder #2325)
The individual mandate in the Baucus health care plan would impose punitively high, regressive taxes on low-income and moderate-income working families. Its penalties and additional ...
September 24, 2009
Congress's Health Care Bills Would Increase Spending and Federal Budget Deficits
By Brian M. Riedl
(Backgrounder #2324)
Both the House health care reform bill (H.R. 3200) and the bill authored by Senator Baucus would increase government spending by hundreds of billions of ...
September 23, 2009
Current Health Insurance Reform Proposals vs. Real Reform and Economic Growth
By Karen A. Campbell
(Backgrounder #2321)
Current proposals for health care reform would exacerbate existing problems in the U.S. health care system and weaken the economy. In particular, the proposed surtax ...
September 23, 2009
Going Out of Business: How ObamaCare will Hurt American Businesses
By heritage.org
(Fact Sheet #40)
The House and Senate draft proposals for health care reform include employer mandates that require employers to pay higher taxes if they do not offer ...
September 21, 2009
Sound Health Care Reform for a Sound Economy: A Response to the CEA Report
By Robert A. Book, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2318)
The President's Council of Economic Advisers correctly notes that fixing several problems with the American health care system would produce substantial economic benefits. However, the ...
September 18, 2009
The Max Tax: Baucus Health Bill Is More of the Same
By heritage.org
(Fact Sheet #37)
A public plan disguised as a co-op, individual and employer mandates, massive federal regulation over insurance and benefits, and massive Medicaid expansion--the Baucus bill has ...
September 18, 2009
Reconciliation 101: A "Nuclear" Abuse of Power
By heritage.org
(Fact Sheet #38)
Reconciliation was created to streamline Senate rules to make it easier for lawmakers to achieve the spending and tax levels in the budget resolution. It ...
September 17, 2009
The Baucus Health Bill: A First Look
By the Staff of the Center for Health Policy
(WebMemo #2619)
The Baucus bill still contains the most objectionable features of the liberal health policy agenda.
September 16, 2009
Obama to Spend $10.3 Trillion on Welfare: Uncovering the Full Cost of Means-Tested Welfare or Aid to the Poor
By Robert Rector, Katherine Bradley, and Rachel Sheffield
(Special Report #67)
Means-tested welfare spending nearly rivals the combined cost of Social Security and Medicare, and President Obama's response has been to continue the permanent enlargement of ...
September 15, 2009
President Obama's Medical Liability Reform Proposal: No Silver Bullet
By Randolph W. Pate
(WebMemo #2614)
In an apparent concession to Republicans on health care reform,
President Obama broached the topic of medical liability reform Wednesday
night in his health care ...
September 10, 2009
Swine Flu: What Every American Should Know
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Richard Weitz, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2315)
With H1N1 vaccines not becoming generally available until after the U.S. flu season begins, the single greatest contribution that the public can make is to ...
September 4, 2009
House Health Care Bill Will Hurt Small Businesses: A Reply to My Critics
By D. Mark Wilson
(WebMemo #2606)
Policymakers need to know that the costs and benefits of an employer mandate will not be equally borne by firms and employees.
August 28, 2009
Five Major Faults with the Health Care Bills
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #2599)
Current efforts by Congress to “reform” the health care system are centered on several flawed policy initiatives that will transfer more power and decisions to ...
August 28, 2009
Economics of Play-or-Pay Mandates in Health Care Reform Bills
By D. Mark Wilson
(Backgrounder #2312)
The play-or-pay mandates in the health care reform bills, which require employers to offer health insurance to their workers or pay a tax to the ...
August 28, 2009
The Trial Lawyers' Earmark: Using Medicare to Finance the Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous
By Edwin Meese III and Hans A. von Spakovsky
(Legal Memorandum #47)
A proposed amendment to the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 would have generated abusive Medicare litigation on a massive scale to benefit plaintiffs' ...
August 26, 2009
The Public Health Insurance Option: Unfair Competition on a Tilting Field
By John S. Hoff
(Backgrounder #2311)
Advocates of a "public option" government insurance plan assure us that it would compete with private insurers on a level playing field. In reality, the ...
August 7, 2009
Health Care Reform in West Virginia: A Lesson from the States
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2582)
West Virginia has experimented with Medicaid reform and has learned a lot about what those reforms accomplished.
August 5, 2009
Kerry's Excise Tax on "Gold-Plated" Health Insurance Policies
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(WebMemo #2578)
Senator John Kerry has suggested a new excise tax on "gold-plated" health insurance policies. But this is not the right way to go.
August 4, 2009
Killing Americans by Stifling Medical Innovation: The Medical Device "Safety" Act of 2009
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
(Legal Memorandum #46)
The misnamed Medical Device Safety Act of 2009 would gut the carefully crafted regulation of medical devices by the Food and Drug Administration, exposing developers ...
July 30, 2009
Obamacare: Top 10 Reasons It's Wrong for America
By heritage.org
(Fact Sheet #36)
President Obama said: "They're going to have to give up paying for things that don't make them healthier...If there's a blue pill and a red ...
July 30, 2009
A Federal Health Insurance Exchange Combined with a Public Plan: The House and Senate Bills
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2304)
While the national health insurance exchange advocated by President Obama and congressional leaders is sometimes described as a nationwide pool of health insurance providers, its ...
July 29, 2009
State Health Reform: The Significance of Utah Health Insurance Reforms
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(WebMemo #2569)
Utah will soon offer a working model of how states can design and implement a consumer-centered health insurance market that leverages existing resources with minimal ...
July 24, 2009
Illusions of Cost Control in Public Health Care Plans
By Robert A. Book
(Backgrounder #2301)
The available evidence does not indicate that a public plan modeled on Medicare could provide health care comparable to that offered by existing private plans, ...
July 24, 2009
Executive Summary: Illusions of Cost Control in Public Health Care Plans
By Robert A. Book
(Executive Summary #2301)
The available evidence does not indicate that a public plan modeled on Medicare could provide health care comparable to that offered by existing private plans, ...
July 24, 2009
New Taxpayer Subsidies: The Impact of the House and Senate Health Bills
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2564)
Under the House and Senate bills, taxpayers are going to pay more for health insurance.
July 24, 2009
Compromising the Doctor-Patient Relationship: The Impact of the House Health Care Bill
By John O’Shea, M.D.
(WebMemo #2563)
A growing number of physicians believe that H.R. 3200 is likely to make matters worse.
July 23, 2009
House Bill to Hit Small Businesses with Surtax
By Rea S. Hederman, Jr.
(WebMemo #2556)
The large tax increases proposed by House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) would harm over a million small businesses, making them less likely ...
July 23, 2009
Micromanaging Americans' Health Insurance: The Impact of House and Senate Bills
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(WebMemo #2558)
Both the pending House health care bill and Senate HELP Committee bill include provisions that would, if enacted, result in sweeping, complex, and highly discretionary ...
July 23, 2009
Undercutting State Authority: The Impact of the House and Senate Health Bills
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2559)
The states are being invited into a shaky bargain that trades dollars for control over the administration of Medicaid.
July 23, 2009
Senator Kerry's Tax on Health Insurance Companies Would Hit Everyone with Insurance
By J. D. Foster, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2561)
Taxing health insurance companies is a bad, backdoor alternative to the more sensible, more transparent policy of capping the exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance.
July 21, 2009
Employer Health Care Mandates: Taxing Low-Income Workers to Pay for Health Care
By James Sherk and Robert A. Book, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2552)
Congressional rhetoric to the contrary, much of the burden of paying for an employer mandate will fall on ordinary Americans, and lower-income workers will be ...
July 21, 2009
Medicaid Expansion: The Impact of the House and Senate Health Bills
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2554)
Further expansion of Medicaid would create new inequities among individuals, even within families.
July 15, 2009
Income Tax Surtax Should Not Fund Government Health Care Expansion
By Brian M. Riedl and Curtis S. Dubay
(WebMemo #2544)
Congress is reportedly considering raising taxes by at least $540 billion over 10 years to fund President Obama's health care initiative through a "surtax" on ...
July 15, 2009
Understanding CBO Health Cost Estimates
By Donald B. Marron
(Backgrounder #2298)
Congressional Budget Office analyses often rely on sophisticated economic modeling and are usually framed in ways that match the specific, sometimes arcane, requirements of the ...
July 15, 2009
Understanding CBO Health Cost Estimates
By Donald B. Marron
(Executive Summary #2298)
Congressional Budget Office analyses often rely on sophisticated economic modeling and are usually framed in ways that match the specific, sometimes arcane, requirements of the ...
July 1, 2009
The House Health Care Bill: A Blueprint for Federal Control
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2515)
The incentives built into the House bill would guarantee that millions of Americans would lose their private coverage, regardless of their personal preferences.
July 1, 2009
Senate "Free Rider" Penalties: Taxing the Poor to Pay for Health Care
By Robert A. Book, Ph.D. and Edmund F. Haislmaier
(WebMemo #2516)
Congress's mad scramble to turn health care buzzwords and bumper stickers into legislation last week careened off in yet another direction.
July 1, 2009
How to Design a Tax Cap in Health Care Reform
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2517)
The Obama Administration and congressional Democrats have recently opened the door to a change in the tax treatment of employer-sponsored health benefits as part of ...
July 1, 2009
How Reforms to the Tax Treatment of Health Insurance Benefit the Middle Class
By Greg D’Angelo, Rea S. Hederman, Jr., and Paul L. Winfree
(WebMemo #2518)
Health reform proposals recently introduced in Congress--such as the Patients' Choice Act of 2009--seek to replace the current income tax exclusion with a fairer, flatter ...
June 30, 2009
Entitlement Reform Is Necessary for Long-Term Fiscal Stability
By Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Gordon Gray
(Backgrounder #2291)
Entitlement spending is projected to exceed 20 percent of GDP by 2060. Furthermore, the U.S. will be spending a crushing 22 percent of GDP to ...
June 30, 2009
Statement on the Tri-Committee Draft Proposal for Health Care Reform
By Robert E. Moffit Ph.D.
(Testimony )
The Committee is considering ambitious and comprehensive legislation. It covers an enormous range of policy items and issues.
June 30, 2009
Executive Summary: Entitlement Reform Is Necessary for Long-Term Fiscal Stability
By Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Gordon Gray
(Executive Summary #2291)
Entitlement spending is projected to exceed 20 percent of GDP by 2060. Furthermore, the U.S. will be spending a crushing 22 percent of GDP to ...
June 26, 2009
Senate Finance "MedPAC" Health Proposal Needs Savings Guarantee
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2507)
Congress could end creating a large new entitlement, with savings offsets that are phantom rather than real, and adding to the staggering debt burden on ...
June 25, 2009
Medicare Administrative Costs Are Higher, Not Lower, Than for Private Insurance
By Robert A. Book, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2505)
Many advocates of a public health plan claim that Medicare has lower administrative costs than private insurance. However, on a per-person basis Medicare's administrative costs ...
June 25, 2009
Health Information Technology: The Case for a Sound Federal Policy
By Tevi Troy, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2289)
As part of the stimulus bill, Congress is set to spend $20 billion to encourage doctors and hospitals to adopt electronic health records (EHRs). A ...
June 25, 2009
Health Insurance Co-ops: How Congress Could Adopt the Right Design
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #2290)
Consumer-owned cooperative, or mutual, health insurers could increase consumer control and choice in health insurance. Member-owned mutual health insurers would return any profits or surplus ...
June 24, 2009
Health Care Reform and Economic Growth: A Critique of the CEA Report
By Robert A. Book, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2502)
The CEA report fails to draw a link between any particular health care reforms and the economic benefits that might theoretically be achieved.
June 22, 2009
The Senate Health Care Bills: $1.5 Trillion Sticker Shock
By James C. Capretta
(WebMemo #2498)
The government cannot bend the health care cost curve from Washington without resorting to arbitrary caps and price controls that always lead to a reduction ...
June 19, 2009
Obama's Health Care Agenda: How it Will Hurt American Families
By heritage.org
(Fact Sheet #33)
Instead of empowering parents, President Obama's health care plan will chip away at the fundamental rights parents have in key health care decisions for their ...
June 18, 2009
Health Care Co-Operatives: Doing It the Right Way
By Edmund F. Haislmaier, Dennis G. Smith, and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #2493)
Some key Senators are considering cooperatives as an alternative to a public health plan. Here are several principles that must be a part of any ...
June 15, 2009
Conservative Principles of Health Care Reform: The Road Ahead
By the Honorable Michael B. Enzi
(Heritage Lecture #1124)
Obama health care plan, Expanded health insurance coverage should give every American access to affordable, high-quality health insurance. Patient-focused care provides the highest quality and ...
June 15, 2009
Obama's Health Care Reform: What Will It Do to Seniors?
By heritage.org
(Fact Sheet #31)
Some of the projected savings for financing Obama's health agenda, including the creation of a new public plan, would come by squeezing savings out of ...
June 15, 2009
Obama's Health Care Reform: The Demise of Federalism
By heritage.org
(Fact Sheet #32)
Instead of the top-down approach of a federal health care reform, federal policymakers should embrace the principles of federalism and allow states to develop innovative ...
June 12, 2009
Why the Kennedy Health Bill Would Wreck Bipartisan Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2481)
The Affordable Health Choices Act is a setback for bipartisan health care reform.
June 12, 2009
A New Public Health Plan: How Congressional Details Will Impact Doctors and Patients
By Greg D’Angelo
(WebMemo #2482)
Many in Congress are looking to Medicare as a model for a new public health plan, yet millions of Americans would lose the private coverage ...
June 11, 2009
A Guide to State Health Care Reform
By The Heritage Foundation
(Special Report #55)
The Heritage Foundation's A Guide to State Health Care Reform is a concise summary of actions needed to achieve patient-centered health reform. Successful health care ...
May 28, 2009
State Employee Health Care as a "Public Plan"
By Robert E. Moffit Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2461)
The President says that Congress can create a “level playing field” nationwide to ensure a fair competition between the newly created public plan and private ...
May 27, 2009
Trustees Reports Highlight Pressing Need to Reform Entitlement Programs
By Nicola Moore
(WebMemo #2458)
The fact that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are on an unsustainable course was reconfirmed by the latest annual reports from the Social Security and ...
May 21, 2009
The Public Health Care Plan: What Seems to Be the Problem?
By heritage.org
(Fact Sheet #29)
It's impossible to believe that Congress and the Administration could resist setting rules - and interpreting those rules - in favor of their own public ...
May 15, 2009
The Obama Health Agenda: Impact on the States
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2445)
The President's proposal for a Medicaid expansion and a public program expansion would be a step backward.
May 15, 2009
A Principled Path to Rational Health Care Reform
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #2448)
The health care policies outlined by President Obama during his campaign would centralize control over the health care system in Washington. There is a much ...
May 13, 2009
Time to Get Serious (Again) About Medicare Reform
By Greg D'Angelo and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2441)
The Medicare Trustees Report shows that reform of the program is of urgent necessity.
May 6, 2009
Coverage Issues in Health Reform
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
There is broad agreement on the broad goals of health reform. We all want to achieve significant progress this year towards the vision of an ...
May 5, 2009
Why a New Public Plan Will Not Improve American Health Care
By Walton J. Francis
(Backgrounder #2267)
The real reason why a number of policy analysts and politicians favor a public health plan is because they see it as a way to ...
May 5, 2009
Executive Summary: Why a New Public Plan Will Not Improve American Health Care
By Walton J. Francis
(Executive Summary #2267)
The real reason why a number of policy analysts and politicians favor a public health plan is because they see it as a way to ...
April 24, 2009
The Real Price of a Public Health Plan: Less Innovation and Lower Quality
By Dennis G. Smith
(Backgrounder #2263)
Most Americans value their current private health insurance, desire choices in health coverage, and are wary of government plans. Key supporters of a new government ...
April 24, 2009
How Washington Pushes Americans into Low-Quality Health Care
By Jeet Guram and John S. O’Shea, M.D.
(Backgrounder #2264)
President Obama favors an expansion of government health insurance programs as a key component of his health care reform agenda. Because of the "crowd out" ...
April 7, 2009
Protection of Health Care Providers’ Right of Conscience: What Federal Law Says
By Randolph W. Pate
(WebMemo #2385)
The Obama Administration is moving rapidly to overturn federal "conscience clause" regulations protecting health care providers who object to performing procedures that violate their religious ...
April 3, 2009
Single Payer: Why Government-Run Health Care Will Harm Both Patients and Doctors
By Robert A. Book, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2381)
The key issue in the emerging national health care debate is the role of the federal government: A concentration of government power over health care ...
