Our Health Policy Matters

Will health and mental health spending be part of the next Grand Bargain, Mini-bargain, or No Bargain at all?2013 could be the ultimate transition year for health policy – a wait-and-see time before the big changes ACA brings in 2014.  Or it could be much more. Forget this week's latest budget drama.  Three often little-noticed numbers over the next few months will tell us much more about how this health policy year will eventually unfold. The first is the Medicare “cost rate” projection for the next 75 years.  It will arrive in April in the Annual Report of the Medicare Trust Fund trustees.  This projection will tell us how much we need to worry about the present and future cost of our favorite entitlement program. The second – especially in the aftermath of Sandy Hook – is the number of cuts or additions states make to their mental health budgets.  We’ll know this by the late spring or early summer.  It will tell us just how much our legis...

Will health and mental health spending be part of the next Grand Bargain, Mini-bargain, or No Bargain at all?2013 could be the ultimate transition year for health policy – a wait-and-see time before the big changes ACA brings in 2014.  Or it could be much more. Forget this week's latest budget drama.  Three often little-noticed numbers over the next few months will tell us much more about how this health policy year will eventually unfold. The first is the Medicare “cost rate” projection for the next 75 years.  It will arrive in April in the Annual Report of the Medicare Trust Fund trustees.  This projection will tell us how much we need to worry about the present and future cost of our favorite entitlement program. The second – especially in the aftermath of Sandy Hook – is the number of cuts or additions states make to their mental health budgets.  We’ll know this by the late spring or early summer.  It will tell us just how much our legis...