Here’s another important fact from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s recent survey of the employer health insurance market. As shown in the chart above, health insurance plans with high deductibles and a saving option (HDHP/SO) have been gaining market share rapidly. Only 1-in-25 enrollees were in such plans in 2006; today that figure is more than [...]
Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
High-Deductible Health Plans Are Growing Rapidly
Posted in Health, tagged Health on September 30, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Health Reform and Skyrocketing Insurance Premiums
Posted in Health, tagged Health on September 27, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Family health insurance premiums surged 9% in 2011 according to new data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. That’s the fastest health insurance inflation since 2005: Insurance premiums (in red) thus outpaced both general inflation (gray) and worker earnings growth (blue) by a wide margin. That scary spike raises an obvious question: Is health insurance more [...]
One Man’s Cost is Another Man’s Income
Posted in Budget, Health, tagged Budget, Health on January 22, 2011 | 5 Comments »
The latest must-read New Yorker piece by Atul Gawande describes recent efforts to cut costs and improve quality by coordinating patient care – in particular that of the most expensive patients. In “The Hot Spotter” (gated), he follows several innovators, including Rushika Fernandopulle, who directs a clinic-based program in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Fernandopulle and his [...]
Why Does It Cost $230 Billion to Repeal Health Reform?
Posted in Budget, Health, tagged Budget, CBO, Health on January 7, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Last spring, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the new health legislation would reduce the deficit by $143 billion over ten years. Yesterday, CBO estimated that repealing that legislation would increase the deficit by $230 billion over ten years. What gives? Why would it cost $87 billion more to repeal the law than was saved by enacting [...]
We’re Still #1 (Unfortunately)
Posted in Economy, Health, Macroeconomics, tagged Data, GDP, Macroeconomics, Recession on August 2, 2010 | 2 Comments »
The Bureau of Economic Analysis rewrote history on Friday. Along with GDP data for the second quarter, BEA also published revisions to its GDP estimates since the start of 2007. Bottom line: The recession was worse than originally thought. The economy contracted by 4.1% from peak to trough (Q2 2008 to Q2 2009), up from [...]
The Budget Uncertainties of Health Reform
Posted in Budget, Health, Politics, tagged Budget, Health, Politics on June 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Back in March, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the new health legislation would reduce the federal budget deficit by about $140 billion over the next ten years and by about 0.5% of gross domestic product in the decade after that. Ever since, analysts have been debating whether we should believe those estimates. Some [...]
The Second Rule of Hospitals
Posted in Health, tagged Health, Same-Sex Marriage on April 16, 2010 | 6 Comments »
The first rule of hospitals is to try to stay out of them. Unfortunately, that rule must sometimes be broken. So let me suggest a second rule: no one should be alone in a hospital. Hospitals can work miracles, saving lives and improving quality of life. But they can still be dangerous and (ironically) inhospitable [...]
Tax Loopholes, Wealth Destruction, and Health Reform
Posted in Budget, Finance, Health, tagged Accounting, Health, Taxes on March 28, 2010 | 18 Comments »
AT&T, Caterpillar, Deere, and Verizon garnered headlines last week (and an unwelcome summons to Capitol Hill) for announcing that a provision in the recent health care legislation would result in substantial accounting write downs. AT&T, for example, told the SEC that it expects to take a $1 billion charge in the first quarter because the [...]
One Last (?) Health Cost Estimate
Posted in Budget, Health, tagged Budget, CBO, Health on March 21, 2010 | 3 Comments »
On Saturday, the Congressional Budget Office released its complete cost estimate for the health/revenue/education legislative package that the House is expected to vote on later today. The good news: The combined package would reduce the deficit by slightly more over the next ten years ($143 billion) than previously estimated ($138 billion). And nothing has changed [...]
How Much Does the Senate Health Bill Cost?
Posted in Budget, Health, tagged Budget, CBO, Health on March 11, 2010 | 16 Comments »
Earlier today the Congressional Budget Office released an updated analysis of the Senate health bill. The update reflects all the amendments that were adopted during Senate consideration of the bill, some technical adjustments, and the assumption that the bill would be enacted in the spring of 2010 (rather than December 2009, as previously assumed). The [...]
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