March 25, 2009
Issues in Health Insurance Market Reform
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Testimony )
Mr. Chairman, Representative Deal, and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify before you today on some of the key issues ...
March 25, 2009
The President's Budget And Medicare
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph. D.
(Testimony )
President Barack Obama has outlined an ambitious and far-reaching health care agenda, including major changes in the Medicare program. It should be noted that even ...
March 25, 2009
The Role of Long-Term Care in Health Reform
By Dennis G. Smith
(Testimony )
Long-term care is an important but all too often overlooked component of health care reform. The great challenges we face because of population changes between ...
March 24, 2009
A First Big Step Toward Medicare Sustainability
By J. D. Foster, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2253)
Medicare is a vital program for seniors, but is fundamentally unaffordable as it is currently structured because it faces an unfunded obligation of $85.6 trillion. ...
March 18, 2009
Medicare Reform: Setting Attainable Goals for Sustainability
By J. D. Foster, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2251)
The Treasury Department's general fund subsidizes Medicare by an amount equal to about 1.3 percent of GDP, a large but manageable sum and an apparently ...
March 16, 2009
Health Care Reform: Changing the Tax Treatment of Health Insurance
By Greg D'Angelo and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2344)
A proposal that gradually phases out the current income tax exclusion while phasing in a more equitable and efficient system is essential to achieving serious ...
February 27, 2009
The Obama Health Care Budget: Hopeful Savings and Costly Change
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Nina Owcharenko, and Dennis Smith
(WebMemo #2314)
President Obama's health care budget proposal is large but surprisingly unimaginative.
February 26, 2009
Does employer-sponsored health insurance reduce job mobility?
By Paul L. Winfree
(White Paper )
How the health insurance system influences the likelihood of changing jobs and becoming self-employed
February 12, 2009
Note to Congress: Expanding Health Care Entitlements Is Bad Policy
By Dennis G. Smith
(Backgrounder #2240)
Entitlement reform, lowering the cost of both public and private health insurance, and expanding private insurance coverage should be accomplished simultaneously, allowing for a smooth ...
February 4, 2009
Comparative Effectiveness in Health Care Reform: Lessons from Abroad
By Helen Evans, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2239)
President Obama’s proposed Institute for Comparative Effectiveness would mean more government control of private medical decisions. It is clear from the British experience and other ...
February 4, 2009
The Stimulus Bill: Why the Senate Must Fix the Health Care Provisions
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #2267)
Liberals in Congress, under the guise of emergency economic stimulus legislation, are attempting to push forward their radical health care agenda.
January 29, 2009
Mutual Obligation and the American Social Contract
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #1107)
Simple steps like automatic enrollment in savings plans, incentives to encourage long-term care insurance, and delinking coverage from the workplace would foster long-term, personally owned ...
January 26, 2009
SCHIP Bill: Top 10 Changes for Congress to Consider
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2244)
In Congress's mad dash to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), it fails to correct the serious flaws buried in last year's SCHIP ...
January 26, 2009
The New SCHIP Bill: The Senate Must Protect Private Coverage
By Paul L. Winfree and Greg D’Angelo
(WebMemo #2246)
When the Senate considers the House legislation or a companion proposal to expand SCHIP to children in families with higher incomes, it should recognize that ...
January 22, 2009
How the House Stimulus Bill Undercuts Parental Authority
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2237)
Buried in the economic stimulus legislation is a provision further undercutting parental authority and expanding control of taxpayer dollars by family planning clinics.
January 21, 2009
The House Stimulus Bill and Health Care Assistance for Unemployed Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #2233)
If Congress is poised to extend health care assistance for unemployed workers as part of its economic stimulus proposal, it should do so in a ...
January 21, 2009
Bailing Out Medicaid: A Bad Solution
By Dennis G. Smith and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #2235)
Congress should not throw good money after bad. But if Congress insists on writing bigger Medicaid checks for state officials—again—then it should take very specific ...
January 16, 2009
The Fallacy of Health Care Reform as Economic Stimulus
By Robert A. Book, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2231)
After spending decades trying reduce health care costs, some commentators and policymakers now argue that health care costs should be increased to stimulate the economy. ...
January 13, 2009
How to Reform Entitlement Spending: A Memo to President-elect Obama
By Brian M. Riedl and Alison Acosta Fraser
(Special Report #43)
President-Elect Obama, you based much of your presidential campaign on the promise of a better future for all Americans. A better future must be one ...
January 12, 2009
How Medicare's Drug Pricing Can Hurt R&D
By Cheryl S. Smith and Laura L. Summers
(Backgrounder #2225)
Research and development is critical to the pharmaceutical industry. If drug prices increase, firms have more revenue—and more incentive to invest in R&D. Allowing the ...
January 12, 2009
Executive Summary: How Medicare's Drug Pricing Can Hurt R&D
By Cheryl S. Smith and Laura L. Summers
(Executive Summary #2225)
Research and development is critical to the pharmaceutical industry. If drug prices increase, firms have more revenue—and more incentive to invest in R&D. Allowing the ...
January 9, 2009
Any Stimulus Legislation Must Include Budget Reforms to Address Long-Term Challenges
By Alison Acosta Fraser
(WebMemo #2199)
If President-elect Obama insists on a huge spending bill, he must ensure it does not result in huge permanent new government programs and thus potentially ...
January 7, 2009
Key Questions for Senator Tom Daschle, Nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2192)
The United States Senate will soon render its advice and consent to the nomination of former Senator Tom Daschle (D–SD) as the new secretary of ...
December 22, 2008
How a Public Health Plan Will Erode Private Care
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2224)
President-elect Obama's rationale for a new public health plan is that it would give Americans who are not enrolled in employment-based health insurance coverage, or ...
December 22, 2008
Executive Summary: How a Public Health Plan Will Erode Private Care
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #2224)
President-elect Obama's rationale for a new public health plan is that it would give Americans who are not enrolled in employment-based health insurance coverage, or ...
December 5, 2008
Employer-Based Health Insurance: Why Congress Should Cap Tax Benefits Consistently
By Jason Roffenbender
(Backgrounder #2214)
Too many Americans do not fully understand how the health insurance they receive through their employer is financed. Formal premium payments to health insurance companies ...
December 4, 2008
The Concept of a Federal Health Board: Learning from Britain's Experience
By Jeet Guram and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2154)
Tom Daschle, President-elect Barack Obama's pick for secretary of health and human services, has recently been advocating the creation of an independent "Federal Health Board." ...
December 4, 2008
How a Federal Health Board Will Cancel Private Coverage and Care
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2155)
President-elect Barack Obama,Senator Max Baucus, and former Senator Thomas Daschle (D-SD)—Obama’s choice for Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—have outlined policy ...
December 3, 2008
Ensuring Access to Affordable Health Insurance: A Memo to President-elect Obama
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(Special Report #27)
President-elect Obama, during the campaign you pledged to build a health care system in which Americans can be as-sured of access to affordable health insurance. ...
November 21, 2008
The Next SCHIP Debate: The Case for Honest Numbers
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2140)
Reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) will take on new and heightened importance early next year. Congress cannot deliver last year's legislation ...
November 14, 2008
The Baucus Health Reform Plan: A Starting Point for Serious Discussion
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2132)
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) has just unveiled a comprehensive health plan. This is a welcome development in that it puts some flesh on ...
November 13, 2008
Consumer Direction in Medicaid and Opportunities for States
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2129)
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services published a final Medicaid rule that permits Medicaid recipients to self-direct their own health care and supportive services. ...
October 24, 2008
The Obama Health Care Plan: A Closer Look at Cost and Coverage
By Greg D'Angelo and Paul Winfree
(WebMemo #2114)
Barack Obama's health care plan would reduce the number of insured, but it would not control costs in any significant way. In fact, it would ...
October 24, 2008
The McCain Health Care Plan: A Closer Look at Cost and Coverage
By Greg D'Angelo and Paul Winfree
(WebMemo #2115)
John McCain’s health care plan would reduce the number of uninsured and help control costs, yet it would, as currently designed, require considerable increases in ...
October 15, 2008
The Obama Health Care Plan: More Power to Washington
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #2197)
Senator Barack Obama's health care plan is laden with new regulations and government authority that would leave Americans with even less control of their health ...
October 15, 2008
Executive Summary: The Obama Health Care Plan: More Power to Washington
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Summary #2197)
Senator Barack Obama's health care plan is laden with new regulations and government authority that would leave Americans with even less control of their health ...
October 15, 2008
The McCain Health Care Plan: More Power to Families
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #2198)
Senator John McCain has proposed an ambitious health care reform agenda that focuses on four key objectives: making health insurance innovative, portable, and affordable; ensuring ...
October 15, 2008
Executive Summary: The McCain Health Care Plan: More Power to Families
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Summary #2198)
Senator John McCain has proposed an ambitious health care reform agenda that focuses on four key objectives: making health insurance innovative, portable, and affordable; ensuring ...
September 26, 2008
State Medicaid Reform First - Before Payment Increases
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #2083)
Congress needs to get serious about Medicaid. To borrow a medical analogy: If a state is the patient, and Congress is its doctor, giving states ...
September 22, 2008
State Health Reform: How States Can Control Costs and Expand Coverage
By Dennis G. Smith
(Backgrounder #2183)
The rising cost of health care for states and their citizens is often assumed to be a problem solely in search of a federal solution. ...
September 16, 2008
State Health Reform: Converting Medicaid Dollars into Premium Assistance
By Dennis G. Smith
(Backgrounder #2169)
State policymakers can improve Medicaid by using the flexibilities provided by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) to redesign coverage of low-income working families ...
September 16, 2008
Executive Summary: State Health Reform: Converting Medicaid Dollars into Premium Assistance
By Dennis G. Smith
(Executive Summary #2169)
Executive Summary: State policymakers can improve Medicaid by using the flexibilities provided by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) to redesign coverage of low-income ...
September 15, 2008
Reforming Health Care to Protect Parents' Rights
By Daniel Patrick Moloney, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2181)
Medicaid, SCHIP, Title X, and other government health care programs deny parents the right to know which medical services their children receive, even when the ...
September 9, 2008
SCHIP: How Congress Can Avoid Repeating Last Year's Mistakes
By Dennis G. Smith
(Backgrounder #2180)
Congress can return SCHIP to its original focus on uninsured low-income children by setting a firm cap on eligibility that applies to both SCHIP and ...
September 9, 2008
Executive Summary: SCHIP: How Congress Can Avoid Repeating Last Year's Mistakes
By Dennis G. Smith
(Executive Summary #2180)
Executive Summary: Congress can return SCHIP to its original focus on uninsured low-income children by setting a firm cap on eligibility that applies to both ...
September 2, 2008
Medicare's Financial Woes: Bigger Than Official Estimates
By J. D. Foster, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2174)
Medicare is financially unsustainable in its current form. The Medicare Trustees’ 2008 estimate of the program’s total excess costs is $85.6 trillion. The Trustees acknowledge ...
August 29, 2008
State Health Care Reform:
Retargeting Medicaid Hospital Payments to Expand Health Insurance Coverage
By Christopher J. Meyer
(Backgrounder #2177)
State officials must decide whether to use existing government health care funding to help individuals and families buy health insurance or continue funneling taxpayer dollars ...
August 29, 2008
Executive Summary: State Health Care Reform: Retargeting Medicaid Hospital Payments to Expand Health Insurance Coverage
By Christopher J. Meyer
(Executive Summary #2177)
State officials must decide whether to use existing government health care funding to help individuals and families buy health insurance or continue funneling taxpayer dollars ...
August 14, 2008
Government as "Competitor": The Latest Prescription for Government Control of Health Care
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2024)
Proponents of government competition in a "national health insurance exchange" claim that it would enhance personal choice and health plan competition. That is highly unlikely. ...
July 28, 2008
State Health Care Reform: A Brief Guide to Risk Adjustment in Consumer-Driven Health Insurance Markets
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #2166)
Risk adjustment addresses the concern that health plans that do a better job of managing care for sicker patients would be disadvantaged because they would ...
July 16, 2008
SCHIP Reauthorization: Preparing for Another Round in Congress
By Dennis G. Smith
(WebMemo #1994)
In the coming weeks, Congress may once again debate the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). By doing so, Congressional leaders would ...
July 2, 2008
Health Care Reform in Massachusetts: Medicaid Waiver Renewal Will Set a Precedent
By Greg D’Angelo and Edmund F. Haislmaier
(WebMemo #1979)
As the Medicaid waiver for Massachusetts's health care reform is up for debate again, federal and state officials should remember the intent of the original ...
June 19, 2008
Courageous Reforms in Ryan's Entitlements Road Map: Where Is the Democratic Response?
By J. D. Foster
(WebMemo #1958)
For years, political deadlock has stymied pressing reforms from health care to taxes to entitlements. Congressman Paul Ryan (R–WI), ranking member of the House Budget ...
June 19, 2008
Guidelines for Structuring Health Insurance
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
The way in which Americans access health care is uniquely different from any other major country. As an immigrant to this country, I was immediately ...
June 18, 2008
Medicare: Congress Is Poised to Block Competitive Bidding for Medical Supplies
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1959)
Members of Congress, under pressure from industry lobbyists, are poised to block competitive bidding for durable medical equipment and supplies in the Medicare program.
June 13, 2008
The Success of Medicare Advantage Plans: What Seniors Should Know
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2142)
Medicare Advantage is a success and can serve as the first stage of reform, but Congress will have to change the existing payment system and ...
June 13, 2008
Executive Summary: The Success of Medicare Advantage Plans: What Seniors Should Know
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #2142)
Executive Summary: Medicare Advantage is a success and can serve as the first stage of reform, but Congress will have to change the existing payment ...
June 11, 2008
Medicare: Drifting Toward Disaster
By The Honorable Michael O. Leavitt
(Heritage Lecture #1088)
Medicare is based on the cost of seniors' health care being borne primarily by younger workers. The demographic reality is there are diminishing numbers of ...
May 20, 2008
Ending the Physician Payment Crisis: Another Reason for Major Medicare Reform
By John S. O’Shea, M.D.
(WebMemo #1931)
Under existing congressional formulas, Medicare payment rates for the services that physicians provide to Medicare beneficiaries will be reduced by 10 percent in July of ...
May 20, 2008
SCHIP: The Bush Administration's Effort to Preserve Children's Private Health Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1933)
In August of 2007, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid released a directive on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The directive keeps the ...
May 15, 2008
Federal Funds and State Fiscal Independence
By Sven R. Larson, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2136)
If the present trend in federal aid to states continues, federally sponsored programs will soon eclipse state budgets and turn the federal government into the ...
May 14, 2008
Blocking Medicaid Rules: Hurting Families and Taxpayers Alike
By Daniel Patrick Moloney, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1924)
Congress is about to make a bad decision on Medicaid that will affect taxpayers and families alike. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), ...
May 2, 2008
The Medicaid Regulations: Stopping the Abuse of Taxpayers' Dollars
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1911)
Congress may soon undermine efforts to instill integrity into the Medicaid program by weakening important safeguards against its abuse. These safeguards are embodied in seven ...
April 23, 2008
State Health Reform: Six Key Tests
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1900)
State legislators are increasingly focused on health care reform. Escalating health care costs, state deficits, rising numbers of uninsured, and federal inaction have forced them ...
April 23, 2008
Health Care Reform: Design Principles for a Patient-Centered, Consumer-Based Market
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #2128)
The foundational insight behind consumer-centered health care reform is that the only way to achieve better value is to make the consumer (and patient) the ...
April 23, 2008
Executive Summary:
Health Care Reform: Design Principles for a Patient-Centered, Consumer-Based Market
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Executive Summary #2128)
Executive Summary: The foundational insight behind consumer-centered health care reform is that the only way to achieve better value is to make the consumer (and ...
March 26, 2008
Congress Must Not Ignore the Medicare Trustees' Warning
By Greg D'Angelo and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1869)
Congress should take steps to transform Medicare from a costly open-ended entitlement program to a defined-contribution program.
March 25, 2008
Medicare and Social Security: The Challenge of Giant Entitlement Costs
By David C. John and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1867)
Today's report affirms the need for Congress to begin a serious overhaul of both of these vital programs.
March 13, 2008
Lawmakers Should Approach Wyden–Bennett Health Bill with Caution
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1849)
Although it proposes needed tax reforms, S. 334 would also replace the current health system with one that is heavily regulated by the federal government. ...
March 12, 2008
America's Unstable Health Insurance System: Recommendations for Increasing Stability and Coverage
By Michelle C. Bucci
(Backgrounder #2115)
Once regarded as stable and dependable, employer-sponsored insurance no longer addresses the needs of many workers in a changing labor market. Private ownership would guarantee ...
