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- Kristina on What Sequestration Could Mean to Medicare Advantage Claims Payment
- Curt Black on What Sequestration Could Mean to Medicare Advantage Claims Payment
- Margaret on What Sequestration Could Mean to Medicare Advantage Claims Payment
- Jane Wall Medicare Health Benefits Inc on Strange Bedfellows Come to Medicare Advantage’s Rescue
- Barb Housewright on What Happens to Medicare/Medicaid If There’s a Government Shutdown?
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Topic: Brain Food
Health Insurance Premium Guessing Game
Health insurance issuers are generating enough fodder for a good guessing game. Will Obamacare increase rates for individual insurance or not? And if so, will the increase be modest or catastrophic. Writing in the April 25 edition of the Washington Post, Ezra Klein reports that the Blues plan that serves the national capital area is warning of big increases in individual premiums. The cause? More sick people are going to get health insurance, now that the pre-existing condition limitations have been removed by the Affordable Care Act. But is that the whole story? Klein also reports that insurance companies in Vermont and Rhode Island are projecting a more modest impact in announcing their proposed 2014 rates. But in Massachusetts, where “Obamneycare” has been in place since 2006, individual premiums are the highest in the nation.
The Path to a Deal on the Fiscal Cliff
Outside the Beltway Bubble it must look like we’re about to go all Thelma & Louise off the fiscal cliff. In fact, each day the path to a deal becomes clearer, as brilliantly displayed by our friends at WaPo’s WonkBlog. The one thing that is crystal-clear: the final deal will piss off everyone.
Of course they should! (But not for the reason you may think)
The New York Times reports that Hospitals fear they may bear the brunt of Medicare cuts. I should hope so! But not because they are wildly profitable at the expense of efficiency and innovation elsewhere.
An Old Friend’s Newest Challenge: Rein in Massachusetts’ Health Costs
An old, dear friend of mine and fellow XLHealth Board member, Stuart Altman, was just appointed chief of healthcare cost containment for Massachusetts’ ground-breaking reform effort — a harbinger of things to come nationally as the Affordable Care Act now hurtles toward implementation. The local NPR affiliate did a great interview with Stu that I wanted to share here. As always, Stu brings tremendous insight and a sense of history and trends to his work, and as goes Massachusetts, so will go the rest of the country in 2014 and beyond. Read more
Election Gives Health Reform the Kiss of Life
It’s hard to argue this wasn’t a decisive victory for the President and Democrats in the Senate. What remains to be seen is whether intractable Congressional Republicans will come to the table to get stuff done.
Well, thank God THAT’S over
Our long national stimulus for political consultants and media companies has finally ended. What do we have to show for it? An electoral map that is still nearly identical to the national schism during the Civil War, a lot of BuzzFeed slide shows, a “theater of the absurd” moment as Karl Rove blew up Fox’s coverage and Megyn Kelly’s legs literally ran away… and for some, a hangover of epic proportions.
What’s at Stake When Death Gets a Makeover
A terrific interview with Dr. Tom Smith of Johns Hopkins on end-of-life care and discussion: well worth 3.5 minutes to see what’s at stake when death gets a makeover: “hope for the best, plan for the worst.” Advancing a frank and open discussion about last wishes is “not so much about saving money but honoring peoples’ choices.” Amen.
