Health Affairs

As Congress faces mounting pressure to rein in Medicare spending, two sides seem to be squaring off. The don’t-touch-a-thing-other-than-squeezing-provider-fees position seems to appeal to mainly Democrats, while eat-your-spinach reforms, including more cost sharing and higher premiums, seem to appeal mainly to Republicans. Neither position is very appealing to voters, however, nor should they be. Is... Read the rest of this entry »

While President Barack Obama and congressional leaders continue to tussle over what to do about the nation’s unsustainable entitlement spending programs, the effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) seem to have gone largely unnoticed. This oversight is hard to explain. In recent decades, real Medicare spending has been growing at a... Read the rest of this entry »