March 6, 2008
Medicare Advantage: The Case for Protecting Patient Choice
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1836)
The President should veto any legislation that undercuts either consumer choice or competition in Medicare Advantage.
March 6, 2008
Congress Should Support HHS Efforts to Curtail Medicaid Mismanagement
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1837)
Proposed regulations aim to prevent states from exploiting Medicaid's financing structure.
February 19, 2008
Rethinking Social Insurance
By Stuart M. Butler and Maya MacGuineas
(White Paper )
The single greatest threat to the fiscal health of the United States is the runaway growth of the nation's major retirement and health care entitlement ...
February 12, 2008
The President's Proposals for Medicaid and SCHIP: One Step Forward, One Step Back
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1806)
Congress should embrace the President's proposals for Medicaid but reject the increase in SCHIP spending.
February 11, 2008
Make Medicare Budget Options Compatible with Comprehensive Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1807)
In response to the trigger in Medicare law, Congress should move the program toward a new system based on free market principles.
February 11, 2008
State and Local Governments Must Address Unfunded Health Care Liabilities
By Greg D'Angelo
(WebMemo #1808)
Instead of seeking a federal bailout, state and local officials should enact creative, market-based reforms.
February 6, 2008
Benefits of the President's Proposed Standard Deduction for Health Insurance
By J.D. Foster, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1799)
Correcting the tax treatment of private health insurance would strengthen the consumer-driven market forces that should discipline health care prices.
February 5, 2008
The President's Medicare Budget: A First Step Toward Entitlement Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1797)
It Members of Congress do not agree with the President's proposals, they should develop reasonable alternatives of their own.
February 4, 2008
Congress Must Pull the Trigger to Contain Medicare Spending
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Alison Acosta Fraser
(WebMemo #1796)
A trigger in Medicare law presents Congress with an opportunity to reform entitlements.
January 18, 2008
Health Care and Homeland Security: Crossroads of Emergency Response
By The Heritage Foundation
(Special Report #19)
Health care reform is again being seriously discussed. Rapidly rising costs, problems with access to care and questions about quality of care have made this ...
December 28, 2007
The Crisis in America's Emergency Rooms and What Can Be Done
By John S. O’Shea, M.D.
(Backgrounder #2092)
State and federal officials can reduce the burden on emergency departments by expanding patient access to private health insurance, separating emergency services planning from hospital ...
December 28, 2007
Executive Summary: The Crisis in America's Emergency Rooms and What Can Be Done
By John S. O’Shea, M.D.
(Executive Summary #2092)
Executive Summary: State and federal officials can reduce the burden on emergency departments by expanding patient access to private health insurance, separating emergency services planning ...
December 13, 2007
Health Insurance Reform: What Families Should Know
By Connie Marshner
(WebMemo #1739)
Citizens can help to achieve conservative reforms by learning about the best policies to advance their personal freedom.
December 13, 2007
How Congress Is Killing Competition: The Future of Specialty Hospitals
By Ashok Roy, M.D.
(WebMemo #1740)
Congress should refrain from imposing statutory or regulatory restrictions on specialty hospitals.
December 11, 2007
Medicare Reform: Cleaning Up the Physician Payment Mess
By John O'Shea, M.D.
(WebMemo #1730)
To improve quality and lower costs, Congress should replace administrative pricing with a system driven by consumer choice and competition.
December 11, 2007
SCHIP: Congress Must Stop Another State Bailout
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1732)
Lawmakers must avert a taxpayer bailout of states that have mismanaged their SCHIP programs.
December 6, 2007
Expanding SCHIP: Not the Best Option for States
By Edmund F. Haislmaier and Greg D’Angelo
(WebMemo #1725)
The congressional proposal to expand eligibility for SCHIP would aggravate budget challenges that state governments will face in the coming years.
December 3, 2007
SCHIP Bill Increases Illegal Immigrants' Access to Medicaid and Undermines Welfare Reform
By Robert E. Rector
(WebMemo #1714)
The SCHIP reauthorization bill increases opportunities for welfare fraud.
December 3, 2007
SCHIP Expansion: More Birth Control for Minors, Less Involvement by Parents
By Daniel Patrick Moloney
(WebMemo #1715)
This legislation would help make contraception available to millions of children while prohibiting doctors and schools from informing the children’s parents.
December 3, 2007
The SCHIP Negotiations: A Backdoor Approach to Expanding Medicaid to the Middle Class?
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1716)
Congress must prevent the expansion of welfare into the middle class by capping eligibility for both SCHIP and Medicaid.
December 3, 2007
The SCHIP Bill: Why the Premium Assistance Provisions Won’t Work
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1717)
Congress should create a premium assistance program that empowers parents to make decisions for their children with regard to health care coverage.
November 28, 2007
Health Care Tax Credits: The Best Way to Advance Affordability, Choice, and Coverage
By Greg D'Angelo
(WebMemo #1711)
Health care tax credits coupled with other state reforms would go a long way toward improving affordability and reducing the ranks of the uninsured.
November 20, 2007
Health Care at the Crossroads: Personal Freedom or Government Control?
By The Honorable John Shadegg and Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #1051)
The most important domestic policy issue in America today is how to get the best quality care for every American at the most reasonable price. ...
November 7, 2007
No Way Out: The Fruitless SCHIP Negotiations
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1698)
Efforts to reach a compromise on SCHIP are unlikely to resolve the fundamental problems with the House bill.
November 2, 2007
SCHIP Will Not Improve Quality of Kids' Health Care
By John S. O’Shea, M.D.
(WebMemo #1687)
SCHIP has not performed well in terms of stable coverage, access to primary care and preventive services, and the quality of care.
October 30, 2007
The More Children, More Choices Act of 2007: Middle-Class Tax Relief for Families with Kids
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1681)
Congress has a chance to accomplish the same level of health coverage without disrupting the existing coverage of families with children.
October 29, 2007
The Revised SCHIP Bill: Still Bad Health Policy
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1680)
The new version does not correct the deficiencies of the original.
October 1, 2007
SCHIP Plus a Tax Credit: A Compromise Health Insurance Plan for Kids
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D. and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1652)
Congress should fashion a bipartisan compromise that aims to expand coverage for the uninsured while preserving coverage for families that already have it.
September 24, 2007
SCHIP: Crafting a Better Compromise to Cover Kids
By Nina Owcharenko and Stuart Butler
(WebMemo #1635)
House and Senate leaders should negotiate a more balanced compromise that aims to expand access to private health coverage for uninsured children.
September 21, 2007
The Massachusetts Health Reform: Assessing Its Significance and Progress
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Heritage Lecture #1044)
Massachusetts has committed to restructuring its health system around the principle that individual consumers, not employers or government, should be the key decision-makers and owners ...
September 20, 2007
Why Families Should Be Concerned about SCHIP
By Connie Marshner
(WebMemo #1630)
Congress should keep SCHIP focused on uninsured children from low-income families and broaden the options available to middle-income families whose children are uninsured.
September 19, 2007
SCHIP and "Crowd-Out": The High Cost of Expanding Eligibility
By Paul L. Winfree and Greg D'Angelo
(WebMemo #1627)
Expanding SCHIP to cover children in higher income families is not an efficient or cost-effective way to reduce the number of uninsured children.
August 29, 2007
The House SCHIP Bill: Enlisting States as Agents of Government Dependency
By Cheryl S. Smith
(WebMemo #1593)
For the sake of taxpayers and the truly needy, Congress must reject budget gimmicks that will turn SCHIP into a permanent, open-ended entitlement program.
August 27, 2007
The Administration's SCHIP Regulations: A Sound Prescription
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1591)
The Bush Administration moves to restore SCHIP's focus on low-income children.
August 14, 2007
Expanding SCHIP Will Challenge State Finances: A State-by-State Analysis
By Greg D’Angelo, Michelle C. Bucci, and Marcus Newland
(WebMemo #1586)
State-by-state numbers on how Congress's SCHIP expansion plans would hit state budgets.
August 1, 2007
The House SCHIP Bill: Cutting Medicare, Undercutting Private Coverage, and Expanding Dependency
By Cheryl Smith with Robert E. Moffit
(WebMemo #1580)
Congress should stake out an entirely different policy that centers on reaffirming the original intent of the law, expanding private coverage, and preserving choice for ...
July 31, 2007
Health Care Tax Credits: The Right Prescription for Expanded Health Care Coverage
By JD Foster
(WebMemo #1579)
Expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program would be a step toward a government-run health care system. Instead, Congress should consider tax policy changes that ...
July 30, 2007
State Health Reform: How to Fund a Statewide Health Insurance Exchange
By Greg D'Angelo and Edmund F. Haislmaier
(WebMemo #1573)
The five core financial components of a state health insurance exchange.
July 30, 2007
Senate SCHIP Bill Makes a Mockery of PAYGO Budget Rules
By Brian M. Riedl
(WebMemo #1576)
Turning their backs on a campaign promise, Senate Democrats have proposed a bill that would put into motion $60 billion in new deficit spending over ...
July 30, 2007
Beyond SCHIP: A Serious Proposal to Reduce Uninsurance
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.d.
(WebMemo #1577)
A bold and innovative proposal would reduce the number of uninsured by an estimated 24 million by eliminating the unfairness of the federal tax treatment ...
July 26, 2007
State Health Care Reform: The Benefits and Limits of "Reinsurance"
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(WebMemo #1568)
When most people refer to “reinsurance” in health care, what they really mean is the related concept of risk transfer or risk-pooling arrangements. Although such ...
July 23, 2007
State Health Reform: How Pooling Arrangements Can Increase Small-Business Coverage
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(WebMemo #1563)
By combining sound program design with other market-based reforms, state policymakers can create pooling arrangements that increase the number of insured workers and improve the ...
July 23, 2007
Redesigning SCHIP to Strengthen Private Health Insurance for Working Families
By Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1564)
A proposal from the Senate Finance Committee to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program would displace private health care coverage. In legislation to reauthorize ...
July 16, 2007
The Phantom Economic Benefits of SCHIP Expansion
By JD Foster, Ph.D., and Michael Lumley
(WebMemo #1557)
An advocacy group's study showing economic gains from SCHIP expansion is based on faulty premises.
July 11, 2007
22 Million New Smokers Needed: Funding SCHIP Expansion with a Tobacco Tax
By Michelle C. Bucci and William W. Beach
(WebMemo #1548)
Rather than making SCHIP dependent on increasing the number of smokers, Congress should refrain from narrow government program expansions and work on a broader strategy ...
July 9, 2007
SCHIP Reauthorization: Congress Should Beware of Creating a New Entitlement
By Nicola Moore and JD Foster, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1540)
Congress ought to focus on addressing the entitlement spending problem it has already created. Expanding yet another federal healthcare program would be reckless, risky, and ...
July 9, 2007
The Crisis in Hospital Emergency Departments: Overcoming the Burden of Federal Regulation
By John S. O'Shea, M.D.
(Backgrounder #2050)
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act makes the hospitals and doctors that provide emergency care to the uninsured less able and increasingly less ...
July 9, 2007
Expanding SCHIP into AMT Territory: SCHIP Plan Would Extend Welfare to Wealthy Families
By Rea S. Hederman, Jr.
(WebMemo #1546)
A proposed expansion of the children's health care program would provide subsidies to families so wealthy that they pay the AMT.
June 27, 2007
The State Children's Health Insurance Program: High Stakes for American Families
By Connie Marshner and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1528)
Congress must strengthen private sector options in SCHIP to reduce dependency on government, restore parental responsibility, and protect taxpayers.
June 21, 2007
SCHIP and "Crowd-Out": How Public Program Expansion Reduces Private Coverage
By Andrew M. Grossman and Greg D'Angelo
(WebMemo #1518)
As Congress considers expanding SCHIP up the income ladder, it should recognize that throwing more money into the program will increasingly "crowd out" private funding ...
June 20, 2007
State-Based Health Reform: A Comparison of Health Insurance Exchanges and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1515)
State officials should take the best features of the FEHBP and apply them to their own health insurance markets. A health insurance exchange accomplishes this. ...
June 13, 2007
Competition: A Prescription for Health Care Transformation
By The Honorable Tom Coburn, M.D., Joseph Antos, Ph.D., and Grace-Marie Turner
(Heritage Lecture #1030)
America is going to have either a government-run health care system in which politicians and bureaucrats make the key decisions or a consumer-driven system in ...
May 24, 2007
Children's Health: SCHIP Should Not Become a Welfare Entitlement
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1473)
To protect taxpayers and preserve private sector aspects of the program, Congress must prevent the State Children's Health Insurance Program from morphing into an extension ...
May 22, 2007
Reforming SCHIP: Using Premium Assistance to Expand Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1466)
Rather than displacing private coverage with a government-run plan, Congress should empower families to make their own health care decisions and set the stage for ...
May 21, 2007
The Future of SCHIP: Family Freedom or Government Control?
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1464)
Expanding SCHIP eligibility would be a big mistake, chipping away at private coverage and placing a great burden on taxpayers.
May 4, 2007
Toward Free-Market Health Care
By Grace-Marie Turner
(Heritage Lecture #1019)
For the past six years, the health sector has been introducing patient choice and competition into a system that had been largely dominated by top-down, ...
May 3, 2007
The 2007 Medicare Trustees Report: A Trigger for Reform?
By Greg D'Angelo
(WebMemo #1442)
Congress should heed the trustees' funding warning and adopt the Medicare reforms in the President's most recent budget proposal.
May 2, 2007
Fixing SCHIP and Expanding Children's Health Care Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #2029)
Instead of moving the State Children’s Health Insurance Program closer to becoming an entitlement, increasing the fiscal burden on the states and taxpayers and crowding ...
April 17, 2007
The Medicare Fair Prescription Drug Price Act of 2007: A Step Towards Government Interference
By Greg D'Angelo
(WebMemo #1426)
Government negotiation of drug prices would substitute regulation and access restrictions for market competition and consumer choice in Medicare.
April 11, 2007
The VA Drug Pricing Model: What Senators Should Know
By Greg D'Angelo
(WebMemo #1420)
Not only would the VA pricing model reap little savings in Medicare, but it would also fail to meet the needs of beneficiaries.
April 4, 2007
The Massachusetts Health Plan: An Update and Lessons for Other States
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1414)
New estimates show that competition will help Massachusetts residents save on health coverage. Other states would do well to learn from Massachusetts's experience.
March 21, 2007
More Medicaid Means Less Quality Health Care
By John O'Shea, M.D., MPA
(WebMemo #1402)
Medicaid is expensive and rapidly becoming unaffordable in many states, while the quality of care it delivers is often substandard.
March 20, 2007
Health Care Reform in Maryland: Doing It Right
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Heritage Lecture #1002)
A health insurance exchange facilitates personal, portable insurance independent of the place of work; makes efforts to insure the uninsured more targeted and effective, breaking ...
March 8, 2007
After Walter Reed: How to Fix Military Medicine
By Daniel H. Johnson, Jr., M.D.
(WebMemo #1388)
Introduce competition into military health care to prevent tragedies like the one at Walter Reed from ever recurring.
March 5, 2007
Health Insurance for Uninsured Children: Doing Health Care Right
By Nina Owcharenko
(Heritage Lecture #997)
The lack of health insurance among children is important, as it is for all uninsured. Policy for children should be family-oriented, and one of the ...
March 5, 2007
The Truth About SCHIP Shortfalls
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1381)
Congress should resist rewarding states that have ignored SCHIP's intent and exceeded its scope.
March 1, 2007
The Health Insurance Exchange: Enabling Freedom of Conscience in Health Care
By Connie Marshner
(WebMemo #1377)
State-level health insurance exchanges present a promising opportunity to offer greater freedom of choice and freedom of conscience.
February 21, 2007
Medicare Malady #04-07: Making a Mess of the Medicare Drug Coverage
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
John O'Shea doesn’t play a doctor on TV. He is one – a Harvard educated surgeon with first-hand experience in dealing with Medicare.
February 7, 2007
The President's Budget: Improving Medicaid and SCHIP
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1348)
The President’s budget for Medicaid and SCHIP provides policymakers with a rational and positive roadmap for the future for these programs.
February 6, 2007
The President's Medicare Budget Proposal: A Step Forward on Entitlement Spending
By Robert E. Moffit
(WebMemo #1344)
In his FY 2008 budget, the President has proposed a set of serious Medicare proposals that will begin to address the enormous fiscal challenge of ...
February 6, 2007
How Bush's Health Care Tax Plan Will Raise Wages
By James Sherk and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1345)
By limiting the tax relief for company-sponsored health coverage, the President’s health plan would encourage workers and their employers to review the structure of compensation. ...
