Our Health Policy Matters

My wife Pam and I bought private long term care insurance about twenty years ago. It’s a pretty good deal. For about $100 per month, we will someday – when we need it – be eligible for up to $200 a day toward either home health care or nursing home care. Add it up – it could save us hundreds of thousands of dollars as we age. I’ve been a big supporter of long-term care insurance since I was a Connecticut State Legislator in the 1980s. But to be honest, it’s never quite gotten the traction it should have. One of the reasons is that when people are young and healthy, they aren’t thinking about what their long-term care needs might be thirty or forty years down the road. But that’s when premiums would be most affordable. The bigger problem is that it’s really hard for insurers to predict the costs of long-term care that far in advance, too. The costs of care often far exceed those that are estimated way in advance. As a result, the policies that Pam and I have aren’t even offered anymore...

A different kind of climate change was in the news this week, as Gallup reported that the percentage of people who are uninsured declined rapidly from 17.1 percent to 15.9 percent in just three months. That is a pretty substantial drop, and one that began when people started signing up for Obamacare. According to Gallup and others, it translates into an additional 3 million people who now have health insurance, consistent with the numbers of people signing up for Affordable Care Act coverage. That’s good news for Obamacare – perhaps.  One of the more interesting – and sometimes frustrating – things about health policy is that like climate change it unfolds slowly over time, and so it is often difficult to see the change in climate while it is happening. For one thing, there are always other variables.  For example, the unemployment rate has also gone down during this period, from 7.2 percent last October to 6.7 percent today . It is possible that some o...

A different kind of climate change was in the news this week, as Gallup reported that the percentage of people who are uninsured declined rapidly from 17.1 percent to 15.9 percent in just three months. That is a pretty substantial drop, and one that began when people started signing up for Obamacare. According to Gallup and others, it translates into an additional 3 million people who now have health insurance, consistent with the numbers of people signing up for Affordable Care Act coverage. That’s good news for Obamacare – perhaps.  One of the more interesting – and sometimes frustrating – things about health policy is that like climate change it unfolds slowly over time, and so it is often difficult to see the change in climate while it is happening. For one thing, there are always other variables.  For example, the unemployment rate has also gone down during this period, from 7.2 percent last October to 6.7 percent today . It is possible that some o...

Last week, I was talking with a new acquaintance about health and mental health policy. He was a successful businessperson, smart, very well educated, and well-informed about public policy.  Like most of us, he follows the news about Obamacare closely.  And he has strong opinions about it.  But I realized as we talked that there were things he thought he knew about Obamacare that were not actually true.  But we both had heard them many times before. So here are five often-repeated “facts” about Obamacare that you, too, have probably heard, and happen to be wrong. 1.  The Affordable Care Act was supposed to reduce health care costs significantly.  Untrue – when the Affordable Care Act was passed, the Congressional Budget Office projected that it would cost more than $1.2 trillion over ten years.  After the Supreme Court decision in 2012, CBO lowered its projection to under $1.2 trillion.  (When these numbers were updated ...

Last week, I was talking with a new acquaintance about health and mental health policy. He was a successful businessperson, smart, very well educated, and well-informed about public policy.  Like most of us, he follows the news about Obamacare closely.  And he has strong opinions about it.  But I realized as we talked that there were things he thought he knew about Obamacare that were not actually true.  But we both had heard them many times before. So here are five often-repeated “facts” about Obamacare that you, too, have probably heard, and happen to be wrong. 1.  The Affordable Care Act was supposed to reduce health care costs significantly.  Untrue – when the Affordable Care Act was passed, the Congressional Budget Office projected that it would cost more than $1.2 trillion over ten years.  After the Supreme Court decision in 2012, CBO lowered its projection to under $1.2 trillion.  (When these numbers were updated ...

Adrian Dantley was a six-time NBA all-star who averaged over 24 points per game during his 15-year career.  He was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2008.  He made good money and reportedly invested it well. Today Adrian Dantley is 58 years old.  Like most 58 year-olds, he wants health insurance.  But the NBA does not offer health insurance to its retirees.  So Dantley recently took a job as a school crossing guard – for the health insurance.  The story is all over the sports pages this week.  I’m sure that it is drawing more than its fair share of giggles and head shakes. But I’ve known a lot of school crossing guards in my life.  And many do it for exactly the same reason. As a summary of news reports recently digested by Kaiser Health News shows, it isn’t always easy for a 50-something retiree to get health insurance. In just a few months, the Affordable Care Act will change this – and not just for 50-somethin...

Adrian Dantley was a six-time NBA all-star who averaged over 24 points per game during his 15-year career.  He was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2008.  He made good money and reportedly invested it well. Today Adrian Dantley is 58 years old.  Like most 58 year-olds, he wants health insurance.  But the NBA does not offer health insurance to its retirees.  So Dantley recently took a job as a school crossing guard – for the health insurance.  The story is all over the sports pages this week.  I’m sure that it is drawing more than its fair share of giggles and head shakes. But I’ve known a lot of school crossing guards in my life.  And many do it for exactly the same reason. As a summary of news reports recently digested by Kaiser Health News shows, it isn’t always easy for a 50-something retiree to get health insurance. In just a few months, the Affordable Care Act will change this – and not just for 50-somethin...