House Republicans have proposed a major rewrite of the Affordable Care Act that would increase the cost of health insurance for older workers and profoundly change the Medicaid support system for the most vulnerable. It would be the biggest change in government assistance for long-term care since the creation of Medicaid a half century ago. The proposal would retain the [...]
We may be about to have a new debate over “death panels.” If we do, it would be a tragedy for tens of millions of Americans and their families. You may remember this small piece of the Affordable Care Act that garnered outsized attention back in 2010. It allowed Medicare to pay physicians for having end-of-life conversations with their patients. [...]
Which statement is true? 1) Medicare will impose huge burdens on future taxpayers by providing trillions of dollars in government-funded health care to older adults. 2) Many seniors face massive, unaffordable out-of-pocket health costs in old age, even with that government assistance. The answer is: Both. And that’s the challenge policymakers must confront as they debate what to do about [...]
As the debate over remaking the US health system heats up, I’d like to make a modest request: Let’s stop talking about Obamacare. Drop the partisan, misleading, counterproductive, and increasingly irrelevant hot button label. Instead let’s talk about the pros and cons of what are likely to be some complex and far-reaching changes to the way Americans get their medical [...]
A proposal by congressional Republicans aimed at reducing health insurance costs for young people would substantially boost premiums for those over age 50, according to a new analysis by the actuarial firm Milliman Inc. The proposal could result in up to 18,000 older adults losing health coverage and increase the cost of federal insurance subsidies by $6.7 billion, if the [...]
Is Medicaid’s long-term care benefit a zero-sum game where limited resources are shifted from one beneficiary to another? For instance, could the government significantly increase long-term care benefits for some by barring people from using spousal annuities to qualify for Medicaid? Or should resources be expanded to provide all eligible seniors and younger people with disabilities the care they need? [...]
The Trump Administration and congressional Republicans seem to be moving full speed towards capping federal payments for Medicaid--a design sometime called block grants. But they may be missing a key piece of the story: Two-thirds of the program’s dollars go to the frail elderly and younger people with disabilities. The stereotype of a Medicaid beneficiary is a poor mom and [...]
It costs families more to care for a frail older adult than to raise a child for the first 17 years of her life. Yet, while the government routinely provides a broad range of assistance and free services for children, it offers only limited benefits for those needing long-term supports and services—and mostly only for those who are impoverished and [...]
Georgia Congressman Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, is a bundle of contradictions when it comes to Medicare. He certainly is not alone. Trump and congressional Republicans have sent their own very mixed signals about Medicare. The House GOP very much wants to turn the program into what it calls premium [...]
It looks like nursing homes will continue to be able to require residents and their families to agree in advance to arbitrate disputes with the facilities, despite an attempt by federal regulators to curb the practice. Late last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a major rewrite of its nursing home regulations. Most of those rules [...]