Our Health Policy Matters

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...

Should the Affordable Care Act be repealed so that over a million people making more than $123,000 per year can avoid paying $3,000 in taxes beginning in 2016?  And should they be allowed to pass on the cost of their health care to everyone else? This week, a local newspaper quoted a lifelong Florida Democrat as saying she might vote for Mitt Romney because she believed ACA offered “a costly giveaway to freeloaders.” The irony is that the law actually does just the opposite – and Mitt Romney knows this better than most.  It requires nearly all health care “freeloaders” either to get insurance or pay a tax penalty. Eighty percent of those affected will get insurance.  But the Congressional Budget Office reported last week that it expects 6 million people to owe the tax penalty beginning in 2014.  The $8 billion the penalty will eventually raise will help defray the cost of uncompensated care. Six million people make up less than 2% of our total p...

Should the Affordable Care Act be repealed so that over a million people making more than $123,000 per year can avoid paying $3,000 in taxes beginning in 2016?  And should they be allowed to pass on the cost of their health care to everyone else? This week, a local newspaper quoted a lifelong Florida Democrat as saying she might vote for Mitt Romney because she believed ACA offered “a costly giveaway to freeloaders.” The irony is that the law actually does just the opposite – and Mitt Romney knows this better than most.  It requires nearly all health care “freeloaders” either to get insurance or pay a tax penalty. Eighty percent of those affected will get insurance.  But the Congressional Budget Office reported last week that it expects 6 million people to owe the tax penalty beginning in 2014.  The $8 billion the penalty will eventually raise will help defray the cost of uncompensated care. Six million people make up less than 2% of our total p...

House Speaker John Boehner said recently that Congressional Republicans will have to face raising the debt ceiling as “adults,” echoing his March, 2010 comment that they needed to behave like “grown-ups” when health reform passed.   The passage of health insurance reform in 2010 did not solve all of our health policy problems, but passing a meaningless repeal measure in the House in January isn’t the best way for members of Congress to start putting their grown-up pants on.   What might an actual adult health policy agenda look like in 2011? First, federal and state officials would put more resources into public health.   Like computer anti-virus programs, public health programs work in the background, taking care of us even when we fail to take care of ourselves.   They make sure our water is pure, our neighborhoods clean, our hazardous wastes are disposed of properly, and our children are immunized.   People can argue over whether various prevention initiative...

House Speaker John Boehner said recently that Congressional Republicans will have to face raising the debt ceiling as “adults,” echoing his March, 2010 comment that they needed to behave like “grown-ups” when health reform passed.   The passage of health insurance reform in 2010 did not solve all of our health policy problems, but passing a meaningless repeal measure in the House in January isn’t the best way for members of Congress to start putting their grown-up pants on.   What might an actual adult health policy agenda look like in 2011? First, federal and state officials would put more resources into public health.   Like computer anti-virus programs, public health programs work in the background, taking care of us even when we fail to take care of ourselves.   They make sure our water is pure, our neighborhoods clean, our hazardous wastes are disposed of properly, and our children are immunized.   People can argue over whether various prevention initiative...