Issue Brief posted May 16, 2013 by Christopher Jacobs
The Taxman Cometh: The IRS’s Role in Implementing Obamacare
The recent admission by the IRS that its employees improperly subjected certain organizations to heightened scrutiny based upon their political affiliation raises troubling questions about the agency’s ability to manage Obamacare in a competent and impartial manner. At a time when doubts are growing about the IRS’s politically biased behavior, Obamacare grants the agency…
Backgrounder posted March 22, 2013 by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Alyene Senger
Medicare’s Outdated Structure—and the Urgent Need for Reform
Traditional Medicare, which liberals once envisioned as the foundation for national health insurance for all ages,[1] is a fee-for-service model rooted in the 1960s. Its outdated structure makes the program fundamentally flawed, as the editors of The Washington Post remarked recently: “Medicare as we know it is not sustainable” and the “ultimate solution” is structural…
Backgrounder posted March 22, 2013 by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Alyene Senger
Medicare’s Rising Costs — and the Urgent Need for Reform
The rising cost of Medicare is placing an increasing burden on current and future taxpayers, as well as exacerbating the poor financial condition of a program on which America’s seniors depend in their retirement. The traditional program’s fee-for-service payment system, in which doctors and hospitals are paid a fixed price for each and every procedure or service that…
Backgrounder posted March 21, 2013 by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Alyene Senger
Medicare’s Demographic Challenge—and the Urgent Need for Reform
Americans should ignore false promises to keep “Medicare as we know it”—the program is already changing. Under the misnamed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, Congress and President Barack Obama have already enacted big reductions in Medicare funding (amounting to $716 billion over the next 10 years[1]), as well as complex new rules governing federal…
Testimony posted March 15, 2013 by Edmund F. Haislmaier
Medicaid Expansion: Implications for Ohio
Testimony before
Finance and Appropriations Committee Health
and Human Services Subcommittee
Ohio House of Representatives
March 13, 2013
Edmund F. Haislmaier
My name is Edmund Haislmaier. I am Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. The views I express in this testimony are my own, and should not be construed as representing any official position of…
Issue Brief posted March 5, 2013 by Nina Owcharenko
Why the Obamacare Medicaid Expansion Is Bad for Taxpayers and Patients
Medicaid needs reform, not expansion. This federal–state health care program provides health care to over 60 million Americans and consumes a growing portion of state and federal budgets. Research shows a long history of Medicaid enrollees having worse access and outcomes than privately insured individuals.[1] Due in part to low reimbursement, one in three doctors refuses…
Lecture posted February 25, 2013 by Edmund F. Haislmaier
The Complexities of Providing Health Insurance
Discussions of the ethics of health care financing typically focus on issues of equity and social justice. Yet such discussions are more often about means than ends. Contrary to the impression given by occasionally heated political rhetoric, there, in fact, exists a broad consensus across the political spectrum that modern societies have an obligation to ensure that all…