Health care is considered a business that tends to be resistant to economic downturns. Brian Klepper returns with a post asking just what the impact of a slowing economy will have on the health care sector. He specifically points to changes in real wages and home prices.Health Care and The Gathering Stormby Brian KlepperHere are two very interesting and frightening charts that my good friend
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Another Government Study Questions the Medicare Advantage Business
You can now add the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to MedPAC and the CBO as highly respected government agencies who have issued reports questioning the cost effectiveness of the private Medicare program.This time, the GAO said:Insurers will receive $86 billion this year for the private Medicare plan--Medicare Advantage.Last year the government paid the private plans $8.3 billion more
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Drug Patents and "Pay-For-Delay"--Drug Industry Payoffs That Need To End
I call your attention to a recent op-ed by a member of the Federal Trade Commission, Jon Leibowitz, in the Washington Post.Commissioner Leibowitz writes about the growing practice of "colluding with competitors to keep lower-cost generic alternatives to prescription drugs off the market."The Hatch-Waxman Act made it easier for generic drugs to enter the market once a name brand drug's patent has
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Health Insurance Industry "Racing to Defuse a Growing Furor Over Retroactive Policy Cancellations"
That was the lead line in a Wall Street Journal story on the recent health insurance policy rescission controversy. The controversy is over a health insurance company's right to cancel a health insurance policy when the insured made a misstatement on the original application.Some insurers have held they can cancel a policy even when the misstatement was not material. For example, forgetting a
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Give Cuomo and the Physicians What They Say They Want--Show the Patient Just What the Doc Is Accepting From Everyone Else
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says that health plans are using the "Prevailing Healthcare Charges System" to "defraud" consumers and "manipulate" the system.He points to the example of an insurer refusing to pay a physician's $200 bill--the insurer said that $77 was more appropriate.In an earlier post, I pointed out that an examination of my own family's health insurance "explanation of
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How Profitable is Medicare Advantage? The United/Humana Deal in Las Vegas Says a Lot
UnitedHealth and Humana have announced that Humana will acquire UnitedHealth's Las Vegas Medicare Advantage business for $185 million.The transaction was important for United in order to get Justice Department approval of UnitedHealth's acquisition of Sierra Health Systems.That $185 million gets Humana only another 25,000 seniors--at a price of $7,400 a customer.
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The Argument for Specialty Hospitals
The growth of specialty hospitals has always concerned me. Too often these niche players looked to be siphoning off the most profitable parts of the business leaving the big hospital to charge payers more for their less profitable services--creating higher prices overall.David Whelan recently called my attention to an article he just did at Forbes making a strong argument in favor of
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Hillary Clinton Criticizes Barack Obama's Health Care Plan Saying It Would Not Cover Everyone--Is She Right?
This is a repost of an original that addresses Hillary Clinton's claim, repeated in this week's Texas debate, that only her health plan accomplishes universal coverage because it has a individual mandate and Barak Obama's does not. Senator Clinton goes so far as to say she would garnish wages to enforce her mandate that everyone buy health insurance.Hillary Clinton has gone on the attack in
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A "Health Care Fed" and Obama
An idea that has been floating around for some time is that a "Health Care Fed" needs to be created as a means to control health care costs.I first heard of the concept in a conversation I had with former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop a few years ago. Later, the idea showed up as a centerpiece in the National Coalition's plan to reform the health care system.And in both cases, I have supported
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Health Wonk Review Is UP
This week's review of the best health care blog posts is up over at Merrill Goozner's, "Gooznews.com." The former foreign correspondent, economics writer, investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune, as well as teacher and researcher, always has interesting things to say on his blog.
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