Recent Articles

Health insurance is expensive because spending on hospital and physician services is high. Insurers are unpopular because they bear the main responsibility for controlling this spending—but in doing so, they save consumers money and focus resources toward better care.

What Bernie Sanders is proposing is not Medicare for all. It is far more generous—and more expensive. It would be funded much differently. And its relationship with private insurance would be nothing like today’s Medicare. Sanders would, in fact, replace the current Medicare program and it would effectively eliminate private health insurance. You can call…

The health reform plan Sen. Harris unveiled this week tries to appear more moderate but it is just a bit slower path to “Medicare for All.” She would get there over 10 years—after she would be out of office, should she be elected and reelected.  Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute breaks down the consequences: “Sen. Harris’ plan…

Sen. Kamala Harris wants her plan to appear less disruptive than the Sanders bill, yet the obvious conclusion is that it would still blow up traditional employer-sponsored insurance and eventually put everyone on a single federal health program. 

Last week, Reps. Ami Bera, MD (D-CA) and Jason Smith (R-MO) introduced an HSA correction and expansion bill,  HR 3796, that eliminates some of the discriminatory practices against working seniors and allows more Americans to own HSAs and enjoy the benefits of HSA ownership longer than they can under current law. Retirees who already own an…

The 2019 Milliman Medical Index, which measures healthcare costs for individuals and families receiving coverage from an employer-sponsored preferred provider plan, found that health care costs have reached $28,386 for a family, an increase of 3.8% from the year prior. Health care costs for the average American adult are at $6,348. Milliman looks at five components of health care…

The 2019 Milliman Medical Index, which measures healthcare costs for individuals and families receiving coverage from an employer-sponsored preferred provider plan, found that health care costs have reached $28,386 for a family, an increase of 3.8% from the year prior. Health care costs for the average American adult are at $6,348. Milliman looks at five…

A public option is not a moderate, compromise proposal. Its inevitable consequence is the death of affordable private insurance. Government insurance options mainly erode, or “crowd out,” private insurance rather than provide coverage to the uninsured. Jonathan Gruber, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist credited with designing ObamaCare, showed in 2007 that when government insurance expands, six…

Acting on the principle “Why put it off until tomorrow when you can do the wrong thing today?” the House of Representatives last week voted to repeal the Cadillac Tax, the tax of 40% on a portion of the most lavish employer-provided health care plans. The Cadillac tax was proposed not just to help fund…

Anew government insurance plan would “compete” with private insurance. A government insurer with zero cost of capital and political backing starts with an unbeatable advantage. The public option would undercut competitors on price, stiff providers with low reimbursement rates, and crowd out private insurance over time.