January 30, 2007
Addressing Adverse Selection Concerns Under the President's Health Care Proposal
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1332)
To the extent that adverse selection becomes a problem, there are tools that could be used to address it within the context of the President's ...
January 25, 2007
A Predictable Mess: Medicare's Physician Payment System Offers Lessons Against Drug Price Negotiation
By John S. O'Shea, M.D., MPA
(WebMemo #1330)
Medicare's physician payment system is a mess. There's no reason to impose it on seniors' drugs with government price "negotiation."
January 22, 2007
Making Health Care Affordable: Bush's Bold Health Tax Reform Plan
By Stuart M. Butler and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1316)
A sound basis for a serious discussion on how the tax treatment of health care should be reformed, consistent with good tax policy.
January 22, 2007
Transparency in Health Care: What Consumers Need to Know
By Honorable Alex M. Azar II, Thomas P. Miller, David B. Kendall, and Walton Francis
(Heritage Lecture #986)
Consumer-driven health care begins to encourage more cost- and value-sensitive decision-making in decentralized, individual-level decisions. The health care market responds to economic laws just as ...
January 22, 2007
The Schwarzenegger Health Plan: A Great Leap Forward for Bigger Government
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1317)
The Governor's proposed health plan is a mélange of bad health policy, unwise tax increases, and missed opportunities.
January 12, 2007
Medicare Malady #03-07: You Call This "Negotiating"?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Whether you are hammering out a union contract, settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or getting your five year old to eat vegetables, everybody in the world ...
January 11, 2007
Hearing on Prescription Drug Pricing and Negotiation for the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Testimony )
Hearing on Prescription Drug Pricing and Negotiation for the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
January 11, 2007
Medicare Malady #02-07: Government "Negotiation" = Higher Drug Prices
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
The Congressional Budget Office yesterday threw cold water on House Democrats all ready to make the feds negotiate Medicare drug prices. Turns out, according to ...
January 11, 2007
H.R. 4: A Confusing and Contradictory Prescription for Medicare Drugs
By Greg D'Angelo, and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1306)
The federal government cannot really "negotiate" drug prices in the Medicare program; it can only "set"prices, harming seniors in the process.
January 9, 2007
Medicare Malady #01-07: Drug Negotiations No Cure for Medicare's Ills
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Medicare patients might be denied access to new or preferred drugs, if Washington bureaucrats deem them “too expensive.” The only way around that problem? Price ...
December 18, 2006
The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care
By David Gratzer, M.D.
(Heritage Lecture #982)
The most effective way to reform America's expensive and unstable health care system is to build on the free-market principles of individual choice and competition: ...
December 5, 2006
Keeping the State Children's Health Care Program Focused on Federal Objectives
By Nina Owcharenko
(Heritage Lecture #980)
During the upcoming SCHIP reauthorization debate, federal lawmakers have the responsibility to evaluate both the effectiveness of the program's funding and the soundness of the ...
December 5, 2006
The Urgent Need to Reform Medicare's Physician Payment System
By John S. O'Shea, M.D.
(Backgrounder #1986)
Congress should move toward a defined-contribution system in Medicare, at least for new retirees; reject any regulatory scheme that increases the already heavy regulatory burdens ...
December 1, 2006
Why the New Congress Should Not Fix Drug Prices
By Greg D'Angelo
(WebMemo #1270)
Fixing prescription drug prices in Medicare would likely raise costs and stifle innovation.
October 20, 2006
Building on the Successes of Health Savings Accounts
By Greg D'Angelo and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1239)
How to improve HSAs and make all health insurance more affordable and better tailored to consumers.
October 5, 2006
The Rationale for a Statewide Health Insurance Exchange
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1230)
Statewide health insurance exchanges give individuals and families the opportunity to secure the health plans of their choice without losing tax benefits.
September 22, 2006
High-Priced Pain: What to Expect from a Single-Payer Health Care System
By Kevin C. Fleming, M.D.
(Backgrounder #1973)
The problems of America's health care system can best be addressed through market-based solutions. The evidence indicates that under national health insurance, the promise of ...
September 22, 2006
High-Priced Pain: What to Expect from a Single-Payer Health Care System
By Kevin C. Fleming, M.D.
(Executive Summary #1973)
The problems of America’s health care system can best be addressed through market-based solutions. The evidence indicates that under national health insurance, the promise of ...
August 30, 2006
The Tax Equity and Affordability Act: A Solution for the Uninsured
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1963)
Congress should provide individuals with the ability to control their own health care decisions. The Tax Equity and Affordability Act, by giving individuals who do ...
August 7, 2006
The Baldwin–Price Health Bill: Bipartisan Encouragement for State Action on the Uninsured
By Stuart Butler, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1190)
A new way to break free of the deadlock in health care reform.
July 25, 2006
The Effect of State Regulations on Health Insurance Premiums: A Revised Analysis
By Michael J. New, Ph.D.
(Center for Data Analysis Report #06-04)
Many health policy analysts who cite Census Bureau statistics argue for greater government intervention in health care as a way to cover a larger percentage ...
July 18, 2006
The Massachusetts Health Plan: Lessons for the States
By Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1953)
Several features of the Massachusetts health plan could empower individuals to buy and own their own health insurance policies and take these policies with them ...
July 17, 2006
The Health Care Choice Act:
Eliminating Barriers to Personal Freedom and Market Competition
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph. D.
(WebMemo #1164)
While interstate commerce in goods and services is routine in virtually every other area of the national economy, such as banking and financial services, it ...
June 19, 2006
A Health Policy Agenda for the House of Representatives
By Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1133)
Last month, the United States Senate scheduled a "Health Week" to consider modest changes to the health care system. It failed to pass anything.
June 16, 2006
Health Care Information Technology: Getting the Policy Right
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(WebMemo #1131)
While health care transactions generate an enormous volume of data, too much of it is disjointed and inefficiently used. Recent studies indicate that better management ...
June 15, 2006
The Voinovich-Bingaman Bill: Letting the States Take the Lead in Extending Health Insurance
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph. D.
(WebMemo #1128)
Last month's "Health Week" in the U.S. Senate, just like the national "Cover the Uninsured Week" also held in May, failed to result in any ...
June 14, 2006
Getting Health Savings Accounts Right
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1127)
The growing success of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) is a policy victory, but Congress should be cautious not to overstep the role of the government ...
May 15, 2006
Patients' Freedom of Conscience: The Case for Values-Driven Health Plans
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Jennifer A. Marshall, and Grace V. Smith
(Backgrounder #1933)
Because most Americans have little control over the terms or conditions of their health insurance contracts or the payment of premiums, policymakers should (1) allow ...
May 15, 2006
Patients' Freedom of Conscience: The Case for Values-Driven Health Plans
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Jennifer A. Marshall,
and Grace V. Smith
(Executive Summary #1933)
Executive Summary: Because most Americans have little control over the terms or conditions of their health insurance contracts or the payment of premiums, policymakers should ...
May 15, 2006
Doing It Right: The District of Columbia Health Insurance Market Reform
By Lawrence H. Mirel and Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Heritage Lecture #936)
Under the proposed D.C. Equal Access to Health Insurance Act, all of the incentives in the system would be aligned to put the needs of ...
May 11, 2006
Building on the President's Health Care Agenda
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1934)
The President's health care agenda would provide tax equity, promote portability, improve health savings accounts, and expand coverage options. Congress should build on these elements ...
May 5, 2006
Competition and Federalism: The Right Remedy for Excessive Health Insurance Regulation
By Nina Owcharenko, Edmund Haislmaier and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1060)
Open competition in health care markets would benefit consumers.
May 1, 2006
Medicare and Social Security: Big Entitlement Costs on the Horizon
By David C. John and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1054)
Social Security and Medicare have promised $37 trillion more in benefits to senior and disabled workers than the programs will be able to pay.
April 28, 2006
A Serious Senate Agenda for "Health Week"
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1052)
The Senate should consider policies that promote personal control over health care dollars, expand consumer choice and competition, and reduce health care regulations
April 20, 2006
Understanding Key Parts of the Massachusetts Health Plan
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1045)
Clear explanation answers many criticisms of the Massachusetts plan.
April 13, 2006
Health Policy in Maryland and Massachusetts: A Study in Contrasts
By Regina E. Herzlinger
(WebMemo #1037)
"Fair Share" is not the right way to address the problem of the uninsured.
April 11, 2006
The Significance of Massachusetts Health Reform
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(WebMemo #1035)
Last week the Massachusetts legislature passed comprehensive health care reform legislation almost a year after Governor Romney first proposed the key elements of a reform ...
March 17, 2006
Proceed with Caution: The Unintended Consequences of Expanding VA Access
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #1018)
Expanding VA medical care is not the best way to help veterans.
February 8, 2006
The President's Modest Medicare Budget Proposal
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #993)
With Medicare costs set to explode, the President proposes minor savings.
January 31, 2006
State of the Union 2006: The Health Care Initiatives
By Robert E. Moffit and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #976)
The President wants to level the playing field for individuals buying health coverage. That's a good idea.
January 17, 2006
Code Blue: The Case for Serious State Medical Liability Reform
By Randolph W. Pate, J.D., M.P.H., and Derek Hunter
(Backgrounder #1908)
Access to affordable care is being compromised for millions of Americans. To address the medical malpractice crisis in a way that reflects their particular circumstances, ...
December 16, 2005
Vaccine Liability: Congress Should Give Vaccines a Shot in the Arm
By Randolph W. Pate, J.D., MPH
(WebMemo #946)
Extending the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program to cover more vaccines will give vaccine manufacturers breathing room to innovate and bring their life-saving products to market ...
December 14, 2005
Congress's Budget Reconciliation Package Should Not Hinder Hospital Specialization
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #940)
Blocking specialization would take aim directly at high-quality medical treatment, to the detriment of millions of Americans.
December 6, 2005
Budget Reconciliation Guide for Conferees
By Alison Acosta Fraser (Editor)
(WebMemo #933)
Returning to fiscal sanity means setting priorities and making tough choices.
December 2, 2005
After Katrina: How Congress Should Ensure Health Insurance Continuity
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #1900)
A temporary, refundable, and advanceable health insurance tax credit would help to ensure that the vast majority of those who had private health insurance coverage ...
November 18, 2005
Florida and South Carolina: Two Serious Efforts to Improve Medicaid
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #920)
Bold action from two states to bring the principles of choice, personal control, and competition into Medicaid.
November 10, 2005
The Senate Reconciliation Bill: Wrapping Doctors in More Medicare Red Tape
By Richard Dolinar, M.D.
(WebMemo #912)
Congress is poised to entangle Medicare doctors in even more bureaucratic red tape. In its version of the budget reconciliation bill, the Senate voted to ...
November 8, 2005
Health Care Tax Credits: Designing an Alternative to Employer-Based Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1895)
Individual health care tax credits, in combination with a robust market for insurance products, would offer individuals the opportunity to secure private health care coverage ...
November 3, 2005
Guaranteed Future Pain and Suffering: The Recent Research on Drug Price Controls
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #908)
The United States Senate may soon consider a measure that would strike an important provision of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act that restricts the government's ...
November 3, 2005
The Senate Medicare Options: Serious Savings or Business as Usual?
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #911)
Two proposals: one is innovative and bold, one less so.
October 27, 2005
Baby Steps: Congressional Action on Medicaid Reform
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #898)
Some modest savings but fundamental reform is needed to save Medicaid.
October 27, 2005
The Effect of State Regulations on Health Insurance Premiums: A Preliminary Analysis
By Michael J. New, Ph.D.
(Center for Data Analysis Report #05-07)
Those who argue for greater government intervention in health care often overlook the fact that government policy, particularly excessive regulatory intervention, may price many Americans ...
October 25, 2005
Values-Driven Healthcare: Freedom of Conscience for the Consumer
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Grace V. Smith, and Jennifer A. Marshall
(WebMemo #894)
Healthcare reform should create a market in which Americans can choose health coverage that is consistent with their ethical, moral, and religious convictions.
October 11, 2005
The Economic and Fiscal Effects of Financing Medicare's Unfunded Liabilities
By Tracy L. Foertsch, Ph.D., and Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D.
(Center for Data Analysis Report #05-06)
Simply raising taxes to finance promised Medicare benefits would likely prove counterproductive because the economic costs would be prohibitive, even if policymakers use new tax ...
October 11, 2005
Paying for Medicare: An Economic Look at the Program's Unfunded Liabilities
By Tracy L. Foertsch, Ph.D., and Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #880)
The economic costs of funding Medicare with higher taxes are, to say the least, prohibitive.
October 6, 2005
The Looming Problem of Long-Term Care and Medicaid Spending
By Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #875)
The Medicaid Commission needs to come up with a way to promote private long-term care insurance.
October 5, 2005
Pay for Performance or Compliance? A Second Opinion on Medicare Reimbursement
By Richard Dolinar, M.D., and S. Luke Leininger
(Backgrounder #1882)
Congress should revisit Medicare reimbursement within the context of comprehensive Medicare reform, transforming Medicare into a system of "premium support" that resembles the Federal Employees ...
October 5, 2005
Executive Summary: Pay for Performance or Compliance? A Second Opinion on Medicare Reimbursement
By Richard Dolinar, M.D., and S. Luke Leininger
(Executive Summary #1882)
Congress should revisit Medicare reimbursement within the context of comprehensive Medicare reform, transforming Medicare into a system of "premium support" that resembles the Federal Employees ...
September 26, 2005
Katrina's Victims Deserve Better than Medicaid
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #862)
Instead, Congress should help survivors maintain or obtain private health care coverage.
September 22, 2005
Paying for Katrina Relief: Cancel or Delay the Medicare Drug Benefit
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #857)
Delaying the drug benefit would save tens of billions of dollars that could be put to better use in Katrina recovery.
September 21, 2005
The White House Is Right To Threaten a Veto on Drug Importation
By Andrew M. Grossman
(WebMemo #855)
Another year, another bill, and another amendment on prescription drug importation. It's still bad policy.
September 19, 2005
Command and Control: Maine's Dirigo Health Care Program
By Tarren Bragdon
(Backgrounder #1878)
Effective health care reform should be based on the principle that personal decisions are best left up to individuals and their doctors, not government officials, ...
September 19, 2005
Executive Summary: Command and Control: Maine's Dirigo Health Care Program
By Tarren Bragdon
(Executive Summary #1878)
Executive Summary: Effective health care reform should be based on the principle that personal decisions are best left up to individuals and their doctors, not ...
September 6, 2005
Health Savings Accounts: The News Keeps Getting Better
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #833)
As the price of insurance rises, HSAs cost less than they did a year ago.
July 22, 2005
A Good Start: The House Health Care Reform Bills
By Edmund F. Haislmaier, Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #803)
Three positive steps and one puzzling omission.
July 22, 2005
A Victory for Freedom: The Canadian Supreme Court's Ruling on Private Health Care
By Jacques Chaoulli, M.D.
(Heritage Lecture #892)
Canada's Supreme Court struck down a Quebec law that had banned private health insurance and private payment for services covered under Canada's socialized health care ...
July 20, 2005
The Promise of Personalized Health Care: Why and How To Encourage Diversity and Choice
By Christina Sochacki and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #801)
The era or personalized health care is upon us. Regulation needs to catch up to medicine.
July 1, 2005
Doing Your Own Health Care Thing: American Seniors vs. Canadian Citizens
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #783)
A new decision frees Quebecois to purchase medical care; will U.S. seniors be next?
June 24, 2005
Federal Stem Cell Research: What Taxpayers Should Know
By Kelly Hollowell, J.D., Ph.D., Philip H. Coelho, The Honorable David Weldon, M.D., and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #888)
The derivation of stem cells from human embryos raises a wide range of difficult ethical and moral questions. These include the status of the embryo ...
June 21, 2005
A Road Map for Medicaid Reform
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1863)
The best Medicaid policy would mainstream as many individuals and families as possible into private coverage and encourage self-direction for those the Medicaid safety net ...
June 15, 2005
Enhancing Federalism to Address Medicaid and the Uninsured
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
Potential savings in Medicaid should be considered within the general goal of increasing coverage.
June 14, 2005
High Anxiety: Implementing the Medicare Prescription Drug Program
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1860)
Congress has launched the largest entitlement expansion since the Great Society, accompanied by an equally massive new experiment in central planning. Rather than reflect current ...
June 14, 2005
Executive Summary: High Anxiety: Implementing the Medicare Prescription Drug Program
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1860)
Executive Summary: Congress has launched the largest entitlement expansion since the Great Society, accompanied by an equally massive new experiment in central planning. Rather than ...
