Bush Budget Dead On Arrival But It Underscores the Trouble With Entitlements and The Choices That Must Be Made

President Bush is calling for $560 billion in cuts from Medicare over the next decade.He would make these cuts by reducing the payments doctors and hospitals would have received.What is amazing about the Bush budget numbers is that the administration is only trying to cut Medicare's annual growth rate from 7% to 5%. At one level, that ought to be easy. After all we aren't talking about reductions

What President Bush Said in His 2007 State Of The Union Address About Health Care

Here is what President Bush had to say about health care in his January 2007 State of the Union Address:A future of hope and opportunity requires that all our citizens have affordable and available health care. When it comes to health care, government has an obligation to care for the elderly, the disabled, and poor children. We will meet those responsibilities. For all other Americans, private

Bush Administration Ducking Its Own Commission on Health Care Reform

Joe Paduda reminds the Bush administration of its obligation to pay attention to its own commission over at "Managed Care Matters" today:Bush's non-responseActions, or lack thereof, speak louder than State of the Union addresses.From California HealthLine comes the news that the Administration has failed to comply with it's legal obligation to respond to the Citizen's Health Care Working

Part D Was “Financially Irresponsible”—The Medicare Part D Drug Plan Liability is Twice That of the Social Security System!

The passage of the Medicare prescription drug benefit—Part D—was a “financially irresponsible” thing to do. Those were the words of U.S. Comptroller General David Walker on CBS’ “60 Minutes" this past weekend.Amen to that.The Medicare Trustees, in May of 2006, reported that Medicare’s long-term debt is estimated to be $32.4 trillion dollars (over 75 years). The new Part D drug benefit is a

President Bush Has a Proven Strategy to Fix the Individual Health Insurance System!!!

The Bush administration has already implemented an individual health insurance system that is voluntary, community rated, and excludes no one--no matter what their age or health status.President Bush's recent proposal to reform the health insurance system (see post) is based upon greater use of the individual health insurance system. He would eliminate the employee tax exemption on

10 Bipartisan Senators Offer a Health Care Reform Outline

Just a few weeks ago I wrote a post that began, it's a new day in the health care debate. Health care reform is breaking out all over.My point was that I haven't seen such enthusiasm for reform since the early 90's and the resulting Clinton Health Plan effort. Everyone seems to have a plan--not the least of which are offered by some very powerful bedfellows.That trend continued this week when

The Bush Budget--It's One Thing for People to Call You a "Lame Duck" and Another to Act Like It!

On health care, this Bush budget just tells me this President has given up.To start with, he would let scheduled Medicare physician fee cuts simply take place. Those cuts, now estimated to be 8.5% on January 1, 2008, will under no circumstances take place at anywhere near that level (if at all) and everyone in Washington, DC knows that.So why include this in your budget.The Bush budget calls for

Bush Defends Medicare Advantage Plans--That and Five Bucks Will Get You a Six Pack

President Bush will shortly release his new budget. He will cut $70 billion from Medicare--largely from providers--and leave Medicare Advantage payments unchanged.President Bush's budget is about as close to irrelevant as it can be. The Democratic Congress will start from scratch.Doctors and hospitals have enormous clout on the Hill. Just as doctors have been able to protect their Medicare fees

The Individual Health Insurance Market Isn't Ready for Primetime

Julie Appleby has an article on the front page of Monday's USAToday covering an issue I dealt with in an earlier post--insurers using post-claim underwriting to rescind people's health insurance policies.President Bush's health plan proposal would encourage consumers to buy their own health insurance. The President, and many others, believe that giving individuals more control over their health

Is the Bush Health Plan Tilted Too Far In Favor of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs?)

Chris Lee has an article in today's Washington Post that raises an important question.Has President Bush gone too far in tilting his new health care proposal in favor of health savings accounts (HSAs)?The President would level the health insurance tax preference playing field for consumers whether they get their health insurance at their place of employment or buy it in the individual

More on the Bush Health Plan

My good friend Bill Boyles of Health Market Survey offers these comments regarding the President's upcoming health proposal (my own post is below this one):New Bush Proposal Takes Intriguing ApproachAfter six years of offering the same old thing, President Bush Tuesday will propose a creative new health reform that is drawing support from both sides of the political spectrum and could be taken

New Bush Health Plan Proposal to Be Announced in State of the Union Address

President Bush is about to announce an interesting health care proposal that would cap the tax benefits on the most generous health benefit plans––often held by higher paid executives and some labor unions and use the revenue to cut the number of uninsured.Individuals, whether they got their health insurance from work or paid for it themselves, would get a standard deduction of $7,500 for an