Sunday, May 21, 2017

CMS Checklist For State 1332 Waivers Focuses On High-Risk Pools, Reinsurance

CMS Checklist For State 1332 Waivers Focuses On High-Risk Pools, Reinsurance

Comment by Don McCanne

One of the prime drivers of the Affordable Care Act was the inherent flaws in the
individual insurance market. As more people with expensive health
care problems enrolled in the individual plans, premiums went up and
the healthy dropped out, resulting in the “death spiral” of
skyrocketing premiums. Insurers countered by limiting benefits, by
excluding individuals with preexisting disorders, or by pulling out
of markets with higher-cost beneficiaries.
To cover those who had a greater need for care, many states established high-risk
insurance pools, but these pools were very expensive. The benefits
were quite limited, and the premiums were very high, but they also
required large contributions from the states. Think about the fact
that the 20 percent of people who had major health problems consumed
80 percent of the health care (the 80/20 rule). Moving 80 percent of
the costs for these patient populations into separate pools proved to
be far too much for the states, so the pools were severely
underfunded. Benefits were spartan, many could not afford the
premiums, and intolerable waiting lists were established due to
enrollment caps. They were a policy failure.
Yet what does the current Congress and administration want to do about this problem?
They have emphasized repeatedly that the leading priority is to make
premiums affordable. To do this they would go back to the
dysfunctional individual market in which only the healthy were
insured, with one technical modification. They would reestablish
separate high-risk pools to insure the costly patients, or they would
leave everyone in the same risk pool but provide reinsurance to cover
the excessive losses resulting from caring for the more expensive
patients. In either case, the costs of the pools and/or reinsurance
would be very high. Since they want to keep the premiums low these
extra costs would have to be paid by the state or by “federal
pass-through payments.”
The CMS checklist states, “State-operated reinsurance programs have a demonstrated
ability to help lower premiums, and if the state shows a reduction in
federal spending on premium tax credits a state could receive Federal
pass-through funding to help fund the state’s reinsurance program.”
In other words, the federal contribution would be only the amount
that they would otherwise be contributing in the form of premium tax
credits - a budget neutral solution. This could not possibly fund
either a high-risk pool or a reinsurance program for the the most
expensive patients. The prior experience with the state high-risk
pools has already confirmed that the states, for both political and
fiscal reasons, are not capable of funding these pools either.
So all of this talk about federal authorization of high-risk pools and reinsurance
programs through Section 1332 waivers is garbage. The current federal
government has no intention of funding these programs, but they will
authorize them and then sit back and blame the states for failing to
implement them properly. Who is harmed by all of this? The patients,
of course.
We would not have to worry about the 80/20 rule if everyone were in the same universal
risk pool as they would be in a single payer, improved Medicare for
all program. Unless our current political leaders suddenly have a
miraculous communal epiphany, we need to replace them.

Worker Notes: American Big Bucks Health Care System One Sick Puppy – The Commoner Call

Worker Notes: American Big Bucks Health Care System One Sick Puppy – The Commoner Call




Amid F-Bomb and Uproar, Dems Face Demands to Get Behind Single Payer | Common Dreams

Amid F-Bomb and Uproar, Dems Face Demands to Get Behind Single Payer | Common Dreams

Saturday, May 20, 2017

5 Winners! Physicians' Best Ideas to Replace the ACA

5 Winners! Physicians' Best Ideas to Replace the ACA

Healthcare Access and Quality Index based on mortality from causes amenable to personal health care in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2015: a novel analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015 - The Lancet

Healthcare Access and Quality Index based on mortality from causes amenable to personal health care in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2015: a novel analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015 - The Lancet

First-ever global study finds massive health care inequity | EurekAlert! Science News

First-ever global study finds massive health care inequity | EurekAlert! Science News

‘An embarrassment’: U.S. health care far from the top in global study - The Washington Post

‘An embarrassment’: U.S. health care far from the top in global study - The Washington Post
Comment by Don McCanne

This study establishes a new landmark in health policy research. It provides a basis of determining how all nations are doing in reducing premature deaths by providing timely and effective health care, that is, in improving their “amenable mortality” rates.

To no surprise for those who follow health policy, the Healthcare Access and Quality Index (HAQ Index) for the United States falls about in the middle of nations in the highest quartile of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI). Although our per capita spending on health care is about twice the average of these nations, our access and quality are only average. We do not have the best health care system in the world, in spite of what reform opponents say.