May 24, 2005
Federal Stem Cell Research: What Taxpayers Should Know
By Robert Moffit, Ph.D., Kelly Hollowell, Ph.D., Phil Coelho, and the Honorable Dave Weldon
(WebMemo #749)
A diverse group of experts addresses the scientific and ethical issues.
April 28, 2005
Medicare Drug Cost Estimates: What Congress Knows Now
By Derek Hunter
(Backgrounder #1849)
The financial burdens of the expanded Medicare drug entitlement impose an enormous burden on current and future taxpayers. Congress can act by targeting drug subsidies ...
April 12, 2005
The Top Ten Reasons for Medicaid Reform
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #718)
Just ten?
March 30, 2005
Congress Should Get Serious About Medicaid
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #705)
The President's proposal would lay the foundation for Medicaid reform.
March 11, 2005
Bitter Pills #18: The Great Retirement Drug Benefit Dump Starts Here
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Now it begins: "Delphi Corp., the world's largest auto parts supplier, will stop paying medical insurance in 2007 for 4,000 retired salaried workers and thousands ...
March 9, 2005
Guaranteed Future Pain and Suffering: The Recent Research on Drug Price Controls
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #680)
Price controls on drugs would be dangerous.
March 3, 2005
Weird Science: Projecting the Effects of Medicare's Odd Drug Benefit Design
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(WebMemo #674)
Millions of seniors are in for a surprise. And so are their representatives on Congress.
February 14, 2005
Making Association Health Plans a Success
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1824)
Congress can make Association Health Plans even more successful by advancing consumer-oriented mechanisms, such as competition, consumer choice, and a nimble regulatory structure; but policymakers ...
February 11, 2005
Bitter Pills #17: $534 Billion. $720 Billion. What Next?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Question: "How much money will it cost taxpayers to give all Medicare patients prescription-drug coverage over the next 10 years?"
February 10, 2005
Time To Revisit the Costly Medicare Drug Entitlement
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #661)
The drug entitlement was a costly mistake that needs to be repealed or drastically revamped
February 2, 2005
Bitter Pills #16: A Law of Unintended Consequences
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
As the new Medicare prescription-drug entitlement draws closer to reality, there's one group that will unintentionally benefit from it at taxpayer expense: private companies.
January 4, 2005
Early Warning on Medicare Drug Implementation
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #631)
Congress still has time--barely--to fix this mess.
December 17, 2004
Will Congress Contain Medicare's Exploding Costs?
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D., Jeff Lemieux, and Daniel L. Crippen, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #857)
To develop true Medicare reform, the Administration and Congress needs a clearer set of illness-specific, beneficiary-level data-particularly for the oldest and sickest Medicare patients. This ...
November 10, 2004
The Top Ten Things People Believe About Canadian Health Care, But Shouldn't
By Brian Lee Crowley
(Heritage Lecture #856)
There exist many indefensible myths about the Canadian single-payer health care system. Among these myths are: that Canada has the best health care system in ...
November 8, 2004
What Federal Workers Are Doing Today that You Can't
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #604)
Federal workers get to choose their health plans. You don't.
October 12, 2004
An Examination of the Bush Health Care Agenda
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1804)
President Bush's health care agenda would increase public and private coverage for millions of Americans. The outlined health policy agenda introduces key changes in the ...
October 12, 2004
Executive Summary: An Examination of the Bush Health Care Agenda
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Summary #1804)
Executive Summary: President Bush's health care agenda would increase public and private coverage for millions of Americans. The outlined health policy agenda introduces key changes ...
October 12, 2004
Details Matter: A Closer Look at Senator Kerry's Health Care Plan
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D, Nina Owcharenko, and Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #1805)
Senator John Kerry's health care plan would expand coverage but would fall short in transforming health insurance markets and making patients the key decision makers ...
October 12, 2004
Executive Summary: Details Matter: A Closer Look at Senator Kerry's Health Care Plan
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D, Nina Owcharenko, and Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Executive Summary #1805)
Executive Summary: Senator John Kerry's health care plan would expand coverage but would fall short in transforming health insurance markets and making patients the key ...
September 21, 2004
Health Savings Accounts and the FEHBP: Perfect Together
By Andrew Grossman and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #571)
the 'adverse selection' argument doesn't justify opposition to HSAs in the FEHBP.
September 14, 2004
Lessons of Success: What Congress Can Learn from the Federal Employees Program
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #565)
FEHBP's market principles account for its record of success and its popularity as a model for reform.
August 27, 2004
Bitter Pills #14: Will Medicare Discourage Coverage Options?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Proponents of last year's Medicare overhaul trumpeted the bill's promise to let seniors choose from a variety of health coverage options beginning in 2006.
August 27, 2004
The Data on Poverty and Health Insurance You're Not Reading
By Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #556)
Do the poor tend to stay poor? Do those who lack health insurance stay uninsured for short or long periods of time?
August 27, 2004
Bitter Pills #15: Forget Vietnam – Here's What Bush and Kerry Should Talk About
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Swift boats and missing service records. Sept. 11 and Iraq. The economy and jobs. Voters have heard plenty about these topics.
August 26, 2004
Counting the Uninsured: Why Congress Should Look Beyond the Census Figures
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #555)
Today, the Census Bureau reports that there are 44.9 million uninsured. But this Census Bureau number is inadequate and, in several important respects, unreliable.
August 24, 2004
Why It's Time for Faith-Based Health Plans
By Phyllis Berry Myers, Richard Swenson, M.D., Michael O'Dea, and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #850)
Most people today do not really know what is in their health plans-particularly when it comes to issues of medical ethics, including abortion. A change ...
August 12, 2004
A Vision For Health System Change
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Daniel "Stormy" Johnson, M.D., Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D., Stan Dorn, J.D., John Goodman, Ph.D., and Kenneth Thorpe, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #848)
From a policy standpoint, health coverage assistance should be focused on those who need it most; insurance and coverage choices should not be dependent upon ...
August 2, 2004
Bitter Pills #13: How The Government Fixes A Problem (With Your Money)
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Fixing one problem can sometimes create another. Just ask federal lawmakers about their attempts to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare.
July 30, 2004
The Medicare Drug Discount Card: First Phase of a Market Revolution?
By Grace-Marie Turner and Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #846)
The Medicare prescription drug discount card introduces incentives for consumer choice and genuine price competition into the Medicare program. The program is designed to help ...
July 20, 2004
Debunking the Myths of Drug Importation
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #542)
The benefits of drug importation may be more myth than reality.
July 15, 2004
The Medicare Discount Drug Cards: One Month In
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #538)
A month since its commencement, the Medicare Discount Drug Card program is already showing significant promise in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors.
July 12, 2004
Bitter Pills #12: Can You See The Big Picture in Medicare Spending?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
If you can, you know that the problem is more than just the recent drug entitlement.
"Indeed, the emerging Medicare crisis is reflective of the larger ...
June 18, 2004
Bitter Pills #11: If It Might Succeed, Kill It
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
President Reagan once said government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: "If it moves, tax it. If it ...
June 18, 2004
Can Congress Contain Explosive Medicare Costs?
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #523)
Can Congress contain these costs and reduce the burden of debt that's now on future generations' shoulders? If so, how?
June 17, 2004
Reducing Uninsurance by Reforming Health Insurance in the Small-Business Sector
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1769)
Individual tax credits for health coverage and an insurance infrastructure with affordable choices would enable uninsured families in the small-business sector to have coverage that ...
June 1, 2004
Bitter Pills #10: Why Can't Other States Be Like Indiana?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Medicare discount drug cards are available for the first time ever today (June 1). In addition to substantial savings on retail drugs for all seniors, ...
May 28, 2004
The Truth About the Medicare Drug Discount Card
By Derek Hunter
(Backgrounder #1766)
The Medicare Discount Drug Card introduces transparency to drug prices while empowering consumers with the freedom to choose the options that are best for them. ...
May 25, 2004
Compromising Quality: The High Cost of Government Drug Purchasing
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #1764)
Some in Congress would make an already deeply flawed Medicare drug benefit worse by expanding the bureaucracy's power to manage and price prescription drug coverage, ...
May 21, 2004
Bitter Pills #9: Rigged to Fail: Medicare's Doomed "Demonstration" Program
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Part of the new Medicare law calls for a "demonstration program" in six metropolitan areas, allowing private health care plans to offer seniors health coverage ...
May 14, 2004
Bitter Pills #8: Drug Discount Cards: Why Must the Good Die Young (in 2006)?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Only Congress could manage to come up with a truly effective approach to a serious problem—and make it temporary.
May 12, 2004
Bringing True Competitiveness to Health Care
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #502)
Why AHPs, FSAs, and medical malpractice relief don't do it.
May 10, 2004
Bitter Pills #7: The "Early Warning" That Lawmakers Will Likely Ignore
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
What's the point of having an "early warning system" if folks aren't likely to heed it? Ask lawmakers on Capitol Hill. In approving a Medicare ...
April 29, 2004
Bitter Pills #6: How To Drain The Swamp of the 2003 Medicare Drug Law
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
"When you're up to your (rear) in alligators," an old saying goes, "it's hard to remember that your original purpose was to drain the swamp." ...
April 28, 2004
New Data on Health Insurance, the Working Poor, and the Benefits of Health Care Tax Changes
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #492)
New data show individual health plans are more affordable than many think
April 26, 2004
Fixing the New Medicare Law #1: An Agenda for Constructive Change
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1750)
Whatever merits one may ascribe to the recently enacted Medicare law, it has aggravated, not controlled, rapidly rising Medicare costs. Its major feature is a ...
April 26, 2004
Fixing the New Medicare Law #2: How to Promote Real Medicare Cost Containment
By Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1751)
Instead of working on new and more complicated ways to set thousands of prices, Medicare should adopt a premium support framework modeled after the Federal ...
April 26, 2004
Fixing the New Medicare Law #3: How to Build on the Drug Discount Card
By Grace-Marie Turner and Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1752)
Congress has provided a good start on a properly structured drug benefit through its transitional drug card program with funding for certain low-income beneficiaries. If ...
April 21, 2004
Bitter Pills #5: All In Favor Of Bankrupting Their Children, Please Step Forward
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Who determines the overall cost of the new Medicare prescription drug entitlement? Not government auditors. Not politicians. Not lobbyists. It's people directly affected by the ...
April 16, 2004
Health Savings Accounts: How To Broaden Health Coverage for Working Families
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #481)
HSAs offer a variety of unique benefits, including more choice, greater control, and individual ownership.
April 15, 2004
Bitter Pills #4: What Was The Idea Behind The Medicare Drug Plan Again?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
For many members of Congress, the plan on Medicare was this: Add a big, universal prescription drug benefit in 2003, get the love from America's ...
April 7, 2004
Bitter Pills #4: What Was The Idea Behind The Medicare Drug Plan Again?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
For many members of Congress, the plan on Medicare was this: Add a big, universal prescription drug benefit in 2003, get the love from America's ...
April 1, 2004
How the Drug Entitlement Drives Different Medicare Cost Estimates
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #464)
Why the discrepancy in cost estimates of the Medicare bill? The chief culprit is the drug benefit, which accounts for about $100 billion of the ...
March 31, 2004
Medicare: A Ticking Time Bomb for Tax Increases
By Daniel J. Mitchell
(WebMemo #462)
Unless the mistake of the Medicare drug benefit is fixed, burgeoning entitlement spending will create enormous pressure for higher taxes.
March 30, 2004
Bitter Pills #2: Presenting A Lesson In Buyer's Remorse—D.C. Style
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
"buyer's remorse," and Washington lawmakers are having it with a Medicare prescription drug entitlement they voted for last fall. Many Republicans disliked the measure, but ...
March 30, 2004
Bitter Pills #3: Medicare Is Safe Until 2030. No, Wait. 2026. No, 2019?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
The prognosis for Medicare keeps getting worse. For one thing, the date that the program's hospital insurance trust fund will run out of cash keeps ...
March 29, 2004
Bitter Pills #1: How Much For "A Work In Progress"? $534 Billion (Or More)
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
When one federal lawmaker learned in January that the Medicare bill passed by Congress last year would cost $134 billion more than expected, he said ...
March 25, 2004
Medicare's Deepening Financial Crisis: The High Price of Fiscal Irresponsibility
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Brian M. Riedl
(Backgrounder #1740)
By delaying implementation of the Medicare drug entitlement while making the prescription drug discount a permanent feature of Medicare, including the Medicare Advantage system that ...
January 21, 2004
The State of Health Care
By Robert Moffit, Nina Owcharenko, and Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #397)
In his State of the Union address, President Bush declared, " A government run health care system is the wrong prescription. By keeping costs under ...
December 22, 2003
Is Prayer Good for Your Health? A Critique of the Scientific Research
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.; Harold G. Koenig, M.D.; Christina Puchalski, M.D.; Cynthia Cohen, Ph.D., J.D.; and Richard Sloan, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #816)
Considerable scientific research analyzing the potential connection between religious practice and prayer and health, undertaken at some of our most prestigious universities around the country, ...
December 15, 2003
The Cost of Medicare: What the Future Holds
By Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Jeff Lemieux
(Heritage Lecture #815)
Despite media reports of a landmark reform, the new Medicare law seems to be just business as usual. It will take a long time to ...
November 25, 2003
Medicare Malady #90: The Truth Is Out There
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
The Congressional Budget Office sent a letter last week to congressional leaders informing them that the Medicare prescription-drug bill would cost taxpayers about $395 billion ...
November 24, 2003
Medicare Malady #89: Who Knows What The Medicare Bill Really Costs?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
The Congressional Budget Office sent a letter last week to congressional leaders informing them that the Medicare prescription-drug bill would cost taxpayers about $395 billion ...
November 21, 2003
Medicare Malady #88: How Fast Can You Read the Medicare Drug Bill?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Is there a speed-reader in the House? How about the Senate?
November 20, 2003
Medicare Malady #87: It Comes Down To This
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
It's make-or-break time for the Medicare prescription drug bill.
November 19, 2003
A "Demonstration Project" Equals No Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1708)
The latest congressional leadership proposal for a "demonstration project" to test Medicare reform continues a tiresome pattern of bad federal health policy that undercuts the ...
November 19, 2003
Medicare Malady #86: Christmas Comes to Washington
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
It's more than a month away, but Christmas has arrived in Washington for special interest groups—in the form of the Medicare prescription drug bill.
November 18, 2003
Medicare Malady #85: Medicare Bill Not A Workhorse But An "Aardvark"
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
The Medicare prescription drug bill that came out of a House-Senate conference over the weekend is not a compromise but a weird combination of conflicting ...
November 17, 2003
Time to Rethink the Disastrous Medicare Legislation
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D., Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #370)
The Medicare conference agreement fails the two critical requirements of a responsible drug benefit program for the nation's seniors. The original idea underlying this legislation ...
November 14, 2003
State-By-State Tax Increase from Medicare Drug Benefit
By Rea S. Hederman, Jr.
(WebMemo #367)
Taxpayers would see a $41 billion tax increase next year, if Congress passes the proposed Medicare prescription drug legislation and raises taxes to pay for ...
November 14, 2003
Medicare Malady #84: Great Tests In Health Policy History?Not!
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Washington lawmakers are floating the idea of a "demonstration program" that would give seniors more choices by allowing private health plans to compete directly for ...
November 13, 2003
Medicare Malady #83: Why Test Something That Already Works?
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
One of the tougher issues for lawmakers has been whether to give seniors the right to choose better private health options. Under an agreement reached ...
November 13, 2003
A "Demonstration Project" = No Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #366)
The House–Senate conference committee outline agreement this week guts any serious long-term reform of the troubled Medicare program while proposing the single largest entitlement expansion ...
November 10, 2003
Cost Control in the Medicare Drug Bill Needs Premium Support, Not a "Trigger"
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D., Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Brian M. Riedl
(Backgrounder #1704)
The trigger proposal will do little if anything to hold down the mushrooming taxpayer cost of Medicare. It could easily be evaded by politicians who ...
November 10, 2003
Medicare Malady #81: Dinner's On Me (But You Can't Order That)
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
It sounded attractive. But then the caveats arrived: If Congress created a universal entitlement program, analysts noted, employers would drop coverage for about 4 million ...
November 10, 2003
Medicare Malady #82: Hypo-Hypocrites on The Hill
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Is there such a word as a hypo-hypocrite? If not, we might have to invent it to describe federal lawmakers who want to help Medicare ...
November 7, 2003
Medicare Malady #80: Don't Call The Coroner Yet
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
A key Democratic senator says a proposal that would allow Medicare to offer prescription drugs to all of its patients, regardless of income or need, ...
