Our Health Policy Matters

Let’s open 2014 with four health policy predictions.  Here are the first three: Obamacare enrollments will top 5 million. Uninsured rates will come down. Health inflation will tick up. Here’s why you can count on these.   First, 1.1 million people have already enrolled in Obamacare.  The Administration hopes for 7 million by March.  That may be optimistic, but there will be another burst of enrollments in a couple of months.  And there will be another open enrollment period toward the end of the year.  So at least 5 million enrollments seems reasonable.  And here is a bonus prediction.  If that many sign up, the politics of Obamacare in the half of the states that have embraced it will probably shift during the 2014 election cycle.  Their people will, too. Second, the number of people who are uninsured will go down.  A 1 or 2 percent decline will be attributable to Obamacare.  The improving economy will...

Let’s open 2014 with four health policy predictions.  Here are the first three: Obamacare enrollments will top 5 million. Uninsured rates will come down. Health inflation will tick up. Here’s why you can count on these.   First, 1.1 million people have already enrolled in Obamacare.  The Administration hopes for 7 million by March.  That may be optimistic, but there will be another burst of enrollments in a couple of months.  And there will be another open enrollment period toward the end of the year.  So at least 5 million enrollments seems reasonable.  And here is a bonus prediction.  If that many sign up, the politics of Obamacare in the half of the states that have embraced it will probably shift during the 2014 election cycle.  Their people will, too. Second, the number of people who are uninsured will go down.  A 1 or 2 percent decline will be attributable to Obamacare.  The improving economy will...

Would you send your mother to a pediatrician for her arthritis, or your child to a geriatrician for his well-baby exam? Probably not – unless there were no other provider in town. But some new reports from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) suggest that something akin to that is happening every day to people with mental illnesses. Two reports – Costs for Hospital Stays in the United States, 2010 and Most Frequent Conditions in U.S. Hospitals, 2010 – were released in January 2013.  The third, Most Frequent Procedures Performed in U.S. Hospitals, 2010 , was released in February. They make for fascinating reading, with an unexpected twist at the end.  Spoiler alert – mood disorders are among the most common reasons for hospitalizations for people under 65.  But mood disorders aren’t driving the increase in hospital costs, because the procedures hospitals most often perform have nothing to do with treating people with mood disorder...

Would you send your mother to a pediatrician for her arthritis, or your child to a geriatrician for his well-baby exam? Probably not – unless there were no other provider in town. But some new reports from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) suggest that something akin to that is happening every day to people with mental illnesses. Two reports – Costs for Hospital Stays in the United States, 2010 and Most Frequent Conditions in U.S. Hospitals, 2010 – were released in January 2013.  The third, Most Frequent Procedures Performed in U.S. Hospitals, 2010 , was released in February. They make for fascinating reading, with an unexpected twist at the end.  Spoiler alert – mood disorders are among the most common reasons for hospitalizations for people under 65.  But mood disorders aren’t driving the increase in hospital costs, because the procedures hospitals most often perform have nothing to do with treating people with mood disorder...