Tag: "Health Care Costs"

Republican Medicaid Reform Would Save $110 Billion to $150 Billion in 5 Years

money-rollsArguably more important than repealing and replacing Obamacare, a longstanding Republican proposal to change how Congress finances Medicaid would reduce the burden on taxpayers by $110 billion to $150 billion over five years, according to a new analysis by consultants at Avalere.

Currently, state spending on Medicaid is out of control because Medicaid’s traditional funding formula incentivizes the political class to overspend. For every dollar a state politician spends on Medicaid, the federal government pitches in at least one dollar via the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP). This actually rewards states for making more residents dependent on Medicaid.

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Feb 08, 2017 | 8 comments | by

Fixed-Dollar Tax Credits Would Reduce Individual Health Insurance Premiums

UntitledghgSonia Jaffe and Mark Shepard of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) have written a new paper, which compares the effects of fixed-dollar subsidies for health insurance to subsidies that are linked to premiums. They conclude fixed-dollar subsidies reduce taxpayers’ costs and improve access. Unfortunately, the structure of subsidies in U.S. health insurance has moved in the other direction.

Tax credits that subsidize health insurance offered in Obamacare’s exchanges are based on the second-lower cost Silver-level plan in a region. Intuitively, this implies insurers will not compete too much because that would drive down subsidies. As long as subsidies chase insurance premiums, premiums will be higher than otherwise.

Jaffe and Shepard examine evidence from Massachusetts’ health reform (“Romneycare”), which dates to 2006. Its costs are still spiraling, and Jaffe estimates one factor is its design of subsidies, which is similar to Obamacare’s:

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Feb 06, 2017 | 72 comments | by

Private Sector Health Benefits Grew 17 Percent Faster Than Wages Last Year

blsReleased yesterday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics quarterly Employment Cost Index showed private sector health benefits increased 2.7 percent in 2016, versus only 2.3 percent for wages.

Overall, private-sector benefits grew only 1.8 percent, indicating non-health benefits would have grown little if at all. State and local government workers’ benefits grew 3.1 percent, 72 percent faster than private-sector benefits!

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Feb 01, 2017 | 5 comments | by

Bernie Sanders’ Single-Payer Utopia

Back in October I wrote “Is Obamacare’s Failure Intentional, to Promote Medicaid-for-All?”  In it I discussed how Bernie Sanders famously advocated for single-payer socialized medicine during his campaign. In 2011, the Vermont legislature passed a bill to create a single-payer initiative known as Green Mountain Care. In 2014 it was abandoned by Vermont’s governor — a Democrat — as being too costly. Green Mountain Care was going to require an 11.5 percent payroll tax and an additional sliding-scale income tax that topped out at 9.5 percent. Despite the heavy tax burden, a single-payer system in Vermont was projected to run deficits by 2020.

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Jan 30, 2017 | 62 comments | by

GDP: Tame Health Spending In Weak Report

BEAFor those (like me) concerned about how much health spending continues to increase after Obamacare, today’s flash report of fourth quarter Gross Domestic Product confirmed good news.

Overall, real GPD increased 1.9 percent on the quarter, while health services spending increased only 1.6 percent, and contributed only 10 percent of real GDP growth. Growth in health services spending was somewhat higher than growth in non-health services spending (1.2 percent) but significantly lower than non-health personal consumption expenditures (2.7 percent). Further, the implied annualized change in the health services price index increased by just 1.5 percent, lower than the price increase of 2.4 percent for non-health services, 2.3 percent for non-health PCE, and 2.2 percent for non-health GDP.

(See Table I below the fold.)

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Jan 27, 2017 | Leave a Comment | by

CPI: Moderate Health Price Increases

blsThe Consumer Price Index rose 0.3 percent in December. Medical prices rose only 0.2 percent. This is the fourth month in a row we have enjoyed medical price relief. Even prices of prescription drugs rose by only 0.2 percent. Prices of health insurance even dropped a smidgeon!

Prices for medical care commodities rose the most, by 0.6 percent, followed closely hospital services (0.3) percent).

Over the last 12 months, however, medical prices have increased over twice as fast as non-medical prices: 1.9 percent versus 4.1 percent. Price changes for medical care contributed 16 percent of the overall increase in CPI.

Many observers of medical prices decline to differentiate between nominal and real inflation. Because CPI is has been low until recently, even relatively moderate nominal price hikes for medical care are actually substantial real price hikes. More than six years after the Affordable Care Act was passed, consumers have not seen relief from high medical prices, which have increased over twice as much as the CPI less medical care since March 2010, the month President Obama signed the law.

(See Figure I and Table I below the fold.)

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Jan 18, 2017 | 4 comments | by

Advice to Trump: Leave Medicare Drug Prices to the Free Market

President-elect Donald Trump has bashed drug prices on numerous occasions. During his campaign, he championed the idea of having the government directly negotiate the price of Medicare drugs for Part D drug plans. Trump seemingly dropped the idea later in his campaign only to resurrect it again mid-January. Many Democrats also believe the government could secure a lower price for the drugs Medicare reimburses on seniors’ behalf. However, Republicans have long opposed the idea of government meddling in private markets and codified a non-interference clause in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003.

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Jan 18, 2017 | 4 comments | by

PPI: Pharma Prices Are Dropping!

BLSDecember’s Producer Price Index rose 0.3 percent. However, prices for most health goods and services grew slowly, if at all. Fifteen of the 16 price indices for health goods and services grew slower than their benchmarks.*

The outlier was health and medical insurance for final demand, which increased by 0.2 percent, the same rate as final demand services (less trade, transportation, and warehousing.) The largest decline (relative to its benchmark) was for prices of new health care building construction, which declined twice as fast as prices of overall building construction did.

Prices of hospital outpatient care and nursing home care declined versus their final demand services (less trade, transportation, and warehousing) and also absolutely. Pharmaceutical prices decreased 0.1 percent, a 0.4 percent drop versus the price increase for final demand goods less food and energy.

See Table I below the fold:

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Jan 13, 2017 | Leave a Comment | by

GDP: Health Spending Almost Flat

BEAFor those (like me) concerned about how much health spending continues to increase after Obamacare, the third report of third quarter Gross Domestic Product confirmed good news. Although GDP growth was revised up $14.5 billion from the second report, spending on health services was revised downward. It is good to have a breather from the second quarter, which was dominated by growth in health services spending.

Overall, real GPD increased 3.5 percent on the quarter, while health services spending increased only 0.6 percent, and contributed only 2 percent of real GDP growth. Growth in health services spending was also significantly lower than other services spending and personal consumption expenditures (PCE). However, the annualized change in the health services price index increased by 1.8 percent, lower than the price increase of 2.8 percent in non-health services, slightly more than the 1.4 percent price increase in non-health PCE, and non-health GDP.

(See Table I below the fold.)

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Dec 28, 2016 | Leave a Comment | by

Obamacare’s Effect on Employers’ Health Costs

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has published a chart showing how health benefit costs among private employers have increased over the past decade. The chart shows health benefits increased from 6.9 percent of total compensation in September 2006 to 7.6 percent last September. The 0.7 percentage point absolute increase is a relative increase of ten percent.

chart1

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Dec 20, 2016 | 11 comments | by
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