For all of the quality care it delivers, the U.S. health care system is one of the most dysfunctional sectors of the U.S. economy. The government spends nearly 50 cents of every dollar spent on health care, most consumers are almost entirely insulated from the cost of their decisions, and employers decide what kind of health insurance their employees get.
But while the U.S. health care system begs for reform, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act only exacerbates all of the current problems, promising to devolve into a price-controlled system rationed and micromanaged by bureaucrats.
IPI believes there are much better options: reform the tax treatment of health insurance; remove the state and federal mandates and regulations that make coverage more expensive; pass medical liability reform; and promote policies that create value-conscious shoppers in the health care marketplace.
Freedom Caucus Likely Saved GOP From A Huge Embarrassment
If the AHCA plan were to become law with the guaranteed issue provision, most insurers would continue their exodus from the individual market or exchanges.
After Repeal of ACA Fails, Feds Could Still Make Broad Changes, Watchers Say
Although legislative efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act have stalled, the Trump administration can make regulatory modifications to the health care reform law to keep insurance companies in the individual exchanges and strengthen the markets, observers said.
Matthews Praises Freedom Caucus for Demanding Changes Ensuring AHCA 'Actually Works'
As Republican leaders continue to work to garner support from the House Freedom Caucus for the American Health Care Act, IPI resident scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews said the Freedom Caucus is "doing exactly the right thing."
Will Single-Payer Health Care Be California's Next Big Fiscal Crisis?
As Institute for Policy Innovation scholar Merrill Matthews recently noted in these pages, a number of states have tried to impose single-payer health plans on their citizens and failed.
Federal Oil And Gas Leases Could Pay For The Republican Health Plan
Republicans need a new revenue stream to pay for their health care bill, and expanded oil and gas exploration could provide much, and perhaps most, of that funding.
ACA Reforms Could Replicate Old Problems for Health Insurers, Observers Say
The GOP plan could just repeat the same ACA mistakes, said IPI's Dr. Merrill Matthews. "Instead of letting health insurers do what insurers do underwrite Republicans are retaining Obamacare's guaranteed issue provision."
Republicans Have a Plan to Bailout Health Insurers
Republicans fought hard to end health insurer bailouts under Obamacare; so why do they include them in the American Health Care Act?
Tom Price: Nobody Will Be Worse Off Financially Under AHCA
Leaders on the Hill, in industry and some in public health praised Trump's pick of Gottlieb — a former FDA and CMS official, who's also a physician and a prominent health policy commentator — to run the agency. "The reason I voted through my objections with Trump is that a presidential election selects a team, not one person," said Tom Giovanetti, head of the conservative Institute of Policy Innovation. "Scott Gottlieb is another example."
Will the Republican Replace Plan Sink Into A 'Death Spiral'?
Guaranteed issue is a strange policy to include when the goal is to make health insurance more affordable and accessible.
Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy Obamacare replacement should be called 'Abominable Care'
"In the past week or two, Republicans apparently abandoned actuarial principles — just as Obamacare did," said the Institute for Policy Innovation's Merrill Matthews. "So Democrats included the mandate to have health insurance to keep people from gaming the system. However, it didn't work because the penalties were fairly low."
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