November 6, 2003
Medicare Malady #79: Medicare Survey Says? Buzzzzzz!
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
Voters are having a hard time swallowing Medicare prescription-drug proposals that are making their way through Congress.
November 5, 2003
Medicare Malady #78: Left, Right And Center Agree This Is Bad
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
A former Clinton health-care adviser. The nation's "largest progressive activist organization." And America's most prominent conservative think tank.
They don't have much in common except this: ...
November 4, 2003
Real Medicare Reform: The Right Way to do Premium Support
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #360)
In 2011, the first big wave of the huge baby-boom generation will start to retire. In these final days of the House-Senate conference on Medicare ...
November 4, 2003
Medicare Malady #77: Who Really Pays For Whose Drug Coverage
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo )
It may not know it, but Forbes has created a handy guide for health policy analysts.
October 27, 2003
More Taxpayer Subsidies Will Not Correct Congress' Medicare Drug Miscalculation
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #357)
House and Senate Medicare conferees are scrambling to find a solution to the problem of senior dumping – which will occur when former employers drop ...
October 23, 2003
What Is True Medicare Reform?
By The Honorable Jon Kyl
(Heritage Lecture #805)
Adding an FEHBP-style private option to traditional fee-for-service Medicare could provide the flexibility, choices, and economics to produce both high quality and lower cost. The ...
October 22, 2003
A New Direction for Medicaid
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #355)
Medicaid is in trouble. Budget shortfalls and the growing number of beneficiaries are forcing many states to reassess their Medicaid programs. Congress and states should ...
October 15, 2003
Will the Conferees' Medicare Insurance Provisions Really Work?
By Robert Laszewski
(Heritage Lecture #801)
Should Medicare benefits be offered in the private sector or as part of traditional Medicare? If you listen to Washington-based insurance industry trade associations, you ...
October 7, 2003
Recent Research Confirms that Seniors Will Lose Coverage Under New Medicare Legislation
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #345)
A recently released study by a former adviser to President Bill Clinton corroborates findings by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and shows that the universal ...
October 2, 2003
The Medicare Drug Entitlement's High Cost to Seniors with Employer-Based Coverage
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #344)
The House and Senate each deliberately ignored the Joint Economic Committee's sober warning when passing different versions of Medicare legislation (H.R. 1 and S. 1), ...
September 25, 2003
What New Survey Research Reveals About the Medicare Drug Debate
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #342)
A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey illustrates a huge problem facing seniors about the Medicare prescription drug debate: Too many know far too little about ...
September 24, 2003
What Will Medicare's Future Hold For Seniors and Taxpayers?
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Thomas R. Saving, Ph.D., Jeff Lemieux
(Heritage Lecture #797)
Projections of Medicare's future debt obligations are staggering. Even without any prescription drug benefits, current participants will be owed $13 trillion. New generations, whose taxes ...
August 26, 2003
What Seniors Will Lose with a Universal Medicare Drug Entitlement
By Lanhee Chen
(Backgrounder #1680)
Millions of American seniors have worked hard their entire lives in the belief that they would receive health insurance benefits, including coverage for prescription drugs, ...
August 12, 2003
The Sky's the Limit: Medicare's Upwardly Mobile Drug Cost Projections
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #326)
Whatever the outcome of the current House–Senate conference on Medicare legislation, taxpayers can depend on one thing: The cost projections of the Medicare drug entitlement ...
August 12, 2003
How Much Will the Senate Drug Bill Cost a Family of Four?
By Derek Hunter and William Beach
(WebMemo #306)
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Senate Medicare prescription drug bill will cost $400 billion over the next 10 years. This cost, however, is ...
August 7, 2003
Using the Federal Employees' Model: Nine Tests for Rational Medicare Reform
By Walton Francis
(Backgrounder #1675)
To be effective, Medicare reform must ensure that government functions as a good business partner with health plans; establish reasonable and predictable financing; allow health ...
August 7, 2003
The FEHBP as a Model for Medicare Reform: Separating Fact from Fiction
By Walton Francis
(Executive Summary #1674)
Executive Summary: In deciding the future of Medicare, Congress must choose between consumer choice or legislative and bureaucratic control of benefit design, prices, and operational ...
August 7, 2003
The FEHBP as a Model for Medicare Reform: Separating Fact from Fiction
By Walton Francis
(Backgrounder #1674)
In deciding the future of Medicare, Congress must choose between consumer choice or legislative and bureaucratic control of benefit design, prices, and operational decisions. A ...
July 30, 2003
New Medicare Drug Entitlement's Huge New Tax on Working Americans
By Brian M. Riedl and William W. Beach
(Backgrounder #1673)
President George W. Bush and many in Congress cite tax relief as the centerpiece of their economic agenda. Lawmakers who vote for the Medicare drug ...
July 25, 2003
Why Medicare Expansion Threatens the Bush Tax Cuts and Undermines Fundamental Tax Reform
By Daniel J. Mitchell, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1672)
President George W. Bush and many in Congress cite tax relief as the centerpiece of their economic agenda. Lawmakers who vote for the Medicare drug ...
July 17, 2003
How Congress's Medicare Drug Provisions Would Reduce Seniors' Existing Private Coverage
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #1668)
The House-Senate conferees now attempting to reconcile two profoundly flawed Medicare bills should go back to the drawing board and use as a blueprint the ...
July 16, 2003
The Crucial Elements of an Acceptable Medicare Bill
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1667)
In dealing with the Medicare bills now being considered in conference, Congress must face up to the task of legislating real reform, modernizing the program, ...
July 15, 2003
How the Senate Medicare Drug Bill Would Raise Senior Citizens' Out-of-Pocket Drug Costs
By Lanhee J. Chen
(WebMemo #312)
Many Medicare beneficiaries could pay up to 50 percent more for their medicines -- in some cases $600 more per year -- under the Senate's ...
June 26, 2003
Missing the Point of Medicare Reform: Why Drug Reimportation Is Bad Policy
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #304)
Some Members of Congress want to establish a policy to guarantee Americans "cheap" prescription drugs by allowing them to import drugs subject to the price ...
June 26, 2003
An Analysis of the White House Position on Medicare Legislation
By Edmund F. Haislmaier, Robert E. Moffit, and Nina Owcharenko, Center for Health Policy Studies
(WebMemo #305)
The White House Office of Communications recently issued a series of "questions and answers" on the Medicare legislation before the House and the Senate. The ...
June 25, 2003
An Analysis of House Medicare Legislation
By Lanhee J. Chen, Edmund F. Haislmaier, Robert E. Moffit, and Nina Owcharenko, Center for Health Policy Studies
(WebMemo #302)
This analysis examines the House Medicare Modernization and Prescription Drug Act of 2003 (H.R. 2473). The bill establishes a universal, but voluntary, drug benefit as ...
June 23, 2003
Time to Draw the Line on Medicare "Reform"
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #300)
The success or failure of the entire Medicare program will rest on whether or not Congress can make real reform the centerpiece of any legislative ...
June 23, 2003
Public Supports Choice In the Medicare Program
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo #301)
A Zogby International poll -- sponsored by The Galen Institute -- found there is broad support, including amongst seniors, for choice between traditional Medicare and ...
June 18, 2003
What's Wrong with the Senate Medicare Drug Bill
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #297)
Thirty-seven percent of all retirees with employer-based drug coverage would lose it under the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003, the Medicare bill ...
June 17, 2003
Analysis of the Evolving Senate Medicare Bill
By Edmund F. Haislmaier and Robert E. Moffit
(WebMemo #296)
A preliminary analysis of the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003 based on a descriptive outline of the Senate bill's provisions; it is ...
June 13, 2003
The Medicare Drug Bill: An Impending Disaster for all Americans
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #293)
Rather than combining steps to help some seniors with reforms to the unsustainable finances of the Medicare program, Congress' "reforms" will reduce choice and innovation ...
June 13, 2003
The Medicare Drug Bill: An Impending Disaster for All Americans
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #885)
Congress appears on course to enacting, and President George W. Bush is likely to sign, what Bill Clinton's Medicare administrator calls "the biggest expansion of ...
June 12, 2003
Why Congress Should Expand Displaced Trade Workers' Access to Health Care Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #290)
A federal health care tax credit, made possible by the 2002 Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, has an unintended consequence: strictly defines what constitutes qualified health ...
June 10, 2003
FEHB 101: What Medicare Reformers Should Know
By The Honorable Kay Coles James
(Heritage Lecture #792)
President George W. Bush's Medicare reform framework would guarantee all seniors access to a prescription drug benefit, as well as the freedom and opportunity to ...
June 6, 2003
Issues of Concern Related to Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit Ph. D.
(WebMemo #288)
Three important issues are imperative to achieve real Medicare reform. Specific provisions can change the structure of Medicare from a rigid system of central planning ...
June 4, 2003
Comparing the Performance of Medicare and the FEHBP
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #285)
Compares the performance of Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and brings attention to the enormous weaknesses in the Medicare program.
June 2, 2003
Representative Gephardt's Costly Health Plan
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #1657)
Representative Richard Gephardt's proposal to expand health insurance coverage through a combination of new corporate and individual tax credits and expansions of Medicare, Medicaid, and ...
May 28, 2003
Why Maine Rx Is the Wrong Model For Improving Access to Prescription Drugs
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #282)
Health policy makers at all levels should resist accepting this Supreme Court decision as an endorsement of policy and instead re-evaluate the real effects such ...
May 27, 2003
Government Controls on Access to Drugs: What Seniors Can Learn from Medicaid Drug Policies
By Derek Hunter
(Backgrounder #1655)
Seniors should realize that efforts to control costs in Medicare will likely tie the hands of physicians by limiting treatment options, as they have in ...
May 22, 2003
Building A Better Medicare Program: The Senate Aging Committee's Focus on Patient Choice and Market Competition
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #279)
Summary of testimony from four experts -- before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging -- examining ways to strengthen and improve the Medicare program. ...
May 16, 2003
Health Plan Choice in Rural Areas
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #275)
As Members of Congress consider Medicare reform options, a recurrent issue is the provision of health plan choice for residents of rural areas.
May 6, 2003
A Road Map to Medicare Reform: Building on the Experience of the FEHBP
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
Congressional testimony by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
April 18, 2003
The Disparity In Value Between FEHBP and Medicare Coverage
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #262)
Derek Hunter evaluates the differences between FEHBP and Medicare Coverage.
April 17, 2003
Giving Rural Seniors a Choice of Health Plans: The FEHBP Model for Medicare Reform
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #258)
To guarantee the right to choose a better plan, Congress should model Medicare reform after the successful Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP).
April 17, 2003
Health Care Choice and Patient Satisfaction
By Derek Hunter
(WebMemo #259)
President George W. Bush wants to reform Medicare along the same lines as the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the choice-driven program that insures ...
April 8, 2003
Comparing Medicare and Private Health Insurance Spending
By Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D., with Alfredo Goyburu
(WebMemo #250)
Although private insurance spending has risen faster than Medicare spending over the past 30 years, the value of private insurance has grown just as rapidly. ...
March 18, 2003
The 2003 Trustees' Report on the Medicare Program
By Robert E. Moffit Ph.D.
(WebMemo #223)
Outlines keyfindings in the Trustees' Report.
March 14, 2003
How Tax Credits Help Overcome the Obstacles Facing the Uninsured
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #220)
By providing a tax credit, uninsured individuals and families would get the needed financial assistance to help them buy coverage of their choice.
March 14, 2003
Covering the Uninsured: How States Can Expand and Improve Health Coverage
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1637)
Governors and state legislators can make significant headway in reducing the number of America's uninsured, improving access to quality health care, and expanding choice and ...
March 11, 2003
How the President's Health Care Plan Would Expand Insurance Coverage to the Uninsured
By Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1636)
President Bush has put forward a series of policy changes, aimed at improving existing health care accounts, that would enable individuals and families to control ...
March 10, 2003
Laying the Groundwork for Universal Health Care Coverage
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
Suggest what actions need to be taken in order to begin a difficult path toward Universal Health Care.
February 26, 2003
Achieving Progress on Medicare
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1627)
Failure to link benefit improvements with needed reforms will simply lead to a Medicare program that is inferior and fails to provide enough help to ...
February 25, 2003
State Opportunities to Provide Affordable Health Coverage Under the Trade Law
By Nina Owcharenko and Edmund Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #1626)
The federal health care tax credit will be equal to 65 percent of the health insurance premiums of these individuals and can be applied only ...
February 21, 2003
What the GAO Says About the Best Model for Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1625)
Recently published U.S. General Accounting Office analyses describe how the FEHBP works, including its broad choice of plans, historical deference to the personal choices of ...
February 14, 2003
Getting The Details Right: The Key Do's And Don'ts Of Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #208)
Getting The Details Right: The Key Do's And Don'ts Of Medicare Reform
February 7, 2003
What The GAO Says About The Best Model For Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #204)
he President has indicated in his State of the Union address that the model for Medicare reform should be the popular and successful Federal Employees ...
January 28, 2003
The Model for Real Medicare Reform: State of The Union Response
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #196)
President Bush outlined a Medicare model broadly based on the recommendations of the majority of the National Bipartisan Commission on The Future of Medicare. The ...
January 10, 2003
The Future of Medicaid: Consumer-Directed Care
By James Frogue
(Backgrounder #1618)
Arkansas, New Jersey, and Florida were the first states to be granted Section 1115 waivers to participate in a demonstration project designed to empower certain ...
December 16, 2002
How States Can Expand Private Coverage with HIFA Waivers
By Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Memorandum #846)
The Administration's HIFA initiative gives states the flexibility to expand coverage to the uninsured by integrating private coverage with traditional Medicaid and SCHIP. Building on ...
November 5, 2002
The Health Care Crisis: The President's Plan for High-Quality, Affordable Care
By The Honorable Mark McClellan
(Heritage Lecture #768)
Health care costs are rising and it is difficult to ensure that all Americans are a part of this health care system. Bush believes that ...
November 4, 2002
What Seniors Should Know About Government Restrictions on Prescription Drugs
By Susan Horn Ph.D., Frederick Goodwin, M.D., and Robert Goldberg, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1611)
The best way to ensure seniors' access to new and effective drugs is to transform Medicare into a new system based on patient choice and ...
October 16, 2002
Senate Medicare "Give Back" Bill Thwarts the President's Efforts To Help Uninsured
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #160)
America stands undecided over whether health care system should be transformed into a public utility or a patient-centered, consumer-driven system in which individuals make their ...
October 14, 2002
How Congress Can Help Unemployed Workers and Their Families Get Health Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #159)
While Congress may not be able to resolve the entire problem of the uninsured this year, it can make significant progress by giving unemployed workers ...
September 20, 2002
Promoting Choice and Controlling Cost: What Congress Can Learn - Again - From its Own Health Insurance Program
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #146)
Real choice and genuine competition, coupled with flexible, market-friendly systems of administration, could provide a superior health care system for all Americans.
September 9, 2002
Congress Should Think Twice About Allowing the Medicare Bureaucracy To Manage a Drug Benefit
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1583)
Congress should design a new system that incorporates personal choice and market competition, as the FEHBP does. Medicare patients should have the means to choose ...
September 9, 2002
Congress Should Think Twice About Allowing the Medicare Bureaucracy To Manage a Drug Benefit
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1583)
BG1583es: Congress Should Think Twice About Allowing the Medicare Bureaucracy To Manage a Drug Benefit
August 16, 2002
A Medicare Prescription Drug Primer
By The Heritage Foundation
(WebMemo #136)
Views from around the country about Medicare prescription drug reform.
July 26, 2002
Back to the Future: Will the Senate's Madcap Drug Derby End in A Catastrophic Medicare Crash?
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #132)
In the aftermath of three Senate Medicare prescription drug proposals collapsing for want of consensus in the Senate, the Senate leadership is scrambling to cobble ...
July 23, 2002
Time for a Sensible Medicare Drug Benefit
By Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D., Grace-Marie Turner, and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1573)
The Prescription Drug Security Card could provide meaningful help for low-income seniors who do not have access to drug coverage. These seniors should be the ...
July 19, 2002
A Bunch of Better Ideas For Senate Medicare Legislation
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #129)
The next generation of retirees will be thankful if they are given the opportunity to enroll in a system that is characterized by personal freedom, ...
July 19, 2002
It's Time for A Sensible Medicare Drug Policy
By Joseph R. Antos, Ph.D., Grace-Marie Turner, and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #130)
President Bush has promoted a drug discount card without success, but Congress can put resources behind it to target needy seniors and make it work ...
July 18, 2002
Why Patchwork Senate Drug Bills are No Substitute for Medicare Reform
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #128)
Members of Congress should undertake structural improvements in Medicare that will ensure seniors have access to medical innovation and technology within a market-based framework that ...
