Health Care

America's health care financing and insurance systems need major reform. Policymakers should take decisive steps to move today's bureaucracy driven, heavily regulated third-party payment system to a new patient-centered system of consumer choice and real free-market competition. In such a system, individuals and families would make the key decisions and control the dollars.

HIGHLIGHTS

How Obamacare Empowers the Medicare Bureaucracy
The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (PPACA) is projected to yield $575 billion in Medicare savings over the next 10 years, mostly from Medicare payment reductions to doctors, hospitals, and health plans. Read More
Obamacare: Impact on States
If implemented as enacted, Obamacare will impose significant new Medicaid costs on states and constitute a major federal usurpation of long-standing state authority in regulating private insurance. Read More
Getting Health Care Reform Right
The health care system needs reform, but not the types of changes enacted under the new health care law. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act moves the health care system in the wrong direction. Read More

Our Research & Offerings on Health Care

Commentary posted August 23, 2010 by Kathryn Nix Less Choice at Greater Cost
With or without Obamacare, health insurance costs are on the rise, and the new law doesn’t do much to stop them from climbing. If anything, several provisions of the legislation passed in March could drive costs higher than they would have been under prior law—unless, of course, insurers can find… Read more
Commentary posted August 20, 2010 by Brian Blase Fleecing the Cornhuskers
Remember the Cornhusker Kickback? It was a giveaway to Nebraska brokered in order to secure the vote of one of its senators for Obamacare. After word of the scam broke, pressure mounted on Congress to drop the provision, which… Read more
Backgrounder posted August 19, 2010 by Gregg Girvan Consumer Power: 5 Lessons from Utah’s Heath Care Reform
Abstract: Obamacare is on the march, and state policymakers must decide by 2014 how they will respond to this encroachment on states’ rights to control their own health insurance markets. The state of Utah has been on the reform path since 2005. With its system of defined contributions (as… Read more
Commentary posted August 19, 2010 by Edwin Feulner, Ph.D. Go To the Back of the CLASS
In Washington, politicians often give their bills clever names designed more to obscure than to reveal. Consider the CLASS Act. It sounds like yet another federal attempt to meddle in local schools. Instead, it stands for “Community… Read more
Commentary posted August 16, 2010 by Gregg Girvan Utah’s Example: How States Can Respond to Obamacare
Since the passage of President Obama’s unpopular Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, many states have pushed back against the federal government’s intrusion into the nation’s health care system. This includes challenging the constitutionality of the law’s insurance mandate and calling for repeal and replacement of the law. … Read more
Audio Recorded on August 16, 2010 Mike Franc on Heritage's Solutions for America: A Heritage in Focus Special Podcast
Mike Franc discusses the Heritage Solutions for America, a document containing over 100 policy recommendations for how to get America back on track. To get regular updates on Heritage in Focus podcasts, visit our RSS feed or subscribe on iTunes.… Read more
Commentary posted August 13, 2010 by Robert Moffit, Ph.D. Repair? No, Repeal ObamaCare
The "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" was hardly the most popular bill when President Obama signed it into law in March. And its appeal has only declined since then. When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority… Read more
Lecture posted August 11, 2010 by The Honorable John Shadegg, Robert Moffit, Ph.D., Grace-Marie Turner, Michael Franc Taking Control of the Health Care Debate: Avoiding the Mistakes of the 1990s
Abstract: The reason that America needs health care reform, and the reason that the cost of health care is going up dramatically faster than we can afford and faster than everything else in the economy, is that government has broken the system. The health… Read more
WebMemo posted August 10, 2010 by J.D. Foster, Ph.D. Medicare Trustees Issue Report Disavowed by Chief Actuary
Over the past six years, Congress has twice passed and two Presidents have signed into law major legislation affecting Medicare. President Bush signed the bill creating a new drug benefit that provided an important modernization for the program yet also significantly worsened its finances. President Obama signed “Obamacare” into law,… Read more
Audio Recorded on August 9, 2010 Brian Blase on the Medicaid Bailout: Heritage in Focus, August 9, 2010
Brian Blase discusses the Medicaid bailout and Obamacare with David Weinberger. … Read more

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Find more work on Health Care

