Health policy analysts have long known that Medicare spends much more per patient in some parts of the country than in others, even after accounting for regional differences in prices and other health measures. Many assume that Medicare spending and utilization patterns are representative of the health care system as a whole, even though Medicare accounts for less than…

Under House Reconciliation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4872), employers will face even greater penalties than mandated by earlier versions of “health care reform” legislation, such as H.R. 3590. Specifically, employers with more than 50 workers that do not offer a “qualified” health plan or pay 60 percent of health insurance premiums would face an annual tax penalty of $2,000 per…

The Senate health care bill passed on December 24 does not contain an explicit “public option.” It does, however, still include provisions that could put private health plans out of business. Specially, the bill would: Give federal regulators the power to define minimum benefit packages; Specify by law the minimum amount that health plans must spend…

The Senate health care bill includes a well-known "employer mandate" provision that would require employers to either offer a "qualified" health plan and pay 60 percent of the premium or pay an annual tax penalty of $750 per full-time employee. What is less well-known is that the provision would also tax companies even if they do offer insurance -- but only if they…

Suppose you wanted to prevent single parents and people from lower-income families from getting a job. How about imposing a $3,000 tax penalty on any employer who hired such a person instead of an equally qualified, equally paid person from a higher-income family? Would that do the trick? It would do the trick quite nicely—but since no decent person actually wants…

One of the most-discussed issues in the health care reform debate is whether to include a government-run, "public option" health plan. President Obama says a government plan is necessary to "keep insurance companies honest," but opponents -- and even some proponents of the public option -- say that a public option will reduce competition and choice and become a step on…

The health care bills currently under active consideration in Congress would substantially modify the Medicare Advantage (MA) program, imposing deep benefit cuts to partially offset new non-Medicare entitlement spending while reducing health plan choices for seniors and bending the cost curve in the wrong direction. Over 9.9 million seniors would be restricted from…