• How much do you know about Medicare?
• Coming apart.
• Rents in Beijing higher than New York?
• Patients=sheep?  Docs=dogs?
• Governmental business is increasingly important.

And one more late addition:

• 1-2-3-4-5.

Healthcare-Related Comments

Medical R&D:“We’ll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean energy technology -– (applause) — an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people.”

Health Reform: “And it’s why we passed reform that finally prevents the health insurance industry from exploiting patients. (Applause.)

Now, I have heard rumors that a few of you still have concerns about our new health care law. (Laughter.) So let me be the first to say that anything can be improved. If you have ideas about how to improve this law by making care better or more affordable, I am eager to work with you. We can start right now by correcting a flaw in the legislation that has placed an unnecessary bookkeeping burden on small businesses. (Applause.)

What I’m not willing to do — what I’m not willing to do is go back to the days when insurance companies could deny someone coverage because of a preexisting condition. (Applause.)

I’m not willing to tell James Howard, a brain cancer patient from Texas, that his treatment might not be covered. I’m not willing to tell Jim Houser, a small business man from Oregon, that he has to go back to paying $5,000 more to cover his employees. As we speak, this law is making prescription drugs cheaper for seniors and giving uninsured students a chance to stay on their patients’ — parents’ coverage. (Applause.)

So I say to this chamber tonight, instead of re-fighting the battles of the last two years, let’s fix what needs fixing and let’s move forward. (Applause.)”

Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid: “And their conclusion is that the only way to tackle our deficit is to cut excessive spending wherever we find it –- in domestic spending, defense spending, health care spending, and spending through tax breaks and loopholes. (Applause.)

This means further reducing health care costs, including programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which are the single biggest contributor to our long-term deficit.  The health insurance law we passed last year will slow these rising costs, which is part of the reason that nonpartisan economists have said that repealing the health care law would add a quarter of a trillion dollars to our deficit.  Still, I’m willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs, including one that Republicans suggested last year — medical malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits. ”

Health IT:“Veterans can now download their electronic medical records with a click of the mouse.”

The Healthcare Economist’s Take

Your response to these comments are likely, ‘that’s it?!?!’  If you look at the State of the Union address from 2010, you’ll notice that health care reform played a large role in the President’s State of the Union address.  In this address, the President largely avoided the topic. This is not a huge surprise since the President’s Health Reform package (the ACA) is proving unpopular.

Tellingly, the phase “health reform” is never once mentioned in the speech.

He did mention reducing paperwork for small businesses and maintaining the provision to forbid insurers to adjust health insurance premiums based on the patients’ pre-existing conditions. A policy that prohibits rating policyholders based on pre-existing conditions is only tenable with an individual mandate; otherwise healthy people will have no incentive to buy insurance until they are sick. Obama does not mention the individual mandate at all in his speech, however.

The President also says that we need to cut spending for Medicare and Medicaid. He does not, however, offer specifics. In 2010, the President established the bipartisan Fiscal Commission to reduce the cost of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Those efforts largely failed. With so little effort directed towards these cuts in his speech, there is little chance that these cuts materialize or if they do they will be large in magnitude.

In short, on the health care front there is no new news…this would of course change significantly if a Republican takes office in 2013.

• Romney and Medicare Fraud.
• Will the health exchanges be ready in time?
• Wisconsin Governor says ‘No thanks’ to Obamacare Funds.
• Does dentistry need a ‘nurse practitioners.’
• Does physician dispensing of drugs increase cost?
• Sweetheart wage index deal for Massachusetts?

• The year in charts.
• Performance Enhancing Drugs are good?
• Where New Mexico beats New Jersey.
• Too good to be true?
• A fearsome snail?
• Top economists.
• Jargon.
• Free entrepreneurship mentoring.
• $53.4 million vs. $0.
• How Israelis can improve their chances of receiving an organ transplant.
• An app to maximum insurer payments.

Plus, here’s some more vital reading:

• Doping…not so bad?
• PPS vs. FFS: Effect on Nursing Home care.
• The secretto a good marriage?
• Do Chinese physicians use the internet?
• Is the U.S. working>
• Patient Safety Trends: 1998–2007.
• Merger of two of the country’s largest pharmacy benefit managers.

• The military and electronic health records.
• Is the NBA maximum salary rule anti-competitive?
• Where work comp networks are headed.
• Are salt restrictions unsafe?
• 254.
• Paternalism gone wrong.