July 16, 2002
Crafting a Health Care Tax Credit
By Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Memorandum #824)
Conferees must allow tax credit recipients to choose the health care plan that best meets their needs, give them full access to all coverage options, ...
June 14, 2002
Critical Reform Must Accompany a Medicare Drug Benefit
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #820)
EM820: Critical Reform Must Accompany a Medicare Drug Benefit
June 10, 2002
The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act: An Assault on Civil Liberties in the Name of Homeland Security
By Sue Blevins
(Heritage Lecture #748)
The model plan, if enacted throughout the states, would eliminate our freedom to choose our medical care and health treatment and potentially eliminate a broader ...
May 17, 2002
Courting Disaster: Adding a Prescription Drug Benefit Without Serious Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #816)
Prominent Members of Congress are poised to inflict serious financial damage on an already troubled Medicare program. Specifically, these legislators propose adding an expensive prescription ...
April 23, 2002
Why COBRA Should Not Be The Only Option For Displaced Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #95)
Congress has yet another opportunity to help the unemployed and prevent displaced workers from joining or remaining in the ranks of the uninsured, but it ...
April 22, 2002
Why Doctors Are Abandoning Medicare and What Should Be Done About It
By Robert E. Moffit
(Executive Summary #1539)
BG1539ES: Why Doctors Are Abandoning Medicare and What Should Be Done About It
April 22, 2002
Why Doctors Are Abandoning Medicare and What Should Be Done About It
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1539)
It is not enough to treat the symptoms of the Medicare problem. To meet the emerging needs of the baby-boom generation, Congress and the Administration ...
April 18, 2002
Why Expanding Medicaid to Cover the Uninsured Is Not the Solution
By Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Memorandum #811)
Rather than expand Medicaid, a broken welfare program that promises more than it can deliver, Congress can directly help the uninsured get quality private coverage ...
March 20, 2002
Time for Bipartisan Action to Help Families Without Health Insurance
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1528)
Creating a refundable tax credit for insurance not necessarily provided through the place of employment is a sensible step that Congress could take this year ...
March 20, 2002
The FEHBP as a model for reforming Medicare
By Stuart Butler
(Testimony )
Introduction to the FEHBP.
March 7, 2002
A Policymaker's Guide to Mental Illness
By Timothy A. Kelly, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1522)
BG1522ES: A Policymaker's Guide to Mental Illness
March 7, 2002
A Policymaker's Guide to Mental Illness
By Timothy A. Kelly, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1522)
Offering effective treatment to persons with SMI is not only the compassionate thing to do; it is also the smart thing to do from a ...
March 6, 2002
Maryland's Health Care Mandate Policy
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
The question is how Maryland can do better; how specifically to expand coverage, open up the markets, allow more genuine competition, how to promote more ...
February 13, 2002
Health Care Tax Credits and the Uninsured
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Testimony #021302)
It is vital that Congress seizes the opportunity before it to make a real downpayment on helping the uninsured through a mechanism that has strong ...
January 31, 2002
How to Administer Health Insurance
By Lynn Etheredge
(Backgrounder #1516)
On a bipartisan basis, many Members of Congress are considering using tax credits to expand private health insurance coverage to meet the needs of an ...
January 31, 2002
The Daschle Stimulus Proposal Ignores Unemployed Workers Who Lack Health Care Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #74)
Congress has the opportunity to give all displaced workers a useful health care credit that will allow them to purchase private coverage of their choice ...
December 18, 2001
Effective Health Care Policy: The President's Compromise Plan For Displaced Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #69)
President Bush has reached a solid agreement with Senate "moderates" to provide health care assistance to displaced workers as part of the stimulus package. The ...
December 10, 2001
Implementing Effective Health Care Assistance for Displaced Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #65)
Most temporary displaced workers do not need extensive or expensive health care benefits while transitioning between jobs. Instead, they need quick, easily accessible, and affordable ...
December 6, 2001
Suing the Chart: How the Patients' Bill of Rights Legislation Will Increase Doctors' Medical Malpractice Exposure
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #64)
Complex health care legislation is often fraught with unintended consequences. This is evidently true with the large and complex bills enacted by the House and ...
November 19, 2001
How Washington Can Improve Health Care Coverage for Federal Workers and Their Families
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1504)
Members of Congress, their staffs, and approximately 9 million other federal workers, retirees, and their families in the 42-year-old Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) ...
November 19, 2001
How Washington Can Improve Health Care Coverage for Federal Workers and Their Families
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1504es)
Members of Congress, their staffs, and approximately 9 million other federal workers, retirees, and their families in the 42-year-old Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) ...
November 14, 2001
The Future of Health Care
By Andrew Olivastro
(WebMemo #57)
Congress is currently debating a plan for economic stimulus - which includes measures for providing displaced workers access to health-care. The shortsighted, reactionary approach would ...
November 9, 2001
Why Congress Should Support Private Health Insurance for Displaced Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #56)
On health care policy, Members of Congress are once again at a fork in the road. The choice is simple. They can either help millions ...
October 31, 2001
How Congress Can Improve Health Coverage for Displaced Workers: An Analysis of Legislative Proposals
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #50)
Displaced American workers and their families need quality help. They are not getting it. Congress must quickly improve the flawed legislative proposals to assist displaced ...
October 29, 2001
The Right Prescription? Assessing the Patients' Bill of Rights
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., John S. Hoff, and Robert Charrow
(Heritage Lecture #720)
Assessing the Patients' Bill of Rights
Panel discussion with Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., John S. Hoff, and Robert Charrow.
October 18, 2001
Displaced Workers and Health Insurance
By Nina Owcharenko
(WebMemo #49)
Displaced workers are looking for health care security during these difficult times. Proponents of patient choice and free markets in health care, instead of blindly ...
October 16, 2001
Recent Premium Increases and the Future of the FEHBP
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
Because health care benefits, like wages, are normally counted as compensation, Congress could enroll military families in the FEHBP in a budget-neutral fashion and pass ...
October 2, 2001
Providing Health Care Security for Displaced Workers
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1483)
Congress can offer meaningful help to the families of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and to the workers who lost their jobs as ...
September 21, 2001
How Congress Can Help the Uninsured Obtain Health Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(Backgrounder #1475)
Instead of building on bureaucratic structures or relying on outmoded welfare programs, Congress can promote personal choice in health plans and benefits by transferring decisionmaking ...
September 21, 2001
How Congress Can Help the Uninsured Obtain Health Coverage
By Nina Owcharenko
(Executive Summary #1475)
BG1475es: How Congress Can Help the Uninsured Obtain Health Coverage
August 31, 2001
Digging Up the Unintended Consequences Buried in the Patients' Bill of Rights
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #34)
Both the House and the Senate passed bills that would make major changes in the financing and delivery of health insurance, introduce new avenues of ...
August 24, 2001
The Upcoming Conference on the Patients' Bill of Rights: Will Congress Resort to Another Double Standard in Health Care Policy?
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #33)
This fall, taxpayers will be treated to another civics lesson when House and Senate conferees begin to iron out their marginal differences over very similar ...
August 1, 2001
Keeping an Open Mind on Patient Freedom During the House Debate on the Patients Bill of Rights
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #28)
Members of Congress can still take steps to give individuals and families the right to pick plans that are best for them, spend their health ...
July 30, 2001
Access Provisions in the Patients' Bill of Rights: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #26)
The object of federal health care policy should be to expand patient choice and market competition. Policies should be crafted to open up the health ...
July 23, 2001
Why Federal Unions and Members of Congress Want to Escape the Patients Bill of Rights
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #24)
If Congress were genuinely concerned about patients rights, it would change the laws and rules that govern the health insurance market to give individuals and ...
July 13, 2001
What the Latest Market Research Reveals About the Viability of Tax Credits for Health Insurance
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #23)
The recent eHealthInsurance analysis unveiled on June 21, 2001, is an unprecedented look into consumer behavior in the individual market.
July 9, 2001
Perspectives on the European Health Care Systems: Some Lessons for America
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Philippe Manière, David G. Green, Ph.D., Paul Belien, Johan Hjertqvist, and Friedrich Breyer, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #711)
It is possible to conclude from this analysis that problems will be most severe in countries that already have very generous health care expenditures and ...
June 28, 2001
Improving Americans' Health Care Coverage Through Defined Contributions
By James Frogue and Grace-Marie Turner
(Backgrounder #1453)
The defined contribution system will become the standard as more consumers demand greater control and choice over their health care decisions and employers explore their ...
June 28, 2001
Improving Americans' Health Care Coverage Through Defined Contributions
By James Frogue and Grace-Marie Turner
(Executive Summary #1453)
BG1453ES: Improving Health Care Coverage Through Defined Contributions
June 27, 2001
Importing HCFA-Style Regulation Into the Private Sector Through The Patients' Bill of Rights
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #18)
Congress should stop, go back to the drawing board, and develop new and innovative policies that promote competition and expand personal choice of private plans, ...
June 20, 2001
A Dozen Better Ideas for a Patients' Bill of Rights
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #17)
The best approach to the problems in the health care system is not to expand federal regulations, but rather to expand patient choice so that ...
June 4, 2001
Right and Wrong Ways to Address the Needs of the Uninsured
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #750)
Individual tax credits for health insurance would empower Americans to make their own health care decisions.
June 1, 2001
Why Adopting the "Common Ground" Health Care Proposal Would Be a Costly Mistake
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1445)
BG1445ES: Why Adopting the "Common Ground" Health Care Proposal Would Be a Costly Mistake
June 1, 2001
Why Adopting the Common Ground Health Care Proposal Would Be a Costly Mistake
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1445)
Instead of locking Americans into outdated and restrictive third-party systems, President Bush and Members of Congress can adopt an approach that parallels the current employment-based ...
May 18, 2001
Overhauling Medicare: What It Will Take to Attract Private Providers
By James Frogue, Richard Smith, Alissa Fox, Janet Stokes Trautwein, and Victoria Craig Bunce
(Heritage Lecture #704)
Medicare reform is an unavoidably hot topic for Congress and the Administration. Fundamental restructuring of this vital program is critical to its long-term fiscal health, ...
May 17, 2001
Beware of Medicare: Why Tax Cuts Are No Threat to Medicare
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and D. Mark Wilson
(Backgrounder #1442)
Congress should recognize the real distinction between tax policy and Medicare reform and examine each of the President's policy proposals on its own merits rather ...
May 4, 2001
Buyer Beware: The Failure of Single-Payer Health Care
By James Frogue, David Gratzer, M.D., Timothy Evans, Richard Teske
(Heritage Lecture #702)
A system broadly similar to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program for private and public health care programs is the only philosophically coherent and politically ...
April 17, 2001
Recent Survey Points to Affordable Individual Health Insurance
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #740)
As the eHealthInsurance Services survey shows, individually purchased plans are affordable, contain meaningful coverage, and are widely available. Tax credits would allow more people to ...
April 12, 2001
Vermont's Plan to Control Drug Prices for Seniors: A Bad Prescription
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #737)
America's seniors deserve the same quality of care and access to prescription drugs that their elected representatives in Washington enjoy. States should not emulate Vermont's ...
March 27, 2001
Using the Breaux-Frist Medicare Proposals to Craft Solid Medicare Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1423)
President Bush, in developing his own legislative reform proposal for Medicare, can build on the best of the Breaux-Frist proposals, which promise a good start ...
March 16, 2001
How Health Tax Credits for Families Would Supplement Employment-Based Coverage
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1420)
Congress must recognize that an important distinction exists between the place of employment as the convenient place to obtain insurance and making tax relief to ...
March 16, 2001
How Health Tax Credits for Families Would Supplement Employment-Based Coverage
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1420es)
BG1420es: How Health Tax Credits for Families Would Supplement Employment-Based Coverage (pdf)
March 15, 2001
Transcending Medicare's Regulatory Regime
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
Medicare will face an unprecedented demand for medical services within this decade from an increasingly well educated, diverse and rapidly growing retiree population. Insisting on ...
February 27, 2001
How Health Tax Credits for Families Would Supplement Employment-Based Coverage
By Robert Maranto, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1413es)
BG1413es: How Health Tax Credits for Families Would Supplement Employment-Based Coverage
February 16, 2001
Top Ten Ways to Fix America's Health Insurance Market and Expand Coverage
By James Frogue
(Backgrounder #1410)
Exploring solutions to America's health insurance problem.
February 16, 2001
Top Ten Ways to Fix America's Health Insurance Market and Expand Coverage
By James Frogue
(Executive Summary #1410es)
BG1410es: Top Ten Ways to Fix America's Health Insurance Market and Expand Coverage
September 26, 2000
A High Price For Patients: An Update On Government Health Care In Britain and Canada
By James Frogue
(Backgrounder #1398)
Why modeling America's health care system on those of Canada and Britain would be a mistake.
September 26, 2000
A High Price For Patients: An Update On Government Health Care In Britain and Canada
By James Frogue
(Executive Summary #1398)
A High Price For Patients: An Update On Government Health Care In Britain and Canada
September 20, 2000
The Clinton Drug Plan: A Prescription for Massive Regulation
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #696)
The Clinton Medicare proposal is taking exactly the wrong approach.
July 31, 2000
"Lock Box" Schemes Will Not Solve Medicare's Real Financial Problems
By Peter Sperry and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1387)
Clinton's "Lock Box" is no more than an accounating gimmick.
June 29, 2000
Regulated to Death: How Medicare's Bureaucracy Is Killing Seniors' Choices
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #687)
Congress should create a system of Medicare coverage based on patient choice and genuine competition.
June 26, 2000
The House Medicare Drug Plan: A Modest Step Toward Reform
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #686)
The Thomas bill falls short of the broad reform needed, but it is intended as a step in that direction.
June 12, 2000
Three More Strikes on Prescription Drugs
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #683)
Three proposed bills fall short of offering seniors what they truly deserve--a comprehensive reform of Medicare.
May 12, 2000
How Medicare Bureaucracy Limits the Range of Medical Treatment Available to Seniors
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Susan Bartlett Foote, Timothy Blanchard, and William G. Plested, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #666)
Medicare can be fixed and it certainly will not take thousands of pages of regulations.
May 11, 2000
How Medicare Paperwork Abuses Doctors and Harms Patients
By Grace Marie Arnett, Jonathan Emord, Laurence Huntoon, M.D., and Robert Charrow
(Heritage Lecture #665)
Medicare patients do not reliably receive the best medical care in America.
May 4, 2000
A Guide to Tax Credits for the Uninsured
By James Frogue
(Executive Summary #1365)
A Guide to Tax Credits for the Uninsured
May 4, 2000
A Guide to Tax Credits for the Uninsured
By James Frogue
(Backgrounder #1365)
Tax credits are a viable solution for the impending health care crisis.
April 27, 2000
How to Cope with the Coming Crisis in Long-Term Care
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Richard Teske, Stephen Moses
(Heritage Lecture #658)
As the baby boomers age the need for reform becomes more evident.
April 21, 2000
How Clinton's Health Care Regulations Will Undermine Privacy
By Sue Blevins
(Backgrounder #1362)
The proposed regulations would strip individuals of their ability to consent to most disclosures of their personal and very private medical information.
April 17, 2000
Designing a Targeted Drug Benefit for America's Seniors
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #669)
Short of comprehensive reform, the next best solution would be to design a targeted subsidy for low-income seniors.
April 7, 2000
Lessons From Tennessee's Failed Health Care Reform
By Merrill Matthews, Jr.
(Executive Summary #1357)
Lessons From Tennessee's Failed Health Care Reform
April 7, 2000
Lessons From Tennessee's Failed Health Care Reform
By Merrill Matthews, Jr.
(Backgrounder #1357)
Instead of reducing the number of uninsured, the state-level "reform" efforts have increased costs, and these cost increases have contributed to rising numbers of uninsured. ...
March 3, 2000
Why the Texas HMO Liability Law Is Not a Proven Model for Congress
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #658)
Because the Texas law is so young, it is still too early for any determination to be made about its success or failure.
February 29, 2000
The Patient's Bill of Rights: A Prescription for Massive Health Regulation
By John S. Hoff, Esq.
(Executive Summary #1350)
The Patient's Bill of Rights: A Prescription for Massive Health Regulation
February 29, 2000
The Patient's Bill of Rights: A Prescription for Massive Health Regulation
By John S. Hoff, Esq.
(Backgrounder #1350)
In the name of patient protection, Congress is poised to make the problems in America's current health care system even worse.
