Our Health Policy Matters

I have at least two members of my immediate family who would be affected directly by the so-called Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). It could cost them – and others like them – their money and their lives. The Senate bill released this week has two important improvements over the House American Health Care Act. First, like Obamacare but unlike the House version, it requires insurers to continue to offer coverage in the regular marketplace to people with pre-existing conditions. Second, it corrects a major flaw in the Affordable Care Act – as interpreted by the Supreme Court – by extending health insurance subsidies to everyone below poverty who is ineligible for Medicaid. Today, the poorest pay the same as the richest for health insurance, because the subsidies are limited to those between 100 and 400 percent of poverty. That’s the good news. But it all quickly unravels after this. Here are ten reasons why. First, while pre-existing conditions are cove...

I have at least two members of my immediate family who would be affected directly by the so-called Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). It could cost them – and others like them – their money and their lives. The Senate bill released this week has two important improvements over the House American Health Care Act. First, like Obamacare but unlike the House version, it requires insurers to continue to offer coverage in the regular marketplace to people with pre-existing conditions. Second, it corrects a major flaw in the Affordable Care Act – as interpreted by the Supreme Court – by extending health insurance subsidies to everyone below poverty who is ineligible for Medicaid. Today, the poorest pay the same as the richest for health insurance, because the subsidies are limited to those between 100 and 400 percent of poverty. That’s the good news. But it all quickly unravels after this. Here are ten reasons why. First, while pre-existing conditions are cove...

There are 4 million or more Americans who can’t get regular insurance because of a pre-existing condition.   You might be one of them.  Now there’s a policy that costs less than $300 per month and covers all of your medical needs, including your pre-existing condition.   Will you buy it?  Apparently not. And that may signal the beginning of the end of private insurance in America. I first wrote about the diminished role of private insurance in a column last month entitled America’s Health Insurance Myth .   Privately-financed private health insurance today pays only 17% of America’s health care bill. Two recent developments suggest that this share will become even smaller in the future. The first was last week’s death of the CLASS Act .   As a result, long term care will continue to be an out-of-pocket and government expense only for nearly everyone. The second was the report of first-year enrollment numbers for the new Pre-existing Condi...

There are 4 million or more Americans who can’t get regular insurance because of a pre-existing condition.   You might be one of them.  Now there’s a policy that costs less than $300 per month and covers all of your medical needs, including your pre-existing condition.   Will you buy it?  Apparently not. And that may signal the beginning of the end of private insurance in America. I first wrote about the diminished role of private insurance in a column last month entitled America’s Health Insurance Myth .   Privately-financed private health insurance today pays only 17% of America’s health care bill. Two recent developments suggest that this share will become even smaller in the future. The first was last week’s death of the CLASS Act .   As a result, long term care will continue to be an out-of-pocket and government expense only for nearly everyone. The second was the report of first-year enrollment numbers for the new Pre-existing Condi...

Fifty years ago, we already knew that there were environmental causes of chronic conditions like mental illness.   Had we taken them on as an American nation-building project with the zeal with which we have approached nation-building overseas, we would be a healthier country today.   Will we do any better in the next half-century? I’ve recently been reading a book written in 1969 about the 1968 Presidential campaign, called An American Melodrama .   It is a very long book about a very short political campaign by today’s standards. Bobby Kennedy, for example, didn’t announce for the Presidency until March, and George Wallace – who won several southern states as a third-party candidate – didn’t pick his running mate until October.   Political scientists will find many parallels from that time to today.   One example: former Governor Romney was the early favorite for the Republican nomination.   (He never made it to the starting gate.) It was a campaign a...

Fifty years ago, we already knew that there were environmental causes of chronic conditions like mental illness.   Had we taken them on as an American nation-building project with the zeal with which we have approached nation-building overseas, we would be a healthier country today.   Will we do any better in the next half-century? I’ve recently been reading a book written in 1969 about the 1968 Presidential campaign, called An American Melodrama .   It is a very long book about a very short political campaign by today’s standards. Bobby Kennedy, for example, didn’t announce for the Presidency until March, and George Wallace – who won several southern states as a third-party candidate – didn’t pick his running mate until October.   Political scientists will find many parallels from that time to today.   One example: former Governor Romney was the early favorite for the Republican nomination.   (He never made it to the starting gate.) It was a campaign a...