As Christopher Murray, a senior author of this study, states, “America's ranking is an embarrassment.” Look at the countries that rank above us. If, like them, we used our public resources more effectively we would no longer have to be ashamed of our performance. Just through the tax system alone we are already spending more per capita than almost all of the other nations do in both public and private spending combined.

It’s not that we need to make a decision to finance health care through our taxes; we already largely do that. Instead we need to improve the allocation of our tax funds plus our private spending. We can do that best by enacting and implementing a well-designed single payer national health program - an improved Medicare for all. With all that we are spending, we should be at the top of the list.


Paul Ryan's Medicare Privatization Scheme Edging Closer to Reality

Paul Ryan's Medicare Privatization Scheme Edging Closer to Reality

Dr. Laurel Mark: Return to high-risk pool no solution for people with pre-existing conditions | Opinion | host.madison.com

Dr. Laurel Mark: Return to high-risk pool no solution for people with pre-existing conditions | Opinion | host.madison.com

Thursday, May 18, 2017

(6) GOP Representative Tom MacArthur was not ready... - TRM - Trump Resistance Movement

(6) GOP Representative Tom MacArthur was not ready... - TRM - Trump Resistance Movement

Few doctors discuss cancer costs with patients, study finds - Houston Chronicle

Few doctors discuss cancer costs with patients, study finds - Houston Chronicle

America needs single-payer health care | The Fresno Bee

America needs single-payer health care | The Fresno Bee

A simple LTE:

"Politicians are almost there kicking millions of Americans back to the curb. Instead of cutting the huge cost of health care by setting limits for drug makers and hospitals and eliminating the insurance companies, it’s back to the emergency room and death to the ones that cannot pay for their expensive treatments.

Don’t believe the lies that a single-payer system does not work. It works just fine in many countries, including Canada. The difference is that these governments make it a priority and actually care about the health of their people.

Here, anything that cuts into profits is anti-business and Republican policy makers can’t have that. Even if it is the last dollar they take from people’s pocket, they sleep just fine at night."

Trump Plan To End Insurance Subsidies Could Lower Costs For Consumers : Shots - Health News : NPR

Trump Plan To End Insurance Subsidies Could Lower Costs For Consumers : Shots - Health News : NPR

Some detail.  Also, shows how confusing it is.  Single Payer much simpler and better coverage.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Republicans Try to Turn Healthcare into Welfare

Republicans Try to Turn Healthcare into Welfare

Paul Ryan’s next move is an attempt to privatize Medicare

Paul Ryan’s next move is an attempt to privatize Medicare

A Whistle-Blower Tells of Health Insurers Bilking Medicare

A Whistle-Blower Tells of Health Insurers Bilking Medicare

"But now a whistle-blower, a former well-placed official at UnitedHealth Group, asserts that the big insurance companies have been systematically bilking Medicare Advantage for years, reaping billions of taxpayer dollars from the program by gaming the payment system."

Monday, May 15, 2017

Warren Buffett, Munger, Aetna CEO, Trump on single payer healthcare - Business Insider

Warren Buffett, Munger, Aetna CEO, Trump on single payer healthcare - Business Insider

"So the industry has always been the back room for government," Bertolini said. "If the government wants to pay all the bills, and employers want to stop offering coverage, and we can be there in a public private partnership to do the work we do today with Medicare, and with Medicaid at every state level, we run the Medicaid programs for them, then let’s have that conversation."

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

A conservative case for single-payer health care

A conservative case for single-payer health care

Here's the secret payoff to health insurance CEOs buried in the GOP Obamacare repeal bill - LA Times

Here's the secret payoff to health insurance CEOs buried in the GOP Obamacare repeal bill - LA Times

Forget Taxes, Warren Buffett Says. The Real Problem Is Health Care. - The New York Times

Forget Taxes, Warren Buffett Says. The Real Problem Is Health Care. - The New York Times

""
"Mr. Buffett is a Democrat, but his business partner, Charles T. Munger, is a Republican — and a rare one who has advocated a single-payer health care system. Under his plan, which Mr. Buffett agrees with, the United States would enact a sort of universal type of coverage for all citizens — perhaps along the lines of the Medicaid system — with an opt-out provision that would allow the wealthy to still get concierge medicine."

U.S. judge finds that Aetna deceived the public about its reasons for quitting Obamacare - LA Times

U.S. judge finds that Aetna deceived the public about its reasons for quitting Obamacare - LA Times