Category Archives: Medicare

Let States Exchange Obamacare For Something Better

Posted on by

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper established an Obamacare state exchange that is now "teetering," according to a state official. [Credit: mnginteractive.com]

Col­orado Gov­er­nor John Hick­en­loop­er estab­lished an Oba­macare state exchange that is now “tee­ter­ing,” accord­ing to a state offi­cial. [Cred­it: mnginteractive.com]

In the 34 states that did not estab­lish Oba­macare exchanges, Gov­er­nors ner­vous­ly await a Supreme Court rul­ing that could throw their health insur­ance mar­kets into chaos. Mean­while, many of the Gov­er­nors who did estab­lish exchanges are regret­ting their decision.

More than five years after its enact­ment, Oba­macare has proven a bit­ter brew for many states.  Nowhere is this more evi­dent than in health care exchanges.  Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The GOP’s Gift To Henry Waxman — Part II

Posted on by

Cold War era Congressman Chet Holifield wanted the federal government to finance a network of underground bomb shelters. His successor, Henry Waxman, wanted the federal government to take over health care. Holifield failed; Waxman is still doing just fine. [Credit: NY Times]

Cold War era Con­gress­man Chet Holifield want­ed the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to finance a net­work of under­ground bomb shel­ters. His suc­ces­sor, Hen­ry Wax­man, want­ed the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to take over health care. Holifield failed; Wax­man did just fine. [Cred­it: NY Times]

Chet Holifield was obsessed with The Bomb.

Dur­ing a 32-year tenure that flow­ered dur­ing the Cold War, the Los Ange­les Con­gress­man sought fed­er­al mon­ey to help Amer­i­cans sur­vive a nuclear war.  He called for “a nation­wide sys­tem of under­ground shel­ters” in which to hud­dle, safe from irra­di­at­ed debris.

Though Holifield achieved suc­cess in oth­er areas – he was known as “Mr. Atom­ic Ener­gy” for his pro­mo­tion of nuclear pow­er — he left Con­gress in 1974 with­out ful­fill­ing his sub­ter­ranean vision. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The GOP’s Gift To Henry Waxman — Part I

Posted on by
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and John Boehner (R-OH) took a bow when the House passed a $141 billion health care bill. But Henry Waxman deserves the credit. [Credit: Politico]

Nan­cy Pelosi (D‑CA) and House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH) took a bow when the House passed a $141 bil­lion health care bill. But Hen­ry Wax­man deserves the cred­it. [Cred­it: Politico]

“What a way to cel­e­brate a birth­day!”  – House Minor­i­ty Leader Nan­cy Pelosi (D‑CA) after the House passed bipar­ti­san health care legislation

Sor­ry, Nan­cy.  It’s not about you.

The $141 bil­lion health care bill that cleared the House last month and that is expect­ed to win Sen­ate approval next week is a trib­ute from the GOP-con­trolled Con­gress to for­mer Con­gress­man Hen­ry Wax­man, a man who worked tire­less­ly – and with great suc­cess – to expand health care-relat­ed wel­fare spend­ing. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Should Obamacare Evolve Into “Medicare for All?”

Posted on by

Federal agents storm a Los Angeles hospital engaged in a scheme to defraud Medicare. Such fraud is rampant, raising the question of whether "Medicare for All" is a good idea. [Credit: LA Times]

Fed­er­al agents storm a Los Ange­les hos­pi­tal engaged in a scheme to defraud Medicare. Such fraud is ram­pant, rais­ing the ques­tion of whether “Medicare for All” is a good idea. [Cred­it: LA Times]

Estill Mitts, a 68-year-old from Los Ange­les, came up with an enter­pris­ing idea some years back that made him mil­lions: pay home­less peo­ple from the city’s “Skid Row” dis­trict who were eli­gi­ble for Medicare or Med­ic­aid to check into local hos­pi­tals, even if they didn’t need to be there.

Set­ting up shop at a faux med­ical facil­i­ty that he dubbed the ”Assess­ment Cen­ter,” Mitts hired what he called “stringers” to pay home­less peo­ple small sums of mon­ey to go to one of three med­ical facil­i­ties that were in on the scam – City of Angels, LA Met­ro­pol­i­tan and Tustin Hos­pi­tal and Med­ical Cen­ter – where they were admit­ted whether or not they actu­al­ly required care. The hos­pi­tals billed Medicare or Med­ic­aid for the inpa­tient stays and made kick­back pay­ments to Mitts. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

A Congress United … on Obamacare

Posted on by

 

A famously fractious Congress has at last found common cause: getting out from under the Obamacare provision that would take away their health insurance subsidies. [Credit: sightsonpennsylvania.blogspot.com]
A famous­ly frac­tious Con­gress has at last found com­mon cause: get­ting out from under the Oba­macare pro­vi­sion that would take away their health insur­ance sub­si­dies. [Cred­it: sightsonpennsylvania.blogspot.com]

[NOTE: This post has been updat­ed to reflect recent devel­op­ments.]

Con­gress hasn’t been this unit­ed since the Ger­mans bombed Pearl Harbor.

Its 535 Mem­bers — com­pris­ing dif­fer­ent polit­i­cal par­ties, ide­olo­gies, races, gen­ders and geo­graph­ic inter­ests — and its thou­sands of aides are fix­at­ed on a sin­gle thing.

Immi­gra­tion reform? Unrest in Egypt? The loom­ing debt ceil­ing expi­ra­tion with its prospect of US gov­ern­ment default? Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Obamacare: We Don’t Need No Innovation

Posted on by

The Ford Edsel didn't last, but the 1965 Medicare benefit remains largely unchanged nearly 50 years later. [Credit: phrenicea.com]

The Ford Edsel did­n’t last, but the anti­quat­ed Medicare ben­e­fit did, still large­ly unchanged near­ly 50 years lat­er. 
[Cred­it: phrenicea.com]

Begin­ning next Jan­u­ary, it will be ille­gal for insur­ance com­pa­nies to sell poli­cies mod­eled on the ben­e­fit that mil­lions of seniors receive through Medicare.

And that’s a good thing. Con­tin­ue read­ing →