February 18, 2000
Congress Should End the Confusion Over Medicare Private Contracting
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1347)
Executive Summary: Congress Should End the Confusion Over Medicare Private Contracting
February 18, 2000
Congress Should End the Confusion Over Medicare Private Contracting
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1347)
Congress Should End the Confusion Over Medicare Private Contracting
February 17, 2000
A Closer Look at Clinton's Medicare Proposal
By James Frogue and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1346)
A Closer Look at Clinton's Medicare Proposal
February 17, 2000
A Closer Look at Clinton's Medicare Proposal
By James Frogue and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1346)
President Clinto has put forth a proposal that would dramatically expand the bureaucratic power of HCFA and add new entitlement spending to a system that ...
January 7, 2000
Principled Mental Health System Reform
By Timothy A. Kelly, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1341)
Principled Mental Health System Reform
January 7, 2000
Principled Mental Health System Reform
By Timothy A. Kelly, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1341)
America has the compassion, resources, and treatments to make this happen, and the time to act is now.
November 3, 1999
A High Price Prescription: Clinton's Medicare Drug Proposal
By Dr. Gail Wilensky, Dr. Howard Cohen, & Dwight Bartlet
(Heritage Lecture #647)
Panel discussion on the Clinton Administration's Medicare prescription drug initiative.
November 2, 1999
How States Can Use Federal Waivers to Help the Poor and Test Health Reforms
By Richard Teske
(Backgrounder #1337)
The nation's governors and state policymakers can play a key role in improving health care for millions of Americans.
October 15, 1999
How the Medicare Bureaucracy Threatens Patient Privacy
By Paul Appelbaum, M.D., Kent Masterson Brown, Jim Pyles, and Ronald Welch
(Heritage Lecture #646)
The HCFA proposed a rule to force almost 10,000 home health-care agencies around the country to report sensitive personal information on patients.
September 23, 1999
Poniendo los Planes de Salud Privados al Alcance de los Trabajadores Hispanos Que Más lo Necesitan
By Roberto Garcia de Posada
(Backgrounder #1326)
En este país hay demasiados hispanoamericanos que no tienen acceso a los seguros médicos más básicos y elementales.
September 22, 1999
Expanding Private Health Coverage to Uninsured Hispanic Americans
By Roberto Garcia de Posada
(Backgrounder #1325)
Too many Hispanic Americans do not have access to even basic health insurance coverage.
September 15, 1999
How Not to Reform Medicare: Lessons From the Medicare+Choice Experiment
By Sandra Mahkorn, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.
(Backgrounder #1319)
Medicare, the huge and financially troubled health program covering almost 40 million elderly and disabled citizens, is in desperate need of reform.
September 15, 1999
How Not to Reform Medicare: Lessons From the Medicare+Choice Experiment
By Sandra Mahkorn, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.
(Executive Summary #1319)
BG1319ES: How Not to Reform Medicare: Lessons From the Medicare+Choice Experiment
July 20, 1999
Rising Costs, Reduced Access: How Regulation Harms Health Consumers and the Uninsured
By Grace-Marie Arnett
(Executive Summary #1307)
BG1307ES: Rising Costs, Reduced Access: How Regulation Harms Health Consumers and the Uninsured
July 20, 1999
Rising Costs, Reduced Access: How Regulation Harms Health Consumers and the Uninsured
By Grace-Marie Arnett
(Backgrounder #1307)
Today, nearly 44 million people will go without health insurance at some point during the year; this number continues to grow at the astonishing rate ...
July 6, 1999
Bill Clinton's Risky Drug Plan
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #611)
President Clinton's Medicare prescription drug proposal is a sweeping and ill-designed plan to address a limited problem.
June 18, 1999
Why an Unreformed Medicare System is Hazardous to Your Health
By Sandra Mahkorn, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.
(Executive Summary #1295)
BG1295ES: Why an Unreformed Medicare System is Hazardous to Your Health
June 18, 1999
Why an Unreformed Medicare System is Hazardous to Your Health
By Sandra Mahkorn, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.
(Backgrounder #1295)
Too many Medicare patients are unaware that the quality of their health care is in jeopardy.
June 16, 1999
A Health Tax Credit to Assist the Uninsured
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
There is growing support outside Congress for introducing changes in the tax code to make it more rational concerning health expenditures and to help the ...
June 16, 1999
How to Expand Health Care Choice and Improve Access for Working Families
By Daniel H. Johnson, Jr., M.D.
(Heritage Lecture #640)
Let's be clear about our objectives in this national debate: Every American should have access to affordable health insurance coverage.
June 16, 1999
How to Provide Prescription Drug Coverage Under Medicare
By James Frogue
(Executive Summary #1293)
BG1293ES: How to Provide Prescription Drug Coverage Under Medicare
June 16, 1999
How to Provide Prescription Drug Coverage Under Medicare
By James Frogue
(Backgrounder #1293)
Congress is under considerable pressure to address the absence of outpatient prescription drug coverage in Medicare.
June 14, 1999
Reorganizing the Medicare System to Ensure a Better Program for Seniors
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1294)
BG1294ES: Reorganizing the Medicare System to Ensure a Better Program for Seniors
June 14, 1999
Reorganizing the Medicare System to Ensure a Better Program for Seniors
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1294)
There is considerable pressure on Congress to add an outpatient drug benefit to Medicare.
May 27, 1999
Restructuring Medicare for the Next Century
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Testimony )
Reform involves not only addressing the financing of Medicare, but also critical governance issues.
May 19, 1999
The Shadegg Health Bill: Expanding Access and Choice
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #598)
Various Members of Congress are taking serious steps to help American families gain access to quality health care.
May 6, 1999
Can Liberals and Conservatives Agree on Health Care Reform?
By The Honorable Jim McDermott and The Honorable James Rogan
(Heritage Lecture #635)
There are now almost 44 million uninsured people in this country--an increase of more than 5 million since 1993.
May 4, 1999
Why Price Controls on Prescription Drugs Would Harm Seniors
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #595)
Price controls do not work. In fact, they invariably worsen the very problems they are designed to solve.
April 23, 1999
How Governors Can Help Children to Get Private Health Insurance
By James Frogue
(Executive Memorandum #591)
Congress has provided the state governors with a way to help uninsured children to receive coverage through superior private health plans.
April 22, 1999
GAO to President Clinton: Why Your Plan Would Make Medicare Worse
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1276)
Policymakers generally have avoided a serious re-examination and reform of the troubled Medicare program.
March 22, 1999
HCFA's Latest Assault on Patient Privacy
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #580)
The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the powerful bureaucracy that runs the Medicare program, is out of control.
January 29, 1999
Principles for a Bipartisan Reform of Medicare
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1247)
Congress and the Clinton Administration have the unprecedented opportunity to enact into law a reform of Medicare that will address the program's long-term benefit and ...
January 20, 1999
Principles to Guide Reform of Health Care for Working Families
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1243)
There is considerable pressure on lawmakers to address the growing concerns about America's employment-based health care system.
September 1, 1998
Medicare Minus Choice
By Carrie J. Gavora
(Backgrounder #1218)
It now appears that, at least for its inaugural year, the "+Choice" part of the Medicare program has failed to materialize.
August 14, 1998
Uninsured Rates Rise Dramatically in States with Strictest Health Insurance Regulations
By Melinda L. Schriver and Grace-Marie Arnett
(Backgrounder #1211)
Congress must heed the experience of the states.
August 14, 1998
Uninsured Rates Rise Dramatically in States with Strictest Health Insurance Regulations
By Melinda L. Schriver and Grace-Marie Arnett
(Executive Summary #1211)
BG1211ES: Uninsured Rates Rise Dramatically in States with Strictest Health Insurance Regulations
August 3, 1998
How Congress Can Restore the Freedom of Senior Citizens to Make Private Agreements With Their Doctor
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1209)
How Congress Can Restore the Freedom of Senior Citizens to Make Private Agreements With Their Doctor
August 3, 1998
How Congress Can Restore the Freedom of Senior Citizens to Make Private Agreements With Their Doctor
By Robert E. Moffit
(Executive Summary #1209)
BG1209es: How Congress Can Restore the Freedom of Senior Citizens to Make Private Agreements With Their Doctor
July 23, 1998
What States Can Teach Congress About Health Care Regulation
By Melinda L. Schriver and Grace-Marie Arnett
(Backgrounder #1207)
What States Can Teach Congress About Health Care Regulation
July 21, 1998
Congress's Wrong Prescription For the HMO Headache
By Carrie J. Gavora
(Backgrounder #1205)
Congress's Wrong Prescription For the HMO Headache
June 30, 1998
Private Doctor-Patient Agreements: How the Medicare Law Forbids Free Choice
By The Hon. Jon Kyl (R–AZ); Kent Masterson Brown; J. Edward Hill, M.D.; Robert E. Moffit, Ph,D.
(Heritage Lecture #620)
Private Doctor-Patient Agreements: How
June 24, 1998
How To Deal With Public Concerns About Health Insurance
By Carrie J. Gavora
(Backgrounder #1196)
How To Deal With Public Concerns About Health Insurance
June 24, 1998
How To Deal With Public Concerns About Health Insurance
By Carrie J. Gavora
(Executive Summary #1196)
BG1196es: How To Deal With Public Concerns About Health Insurance
June 8, 1998
Back to the Drawing Board: Why Tax Reform is the Key to Health Care Reform
By Carrie J. Gavora
(Backgrounder #1189)
Back to the Drawing Board: Why Tax Reform is the Key to Health Care Reform
June 8, 1998
Back to the Drawing Board: Why Tax Reform is the Key to Health Care Reform
By Carrie J. Gavora
(Executive Summary #1189)
BG1189es:Why Tax Reform is the Key to Health Care Reform
April 16, 1998
Building Bureaucracy and Invading Patient Privacy: Maryland's Health Care Regulations
By Dale Snyder
(Backgrounder #1168)
Building Bureaucracy and Invading Patient Privacy: Maryland's Health Care Regulations
April 16, 1998
Building Bureaucracy and Invading Patient Privacy: Maryland's Health Care Regulations
By Dale Snyder
(Executive Summary #1168)
BG1168es: Building Bureaucracy and Invading Patient Privacy: Maryland's Health Care Regulations
February 25, 1998
A Progress Report on the Clinton Health Plan
By Carrie J. Gavora
(Backgrounder #1158)
A Progress Report on the Clinton Health Plan
February 25, 1998
A Progess Report on the Clinton Health Plan
By Carrie J. Gavora
(Executive Summary #1158)
February 24, 1998
Rollover Flexible Spending Accounts: More Health Choices for Americans
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D. and William W. Beach
(Backgrounder #1159)
Rollover Flexible Spending Accounts: More Health Choices for Americans
December 31, 1997
Kidcare Implementation: A Helpful Guide for the States
By Carrie J. Gavora
(FYI #168)
Recently enacted legislation establishing the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)—often referred to as "kidcare"—will make $48 billion in taxpayer dollars available to the states ...
October 17, 1997
A+ Education Savings Accounts: Good for Primary and Secondary Education, Great for America's Children
By Nina H. Shokraii
(Executive Memorandum #498)
A+ Education Savings Accounts: Good for Primary and Secondary Education, Great for America's Children
June 12, 1997
Congress's Own Health Plan As A Model For Medicare Reform
By Stuart Butler, Ph.D. and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1123)
BG1123: Congress's Own Health Plan As A Model For Medicare Reform
June 12, 1997
Giving Seniors The Same Health Plan Congress Has
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #487)
EM487: Giving Seniors The Same Health Plan Congress Has
June 11, 1997
The Rise and Repeal of the Washington State Health Plan: Lessons For America's State Legislators
By Robert Cihak, M.D., Bob Williams, and Peter J. Ferrara
(Backgrounder #1121)
BG1121: The Rise and Repeal of the Washington State Health Plan: Lessons For America's State Legislators
June 6, 1997
The Kentucky Health Care Experiment: How "Managed Competition" Clamps Down on Choice and Competition
By Rachel McCubbin
(Backgrounder #1119)
BG1119/S: The Kentucky Healthcare Experiment: How "Managed Competition" Clamps Down on Choice and Competition
April 30, 1997
Time is Running Out for Medicare Reform
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1112)
BG1112: Time is Running Out For Medicare Reform
April 22, 1997
What to Do About Uninsured Children
By Carrie J. Gavora
(FYI #139)
Americans of all political persuasions are understandably concerned about the fact that millions of children lack the protection of health insurance. To be sure, many ...
April 10, 1997
How Health Insurance Mandates Misdiagnose the Disease
By Carrie J. Gavora
(Backgrounder #1108)
BG1108: How Health Insurance Mandates Misdiagnose the Disease
April 7, 1997
The Two Options For Helping Uninsured Children
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #475)
EM475: The Two Options For Helping Uninsured Children
September 18, 1996
Why Congress Should Not Impose Mandates On Private Health Insurance
By Carrie Gavora
(Executive Memorandum #462)
EM462: Why Congress Should Not Impose Mandates On Private Health Insurance
February 13, 1996
One Simple Way to Reduce AIDS Among Children
By Patrick F. Fagan
(Executive Memorandum #446)
EM446: One Simple Way to Reduce AIDS Among Children
October 30, 1995
Reforming Medicare: What Congress Can Learn from the Health Plans of America's Corporations
By Brenda Fitzgerald, M.D.
(Backgrounder #1059)
Members of Congress can learn much from the experience of private corporations, where innovative plan designs have cut costs...
October 10, 1995
Cutting Red Tape on Clinical Labs: Why Congress Should Deregulate Doctors
By Sandra Mahkorn, M.D., M.P.H.
(Backgrounder #1056)
BG1056: Cutting Red Tape on Clinical Labs: Why Congress Should Deregulate Doctors
September 22, 1995
Two Cheers For The House Medicare Plan
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #428)
EM428: Two Cheers For The House Medicare Plan
June 26, 1995
What to do About Medicare
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D., Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D. and John C. Liu
(Backgrounder #1038)
bg1038: What to Do About Medicare
June 13, 1995
Lessons on Reforming Health Care at the State Level: Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Washington State
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Charles Baker, Dr. Ken Heithoff, and Phil Dyer
(Heritage Lecture #548)
HL548: Lessons on Reforming Health Care at the State Level: Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Washington State
June 13, 1995
Restoring the Doctor-Patient Relationship: The Challenge of Third-Party Payment and Government Regulation
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Kevin Vigilante, M.D., and Sandra Mahkorn, M.D.
(Heritage Lecture #541)
HL541: Restoring the Doctor-Patient Relationship: The Challenge of Third-Party Payment and Government Regulation
June 13, 1995
The Medicare Debate: Politics, Process, and Proposals for Reform
By Representative Dan Miller, Grace-Marie Arnett, John C. Liu, and Phillip N. Truluck
(Heritage Lecture #538)
HL538: The Medicare Debate: Politics, Process, and Proposals for Reform
August 4, 1994
The Last Time Congress Reformed Health Care: A Lawmakers Guide to the Medicare Catastrophic Debacle
By Robert E. Moffit
(Backgrounder #996)
bg996: The Last Time Congress Reformed Health Care: A Lawmakers Guide to the Medicare Catastrophic Debacle
January 26, 1994
California's Single-Payer Health Care Initiative: A Costly Bait and Switch
By John C. Liu and David H. Winston
(Backgrounder #1007)
BG1007: California's Single-Payer Health Care Initiative: A Costly Bait and Switch
November 19, 1993
A Guide to the Clinton Health Plan
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder )
tp00: A Guide to the Clinton Health Plan
March 8, 1993
Why Global Budgets and Price Controls will not Curb Health Costs
By Edmund F. Haislmaier
(Backgrounder #929)
It is our pleasure, therefore, that those prices, which the concise items in the following list indicate, be held in attention throughout our whole domain, ...
June 17, 1992
Why the Maryland Consumer Choice Health Plan Could Be a Model for Health Care Reform
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #902)
BG902: Why the Maryland Consumer Choice Health Plan Could Be a Model for Health Care Reform
May 27, 1992
How the Maryland Health Plan is a Model for the Nation
By Carl J. Sardegna
(Heritage Lecture #392)
HL392: How the Maryland Health Plan is a Model for the Nation
March 5, 1992
A Policy Maker's Guide to The Health Care Crisis
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D
(WebMemo )
A Policy Maker's Guide to The Health Care Crisis
September 23, 1991
Comparable Worth for Doctors: A Severe Case of Government Malpractice
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #865)
BG865: Comparable Worth for Doctors: A Severe Case of Government Malpractice
September 23, 1991
Comparable Worth for Doctors: A Severe Case of Government Malpractice
By Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #855)
BG855: Comparable Worth for Doctors: A Severe Case of Government Malpractice
September 4, 2009
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