Our Health Policy Matters

President-Elect Donald Trump has suggested replacing Obamacare with a package of benefits that might include: Permitting Insurance to be sold across state lines Retention of the mandate covering pre-existing conditions Allowing young people to remain on parents’ insurance Creating high-risk pools to provide insurance to people with chronic diseases Using Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) as an alternative to tax credits Expanding the use of high-deductible plans to lower premium costs Let’s consider some of the challenges the President-Elect and Congress will face as they craft these – and other – provisions to amend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) .   Selling Insurance Across State Lines President-Elect Trump has been clear that he supports this idea, because it would bring more competition into state markets.  Here’s the challenge. Insurance is regulated by the states, and some states have tighter regulations than others. To allow insurance to be sold

Back in 1980, Republicans nominated a television star with a limited understanding of federal government, zero foreign policy experience, and a platform of platitudes about reigning in a big government run amok. Image copyright unclear (on multiple websites); His main populist appeal was to middle class moderates and conservatives who were struggling both to keep their heads above water in a frightening economy and to understand the enormous changes that had democratized (and integrated) our society during the late 1960s and early 1970s.   To reassure us he led with this – a new theory of “trickle down” economics.  It held that if the government made the rich richer through historic tax cuts for the wealthy, they would re-invest those dollars in jobs for everyone else, and we would all become wealthier for generations to come. That didn't happen, but Ronald Reagan promised a new approach to governing, and a new way of life for the American people. Today, Donal

This might just be the year for mental health reform in Congress. A few months ago, practically no one would have said that. But on Wednesday of this week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 53-0 to send H.R. 2646 - a significant mental health reform bill - on its way, most likely to the House floor for a July vote.  And in recent weeks, a Senate bill has gathered steam, too, and that chamber could also now take up this legislation this summer. So what happened to make mental health reform a real possibility? First, members of Congress sincerely wanted to do something.  The House proposal, sponsored by Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania and Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, has 199 co-sponsors as of today.  Our mental health system has been in disarray since - well, since as long as anyone can remember. Second, members have finally decoupled mental health reform from gun control.  Mental illnesses and violence have never been strongly correlated, but