The 2004 Medicare and Social Security Trustees Reports show that programs for the elderly are on an unsustainable course. The expenditures exceed the revenues to be collected, and the funding gap is projected to grow through time.
Who pays the lowest prices for prescription drugs? Patients who pay for drugs themselves have an incentive to shop for the lowest price, whereas those patients whose drugs are paid for by third parties have less incentive to shop.
Families USA publishes an annual report analyzing prices of the 50 top selling drugs used by seniors. The latest survey claims that these drugs' prices rose about 30 percent over the past five years – or 2.5 times the rise in the consumer price index.
Last month, the House of Representatives and its Ways & Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) advanced legislation to create tax-preferred savings accounts for medical expenses that would reform private health care and retiree health care.
The Bush administration is proposing the most sweeping improvements in Medicare since the program's inception in 1965.
As Congress debates ways to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors, and state governments debate ways to lower drug costs for almost everyone else, it may be time to consider a commonsense solution: smart shopping.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported this month that while the number of chronically uninsured Americans is lower than commonly believed (between 21 million and 31 million, rather than 41 million), the number of Americans who go without health insurance for brief periods is around 60 million.
Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) recently unveiled the centerpiece of his presidential campaign: a plan to encourage near-universal health coverage. The plan calls for replacing the existing system of federal income tax subsidies for health insurance with a much more expensive system.
Medicare is in need of reform. In a few years, as medical costs escalate and baby boomers retire, Medicare and Social Security will place significant burdens on the federal budget.
The proportion of health care paid directly by consumers has been falling for decades. In 1960, individuals paid directly for 50 percent of their health care. Today they pay for only 15 percent. The other 85 percent is paid by third parties, generally employers, insurance companies or the government. See Figure. As their share of health expenses declined, so also did consumers' interest in controlling health care costs.
Prices for medical services have been rising faster than prices of other goods and services for as long as anyone can remember. But not all health care prices are rising. Although health care inflation is robust for those services paid by third-party insurance, prices are rising only moderately for services patients buy directly.
Part of the solution to insuring the uninsured is the creation of Association Health Plans. These are plans created for individuals and groups who belong to associations that are related to jobs, careers, or hobbies and interests. The potential for growth of this type of insurance is quite large – given a favorable regulatory climate.
Access to safe and affordable child care has been a major issue in the congressional debate on reauthorization of the 1996 welfare reform law.
Medicaid is enormously expensive. For the second year in a row, spending on Medicaid (for the poor) will exceed spending on Medicare (for the elderly).
America's health care system is an uneven playing field. Government subsidizes employer-provided health insurance by excluding the premiums from taxation.
The fees Medicare pays physicians who treat seniors are not determined in the marketplace. Instead, they are arbitrarily set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), based on a complex formula implemented in 1992.
In an election-year rush to satisfy impatient voters, politicians of both parties are endorsing ill-considered schemes to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. While the problems with the program are bad, most of the proposed solutions are worse.
A cornerstone of President Bush's approach to health care reform is the introduction of Association Health Plans (AHPs). These plans would enable business and professional associations to offer health benefits to their members.
A cornerstone of President Bush's approach to health care reform is the creation of Association Health Plans (AHPs). Intended to control costs and improve access to coverage for small employers and individuals, AHPs would allow bona fide business and professional associations to offer health benefits to their members.
Advocates of mental health parity propose legislation that would require all private health insurance to establish the same deductibles and co-payments for physical and mental health care services.
Unlike the United States experience, MSAs in South Africa developed in a relatively free health insurance marketplace. As a result, employers and insurers have been able to experiment and innovate to find out what works and what does not. Their experience offers valuable lessons for the United States.
Utilization of medical care has risen dramatically since Medicare began in 1965. That year, health expenditures accounted for 5.7 percent of the nation's output.
Two recent reports associate lack of health insurance coverage with less access to health care services and worse health outcomes. One study is written by Jack Hadley of the Urban Institute and published by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, the other by an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Almost 40 million Americans go without health insurance coverage for an entire year, and as many as 20 million others are without health insurance coverage during some part of the year.
Current federal law includes a number of tax incentives that encourage Americans to obtain health insurance. Employer-provided health insurance and employer reimbursements for medical care are generally excluded from an employee's taxable income.