Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Medicare Part D has had a very odd benefit structure. First, you have a deductible with no coverage; then you get some coverage, then there is a coverage gap or “donut hole” with no coverage and finally there is very generous coverage in the ‘catastrophic phase’. This structure was espeically problematic for patients with high…
Part of the Affordable Care Act mandated a medical loss ratio (MLR) for health plans in the individual and small group markets. What this means is that if the MLR is 80% and insurers charge $100 in premiums, plan enrollees must receive $80 in services on average. If they do not (say they only receive…
Since its inception in 2006, Medicare Part D beneficiaries had to contend with the dreaded “doughnut hole”. The “doughnut hole” is a coverage gap during which patients were required to pay 100% of treatment cost. To help defray some of these costs, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) implemented provisions to reduce the…
According to a recent paper by Kim and Koh (2022), the answer is ‘yes’. Using data from BRFSS and PSID, the authors use a difference-in-difference strategy which identifies the impact of health insurance on subjective well being using two policy changes: (i) the Massachusetts health insurance mandate implemented in July 2007 and (ii) the Affordable…
A paper by Lurie et al. (2021) provides the answer. They reach four conclusions from their analysis: First, the actual penalty paid per uninsured month is less than half the statutory amount. Second, nonetheless, we find visually clear and statistically significant responses to both extensive margin exposure to the mandate and to marginal increases in…
No, that is not a typo. The cost of Bernie Sanders Medicare-for-All (M4A) plan is $13 trillion dollars. How does this stack up to other candidates? The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget does the math. Whereas Mr. Sanders plan would cost $12.95 trillion between 2021 and 2030, Mrs. Warren’s plan would cost $6.1 trillion,…
A nice overview is provided by Johnson, Kishore and Berwick (2020). They review the HR13841 and S 1129.8 in detail [Note: HR 1384 and S 1129 were also proposed in the last Congressional session and they have an overview of that as well] HR 1384 and S 1129 both establish a single payer federal insurance…
What happens when consumers have have fewer health plan choices? In single payer markets, this may just result in less satisfied individuals. In the U.S., however, individuals can opt of of one type of insurance (e.g., health insurance exchanges) and into others (e.g., Medicaid, private insurance). One interesting question is empirically, how does the number…
What do physicians thing about the ACA? How have these opinions changed over time? These are the questions that a paper by Riordan et al. (2019) in Health Affairs. The authors surveyed physiicans in both 2012 and 2017 and found that the share of physicians who thought the ACA was good for health care increased…
In short, most of them want to expand government payment for and control of health care in the United States. Looking at the top 10 candidates (Biden, Sanders, Warren, Harris, Buttigieg, O’Rourke, Booker, Klobuchar, Yang, Castro, Gabbard) according to recent polls captured on 538, I staked out the candidates current positions on reforming the health…