The Health Debate: Congress’ Waiting Game Didn’t Pay Off; Medicare For All’s Timetable
Opinion writers examine aspects of the health reform debate.
Los Angeles Times:
CBO: Congress Waited Too Long To Avoid Obamacare Premium Increases For 2018
The good news is that the so-called Alexander-Murray compromise, named after its godparents, Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), would accomplish its goal of reducing premiums and would even cut the federal deficit, without raising the number of Americans without health coverage. The bad news is that it’s already too late for the measure to affect premiums for 2018. Insurers already have set their premium rates for the six-week 2018 open enrollment period that starts on Nov. 1, and the CBO says it assumes the legislation won’t be enacted by then. (Michael Hiltzik, 10/25)
Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader:
Trump Cuts Off Self-Employed To Spite Obama
Self-employed people — the entrepreneurs prized by vibrant economies — would be hurt most by President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to undermine the already rattled individual insurance market. Kentuckian Betsy Foster, for example, fears rising premiums will force her to abandon her health-care consulting business and seek a job with a larger company just to be able to afford insurance. Also hurt would be taxpayers. Trump’s move would cost the government more than it would save, which by any definition is irrational. (10/24)
The New England Journal of Medicine:
How To Think About “Medicare For All”
In April 1946, President Harry Truman introduced a single-payer health plan and met the same reaction that would greet Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and his colleagues when they proposed “Medicare for All” in September 2017. ... but 13 years later President Lyndon Johnson signed the Truman revision into law as Medicare, declaring that the United States was finally harvesting “the seeds of compassion and duty” that his predecessor had sown. A proposal with no chance in one era had become law in another. Medicare proved so popular that it came to be a third rail of American politics — dangerous to touch. What lessons does Truman’s success hold for today’s “no chance” Medicare for All? (James A. Morone, 10/25)
The New England Journal of Medicine:
Which Road To Universal Coverage?
According to a June 2017 poll, Americans agree by a 60-to-39 margin that the federal government bears a responsibility to ensure health care for all Americans; 33% said that they favored a “single-payer” health system, 12% more than in 2014.1 The prevailing belief that the government should actively promote broader health insurance coverage contrasts strikingly with the nearly successful effort this year to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), executive orders that threaten to destabilize ACA marketplaces, and repeated calls by the majority party in Congress to slash Medicaid spending. (Henry J. Aaron, 10/25)
Stat:
As America's Future Doctors, We Support A Medicare-For-All Health System
Private insurance subsidies are Band-Aids on an already oozing wound, an inefficient private industry that prioritizes the depth of shareholder pockets over patient health. And while subsidies are short-term fixes inadequate for a long-term solution, removing them altogether, as has been the procedure in the latest GOP bills, would further limit patient access to affordable, comprehensive care. This worse-worst situation could be healed with an improved Medicare-for-all system that eliminates profit motives and preferentially places health above all else. ( Augie Lindmark, Vanessa Van Doren, Bryant Shuey and Andy Hyatt, 10/25)
USA Today:
What If Democrats Were In Charge? I'd Let People Buy Medicaid Coverage
Even as we defend the ACA, we must be ready to actually legislate the day the gavels in Congress are back in our hands, and that requires serious, progressive and practical proposals. The good news is that Democrats are already hatching substantive ideas to expand access to quality, affordable health care. Several senators have plans that build on Medicare. ... My own proposal, which I introduced Wednesday with 18 other senators and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, is the State Public Option Act. It would let states unlock their Medicaid programs to anyone who wants the coverage, giving Americans a public health insurance option on their state’s exchange. (Sen. Brian Schatz, 10/25)
The Hill:
One-Size-Fits-All Medicaid Approach Wrong For Massachusetts
Massachusetts — one of 32 states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — usually is praised for providing healthcare for people living with chronic diseases and other serious health conditions. Unfortunately, the Commonwealth has requested an 1115 Waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that would significantly reduce access to life-saving medications for Medicaid beneficiaries. (Kelsey Rupp, 10/25)
McKnight's Long Term Care News:
Looking At Massachusetts In LTSS Reform
In Massachusetts, there are three major separate initiatives directed at doing things differently to impact Medicaid. The three initiatives are in behavioral health, acute care and long-term care. The focus is on efforts to reform long term care. In many cases, the constituencies are the same, necessitating a real shift to a person-focused, constituent-based, collaborative system that works together more as a social system than a “medical” one. However, the strategy is to work through each system separately with the initial goal of collaboration and consolidation within each sector before merging them. While initial efforts direct a substantial amount of effort toward LTSS, it will be necessary to coordination and integration of the institutional component to reform the system. (James Lomastro, 10/20)