Legal Memorandum posted December 9, 2009 by Randy Barnett, Nathaniel Stewart, Todd Gaziano Why the Personal Mandate to Buy Health Insurance Is Unprecedented and Unconstitutional
… Read more
Backgrounder posted July 1, 2010 by Edmund Haislmaier, Brian Blase Obamacare: Impact on States
Abstract: If implemented as enacted, Obamacare will impose significant new Medicaid costs on states and constitute a major federal usurpation of long-standing state authority in regulating private insurance. This will be expensive and disruptive for those Americans who rely on individual or employer-based insurance… Read more
Backgrounder posted August 19, 2010 by Gregg Girvan Consumer Power: 5 Lessons from Utah’s Heath Care Reform
Abstract: Obamacare is on the march, and state policymakers must decide by 2014 how they will respond to this encroachment on states’ rights to control their own health insurance markets. The state of Utah has been on the reform path since 2005. With its system of defined contributions (as… Read more
Lecture posted November 10, 2004 by Brian Crowley The Top Ten Things People Believe About Canadian Health Care, But Shouldn't
Of the many ways that are available to tackle the question of what we all need to learn from Canada's 30-year love affair with the government monopoly, single-payer health care system that we in Canada call " Medicare," I think the model of that great health care analyst and public… Read more
Lecture posted July 9, 2001 by Robert Moffit, Ph.D., Philippe Manière, David Green, Paul Belien, Johan Hjertqvist, Friedrich Breyer Perspectives on the European Health Care Systems: Some Lessons for America
Introduction1 Robert E. Moffit: We Americans may enjoy unprecedented prosperity and undisputed military power, but we have no monopoly on wisdom, and we can certainly learn from the rich, practical, day-to-day experience of other nations. This is especially true in the complex and difficult area of health care policy. … Read more
Backgrounder posted July 29, 2010 by Brian Blase No CLASS: How Congress Saddled Taxpayers with Another Costly Entitlement
Abstract: The Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) program is an actuarially unsound and fiscally irresponsible misadventure by Congress. Congress should never have enacted this new government-run long-term care insurance program. It places CLASS participants at risk of benefit cuts and American taxpayers… Read more
WebMemo posted May 11, 2010 by Robert Moffit, Ph.D. Obamacare: Impact on Doctors
No class of American professionals will be more negatively impacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act than physicians. Third-party payment arrangements already compromise the independence and integrity of the medical profession; Obamacare will reinforce the worst of these features.… Read more

Find more work on Health Care

Backgrounder posted August 19, 2010 by Gregg Girvan Consumer Power: 5 Lessons from Utah’s Heath Care Reform
Abstract: Obamacare is on the march, and state policymakers must decide by 2014 how they will respond to this encroachment on states’ rights to control their own health insurance markets. The state of Utah has been on the reform path since 2005. With its system of defined contributions (as… Read more
WebMemo posted August 10, 2010 by J.D. Foster, Ph.D. Medicare Trustees Issue Report Disavowed by Chief Actuary
Over the past six years, Congress has twice passed and two Presidents have signed into law major legislation affecting Medicare. President Bush signed the bill creating a new drug benefit that provided an important modernization for the program yet also significantly worsened its finances. President Obama signed “Obamacare” into law,… Read more
Backgrounder posted July 30, 2010 by Gregg Girvan Utah’s Defined-Contribution Option: Patient-Centered Health Care
Abstract: Americans who receive health insurance through their jobs generally have little flexibility: 86 percent of employers in the country offer only one plan. This system of “defined benefits” has worked well for expanding group coverage, but severely limits options for individuals, and has… Read more
Backgrounder posted July 29, 2010 by Brian Blase No CLASS: How Congress Saddled Taxpayers with Another Costly Entitlement
Abstract: The Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) program is an actuarially unsound and fiscally irresponsible misadventure by Congress. Congress should never have enacted this new government-run long-term care insurance program. It places CLASS participants at risk of benefit cuts and American taxpayers… Read more
Backgrounder posted July 22, 2010 by James C. Capretta, Brian Riedl The CLASS Act: Repeal Now, or Face Permanent Taxpayer Bailout Later
Abstract: Proponents of Obamacare claim that it will simultaneously provide millions of Americans with health insurance and reduce the budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet Obamacare’s proclaimed budgetary discipline rests on unlikely assumptions and budget gimmicks—none worse than the CLASS Act,… Read more
Backgrounder posted July 22, 2010 by Ryan Lynch, Eline Altenburg-van den Broek The Drawbacks of Dutch-Style Health Care Rules: Lessons for Americans
Abstract: In 2006, the Dutch government implemented a universal insurance mandate. Many American policymakers are looking to the Dutch experiment as a model to fix America’s complex and costly health care system. But the Dutch reforms have not caused individual consumers to seek value,… Read more
WebMemo posted July 13, 2010 by Brian Blase Further Medicaid Bailout: Unfair and Irresponsible
Many states are lobbying the Senate to extend the Medicaid bailout enacted in the February 2009 stimulus bill. While several attempts by Senate leaders to extend the bailout—passed by the House—have failed, it is likely to be brought to the floor again. The Center on Budget and… Read more
Backgrounder posted July 1, 2010 by Edmund Haislmaier, Brian Blase Obamacare: Impact on States
Abstract: If implemented as enacted, Obamacare will impose significant new Medicaid costs on states and constitute a major federal usurpation of long-standing state authority in regulating private insurance. This will be expensive and disruptive for those Americans who rely on individual or employer-based insurance… Read more
Backgrounder posted June 30, 2010 by Robert Moffit, Ph.D. Revitalizing Federalism: The High Road Back to Health Care Independence
Our Country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. —Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Gideon Granger, August 13, 1800 … Read more
Backgrounder posted June 21, 2010 by Robert Moffit, Ph.D. The Prospects for Ending Obamacare: Learning from Health Policy History
Abstract: Based on Washington’s record of health policymaking, ending or rolling back Obamacare is anything but implausible. Now that President Barack Obama has signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, much of the focus of… Read more