Health News
- Penalty For Those Without Health Insurance In 2015 Will Be Significantly Higher Than For 2014; Feb. 15 Is Deadline To Sign Up
Wall Street Journal photo illustrationOne aspect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act supporters don't spend much time talking about is the part of the law that imposes a penalty on those who don't have insurance, but the time has...
- Feds Letting Arkansas Privatize Medicaid Expansion; Idea Could Spread Like Wildfire, As In Florida, But Cost Questions Remain
Arkansas has turned heads nationally with its preliminary plan to expand Medicaid using the private insurance market, showing that the Obama administration is willing to give states more flexibility than expected in expanding the program. Health and Human...
- Cbo Estimates Court Ruling Will Mean 3 Million Fewer People Than Predicted Will Get Insurance, Saving Federal Government $84 Billion
The Congressional Budget Office estimates 3 million fewer people will get health insurance than expected before the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The CBO forecasts that will reduce the law's estimated...
- Pat Boone Commercial About Medicare Has Many Inaccuracies
A television commerical misleads seniors into believing the federal health-care reform law will ration and deny care and contains other inaccuracies, according to FactCheck.org, a non-partisan, non-profit service based at the University of Pennsylvania....
- Medicare Improving Fast
There is an intense debate over Rep. Paul Ryan?s (R. WI) proposal to scrap Medicare and turn it into a voucher program shifting costs to seniors, a debate that became even more intense when it was passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives....
Health News
Nonpartisan budget office says Republican's Medicare plan would make those now under 54 pay more
A proposal meant to reduce the federal deficit and cut spending would have future retirees paying more for health care, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates. The proposal by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would repeal many of the much-touted benefits of the new health care law but is likely to die in the Senate, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of The Associated Press reports.
Ryan, left, of Wisconsin, proposes repealing health-insurance expansion, which is expected to cover 30 million people who don't have coverage now; bringing back the coverage gap or "doughnut hole" in the Medicare prescription drug benefit; gradually raising the Medicare eligibility age (starting in 2022, it would rise by two months each year until it reaches 67 in 2033); and the amount of money juries could award in medical malpractice suits would be limited. (Photo: AP's J. Scott Applewhite)
Under Ryan's plan, future retirees now 54 and younger would be enrolled "in a different kind of health care program when they retire," Alonso-Zaldivar reports. "Instead of coverage for a set of benefits prescribed from Washington, they'd get a federal payment to buy private insurance from a choice of government-regulated plans." That would mean those retirees would pay more than they would under the current program, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated.
Ryan, left, of Wisconsin, proposes repealing health-insurance expansion, which is expected to cover 30 million people who don't have coverage now; bringing back the coverage gap or "doughnut hole" in the Medicare prescription drug benefit; gradually raising the Medicare eligibility age (starting in 2022, it would rise by two months each year until it reaches 67 in 2033); and the amount of money juries could award in medical malpractice suits would be limited. (Photo: AP's J. Scott Applewhite)The proposal would reduce spending by about $5 trillion over the next 10 years, but would not balance the federal budget. Ryan's plan "would shift more of the risk from rising health care costs from federal taxpayers to individual beneficiaries, medical service providers and states, giving them all a powerful incentive to avoid waste and aim for quality and efficiency," Alonzo-Zaldivar reports. "If it doesn't work, as the budget office suggests might happen, future Medicare beneficiaries, providers and states will feel the pain directly. That could send them right back to Washington clamoring for more subsidies." (Read more)
- Penalty For Those Without Health Insurance In 2015 Will Be Significantly Higher Than For 2014; Feb. 15 Is Deadline To Sign Up
Wall Street Journal photo illustrationOne aspect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act supporters don't spend much time talking about is the part of the law that imposes a penalty on those who don't have insurance, but the time has...
- Feds Letting Arkansas Privatize Medicaid Expansion; Idea Could Spread Like Wildfire, As In Florida, But Cost Questions Remain
Arkansas has turned heads nationally with its preliminary plan to expand Medicaid using the private insurance market, showing that the Obama administration is willing to give states more flexibility than expected in expanding the program. Health and Human...
- Cbo Estimates Court Ruling Will Mean 3 Million Fewer People Than Predicted Will Get Insurance, Saving Federal Government $84 Billion
The Congressional Budget Office estimates 3 million fewer people will get health insurance than expected before the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The CBO forecasts that will reduce the law's estimated...
- Pat Boone Commercial About Medicare Has Many Inaccuracies
A television commerical misleads seniors into believing the federal health-care reform law will ration and deny care and contains other inaccuracies, according to FactCheck.org, a non-partisan, non-profit service based at the University of Pennsylvania....
- Medicare Improving Fast
There is an intense debate over Rep. Paul Ryan?s (R. WI) proposal to scrap Medicare and turn it into a voucher program shifting costs to seniors, a debate that became even more intense when it was passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives....