My first health reform bill in the Senate was the Consumer Choice Health Act of 1979. It didn’t pass, but, in principle, it advocated employers provide employees a choice of at least three health plans, including an HMO, in order to qualify for the income tax subsidy for both employer and employee. People need financial incentives to stay healthy and to make wise choices of plans and providers. Private plans can provide the risk-bearing coverage … Continue reading »
Let’s assume the candidate who exudes “Minnesota Nice” (as opposed to Wisconsin Nasty) becomes the Republican candidate for president. And assume Republicans are successful in making the A.C.A. (Obamacare to them) the issue in the campaign. It’s obvious that Democrats in Congress won’t and we don’t know how strongly President Obama feels about his signature accomplishment. Democrats and Independents won’t let Pawlenty get by with just repeal. So what can President Pawlenty sell to Republicans … Continue reading »
During the George W. Bush presidency, health policy took a turn for the worst. Advocates for Health Savings Account/Individual Indemnity/ single payer/solo practice health reform took over the policy asylum. They found advocates in the Bush economics council at the Old Executive Office Building and in the single payer insurance funded medical industry selling low premium, high deductible, low stop loss, drop them if they use them, insurance policies into an individual and small group market … Continue reading »
A $2.5 TRILLION HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY WAITS OUT THE REPEAL OF THE HEALTH REFORM LAW
Health plans, hospitals, health professional and medical technology leaders have not taken positions on the Republican Party’s commitment to repeal or replace the ACA health law they call “Obamacare.” Industry leaders know the repeal efforts are part of the Republican campaign to drive President Obama from the Presidency and Democrats from control of the Senate. The reason for this seeming neutrality is simple. Many, but not all, … Continue reading »
Health plans, hospitals, health professional and medical technology leaders have not taken positions on the Republican Party’s commitment to repeal or replace the ACA health law they call “Obamacare.” Industry leaders know the repeal efforts are part of the Republican campaign to drive President Obama from the Presidency and Democrats from control of the Senate. The reason for this seeming neutrality is simple. Many, but not all, have membership which is divided on the ACA reform law … Continue reading »
Rick Scott made a fortune running the first and largest for-profit hospital corporation in America. He knows how to make money in a health care system as dysfunctional as ours. And he had the good fortune to escape responsibility for any wrong doing when HCA paid $1.7 billion fine in a U.S. Medicare fraud suit against his company. Unlike eBay’s Meg Whitman, he was also able to persuade Floridians he could use that experience to benefit … Continue reading »
President Obama and the State of the Union
The first thing I noticed was the environment. The size of the Republican House election victory should have drawn the partisan lines more clearly than ever over the state of the union and the role of government, what it does and how it does it. But the lame duck session successes, the growing health of the economy and the tragedy in Tucson involving a member of Congress had … Continue reading »
Democrats in the White House and Congress know they made history with the health reform law last year. But as the law of the land – and as a national goal for system reform – the ACA is not all it could have been had Congressional Republicans chosen to cooperate. Republicans this year have fulfilled their campaign promises to vote to repeal Obamacare, and are now set to do the oversight work of determining what they should have recommended last … Continue reading »
Senator Durenberger is currently a Senior Health Policy Fellow at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis Minnesota and chairs the National Institute of Health Policy (NIHP).
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