Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Parsing The Policies: Undoing The Individual Mandate; Medicare, Medicaid Cuts Are On The Horizon
Now that the Senate and House are working to resolve the differences in their tax bills, one question on everyone鈥檚 mind is whether the final version will repeal Obamacare鈥檚 unpopular requirement that people on the individual insurance market buy a policy or pay a penalty. I am one physician who hopes it will. (Marc Siegel, 12/13)
But there is universal consensus that these tax cuts will cause a massive increase in the nation's deficit 鈥 which ultimately will lead to offsetting tax increases, or, more likely, spending cuts. These cuts in spending will probably be focused on the very programs that save lives and provide valuable financial protection to our nation鈥檚 poorest and oldest. It seems implausible to argue that a tax break where 60 percent of the benefits go to the 1 percent of Americans, paid for by broad cuts to public spending focused on the needy, will improve public health. (Lawrence H. Summers and Jonathan Gruber, 12/12)
The widely expected passage of the tax reform bill will almost undoubtedly cause significant harm to Medicare. And provocative statements by President Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan declaring that 鈥渆ntitlement reform鈥 will be next threatens Medicaid. Put these two together and, I think, one thing is clear: Big Medicare and Medicaid cuts are coming. (Bob Blancato, 12/12)
American Democrats are following Bernie Sanders in embracing single-payer health care on the Canadian model. But when they get sick, our neighbors to the north increasingly find that the only way to get 鈥渇ree鈥 medical care is to wait for weeks or months. (12/12)
Medicare Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) were created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to improve the efficiency of the networks of hospitals and doctors that deliver services to Medicare patients and thereby lower the government鈥檚 costs. So far, however, ACOs haven鈥檛 produced any savings for the federal government. ACOs would become more efficient and innovative if they were forced to compete with the other options beneficiaries have for getting their Medicare-covered benefits. (James C. Capretta, 12/13)
