Backgrounder posted January 10, 2003 by James Frogue
The Future of Medicaid: Consumer-Directed Care
Medicaid is a broken system that largely
fails to serve the health care needs of its 47 million
beneficiaries. Ironically, despite its consistent failure to
deliver quality health care, Medicaid is also running up a rapidly
growing and unsustainable tab for taxpayers. The Congressional
Budget Office (CBO) projects that 2002 will be the first year that
spending for…
Backgrounder posted June 28, 2001 by James Frogue, Grace-Marie Turner
Improving Health Care Coverage Through Defined Contributions
The
debate in Washington over enacting a patients' bill of rights
ignores its potential result: a barrage of lawsuits that will
further increase health care costs and compound the nation's health
care problems. A far more effective means of addressing the health
care needs of Americans is a system that offers defined
contributions to an employee's health plan. This…
Executive Memorandum posted June 4, 2001 by James Frogue
Right and Wrong Ways to Address the Needs of the Uninsured
The final budget resolution adopted by the House
and Senate (H. Con. Res. 83) includes $28 billion over three years
to reduce the number of Americans without health insurance.
Congress and the Administration must soon determine how that money
will be spent.
According to the most recent estimate by
the U.S. Bureau of the Census, 42.6 million Americans are…
Executive Memorandum posted April 17, 2001 by James Frogue
Recent Survey Points to Affordable Individual Health Insurance
Representatives Richard Armey (R-TX) and
William Lipinski (D-IL), along with 23 bipartisan cosponsors,
introduced the Fair Care for the Uninsured Act of 2001 (H.R. 1331)
on April 3, 2001. This legislation would create refundable tax
credits for the purchase of health insurance of $1,000 per
individual, $2,000 per married couple, and up to $3,000 per family.
The bill…
Executive Memorandum posted April 12, 2001 by James Frogue
Vermont's Plan to Control Drug Prices for Seniors: A BadPrescription
States that are considering ways to improve
seniors' access to prescription drugs should not be quick to follow
Vermont's lead. Last November, Vermont obtained a waiver from
Medicaid law that allows it to set prices for prescription drugs,
using Medicaid payment levels, for all seniors without private
coverage and certain other low-income uninsured…
Backgrounder posted February 16, 2001 by James Frogue
Top Ten Ways to Fix America's Health Insurance Market and ExpandCoverage
President George W. Bush and the 107th Congress
inherited a problem from their predecessors that they will be
unable to ignore: how to fix America's troubled health care system
so that every American gains access to quality health insurance
coverage. Today, an estimated 42 million people go without
insurance coverage at some point during the year, and…
Executive Summary posted February 16, 2001 by James Frogue
BG1410es: Top Ten Ways to Fix America's Health Insurance Market andExpand Coverage
President George W. Bush and the 107th Congress
face important decisions about how to fix America's health care
system so that all Americans have access to quality health
insurance coverage. Today, approximately 42 million people go
without coverage at some point during the year, and experts predict
this number will rise.
Policymakers must begin to think…
Backgrounder posted September 26, 2000 by James Frogue
A High Price For Patients: An Update On Government Health Care In Britain and Canada
Supporters of government-run health care
offer an alluring vision: universal health coverage, free or
inexpensive medical services and prescription drugs, unrestricted
access to care, doctors with complete clinical freedom, and
exemplary quality of care. These advocates of government-subsidized
medicine often claim that the U.S. health care system should move
in…