Browse by Media Hit and Health Care

The outline of his health plan is so thin that you can't really make any assessments of what it would do, because it wouldn't do much at all, said IPI's Merrill Matthews. 

In true Trump fashion, this isn't exactly a magnum opus of policy wonkery. "The outline of his health plan is nothing more than an outline that is so thin that you can't really make any assessments of what it would do, because from the outline, it wouldn't do much at all," said Merrill Matthews, IPI resident scholar.

The leaders of major health insurer Aetna show one example of the type of questioning that remains with the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges.

Despite the rise in healthcare spending among consumers around the nation, health payers and providers are partnering to create solutions that emphasize quality performance and lower costs.

Our success in effectively treating cancer is probably going to come from the private sector not the government, Dr. Merrill Matthews reminds us.

The repeated congressional attempts to repeal the ACA reflect the law's unpopularity, said IPI's Merrill Matthews. About 40% approve and 52% disapprove of the ACA, according to a December CBS News poll. "It's about premiums and high deductibles. If people had seen premiums going down, you would see widespread support for Obamacare. But, what you do have is something that has created turmoil in the market and a huge amount of frustration with people trying to get affordable coverage."

The insurer UnitedHealthcare has recently announced that it would consider moving away from the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges due to significant profit losses. If there are significant losses and little financial gains, more payers may consider leaving the health insurance exchanges as well.

Dr. Merrill Matthews in a recent article in Forbes describes a plan proposed by Bill Brann that adds a life insurance policy with a critical illness component. It would include an accelerated benefit provision that would allow the insurer to write the beneficiary a check to cover medical expenses.

Trump may be stuck with one reform idea that could very well be a nonstarter.

IPI's Merrill Matthews says Walker’s plan is a little more detailed than Rubio’s and focuses on people without employer-based plans. “Rubio wants to give everyone a tax credit, which is the right thing to do, but it’s very difficult to explain to the public. It also talks about expanding Medicare, but how do you expand Medicare and pay for it?”