Different Takes: Pay Attention To Senate’s Reform Plan; GOP Should Focus On Tax Credits
Opinion writers take a look at the latest moves to overhaul the federal health law.
The New York Times:
It’s Time To Worry About Health Care In The Senate
While the rest of the country has been transfixed by Trumpian chaos, members of the Senate have spent the last two weeks talking about taking health insurance from millions of Americans. There is an alarmingly large chance that they’ll decide to do so. But if they do, they will almost certainly rely on a political sleight of hand to disguise their bill’s damage. Understanding that sleight of hand — and calling attention to it — offers the best hope for defeating the bill. (David Leonhardt, 5/23)
Forbes:
The Right Way For GOP Senators To Replace Obamacare's Tax Credits
If you’ve been a regular reader of The Apothecary, you know that the key flaw in the American Health Care Act—the House Republican bill to replace Obamacare—is that the tax credits it offers to the uninsured will price low-income near-elderly workers out of the market. The problem is that Ryancare’s tax credits are, for the most part, unadjusted for income; a couple making $150,000 gets the same level of assistance as someone making $13,000. This flat credit ends up being especially problematic for older individuals, because their underlying premiums are much higher than those for younger people. (Avik Roy, 5/23)
The Washington Post:
Want To Know What Trumpcare Would Do To The Country? Look At The Implosion In Iowa.
Wondering what the country’s health-care system would look like under Trumpcare? Take a gander at Iowa, where the individual market is on the verge of collapse. Just one insurer remains in most of the state, and that insurer, Medica, is threatening to exit. Republicans love to point to Iowa’s struggles as evidence of Obamacare’s failures. But in reality, the Hawkeye State has functioned as a petri dish for the GOP’s health plan. The state’s problems provide useful lessons for what could go wrong if Trumpcare becomes law nationwide. (Catherine Rampell, 5/22)
The New York Times:
Health Policy Is Vital To Tax Reform Policy
There is strong bipartisan support in Congress for cutting the corporate tax rate to improve competitiveness. ... But what is really holding back the international competitiveness of American businesses isn’t so much the tax code as our health system. The United States is unique among major countries in that health insurance for the working population is provided almost entirely by employers. (Bruce Bartlett, 5/23)
Boston Globe:
White House Needs Data, Not Word Clouds, On Health Care
If ever there was a time for careful, sober, data-driven policy analysis, that time is now. The nation has a president whose claims are a word cloud of superlatives, assertions that frequently bear little resemblance to reality. Add a Republican House so eager to advance a right-wing agenda that inconvenient truths and deficit worries are easily brushed aside, and the potential for long-term health care and fiscal harm is very real. (5/23)
Health Affairs:
Preserving The Bipartisan Commitment To Health Care Delivery System Reform
Improving and reforming our health care delivery system is not a partisan issue. The need to improve health care delivery models, as a means for ensuring better patient outcomes and a more efficient health care system, enjoys broader consensus than elements surrounding health insurance coverage and financing. It is important for Congress, the Trump administration, and the health care industry to continue bipartisan efforts to shift our health care delivery system and provider payment models toward value-based care. (Alice M. Rivlin and Sheila Burke, 5/18)
San Antonio Press-Express:
Christianity And The Health Care Bill
Many political leaders who support the U.S. House of Representatives’ or whatever U.S. Senate version emerges of a new health care bill will proudly identify themselves as Christian, pro-life and pro-family. What puzzles me is how these leaders reconcile their personal values and commitments with embracing a plan that limits or excludes poor people, as well as persons with pre-existing conditions. (Allan Hugh Cole Jr., 5/22)
Health Affairs:
Health Insurance Benefits Should Be Equitable, Not Necessarily Equal
As policy makers grapple with potentially undoing or modifying the largest expansion of health insurance in a generation, the cost and generosity of benefits hold center stage. Traditional underpinnings of insurance plans—premiums, deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance—frequently create barriers to the optimal use of these plans by consumers. They also can exacerbate inequities in health care, by inhibiting the use of services known to benefit health. Novel approaches to insurance plan design to produce a more equitable and efficient distribution of health care expenditures are warranted. (Betsy Q. Cliff, Michael Rozier and A. Mark Fendrick, 5/22)