Waste vs. Value in American Health Care
Just what value is derived from the exceedingly high administrative costs of American health care is far from clear, an economist writes.
View ArticleNational Health Costs vs. Your Health Costs
A study shows why many individuals are feeling an ever-greater burden in health costs even as hospitals and insurers have wrung billions of dollars out of the system.
View ArticleHow to Gut Obamacare
Even they fail to strip out funding, Congressional foes of the Affordable Care Act could further their aims by shutting down the government or putting off the individual mandate, two studies indicate.
View ArticleMedicare’s Lessons for the Affordable Care Act
The creation of Medicare in the 1960s may offer some insights for how the Affordable Care Act will go into effect, but the demographics of those eligible are quite different, an economist writes.
View ArticleThe Job Situation Looks a Little Worse
Revisions in government employment figures, superficially positive, actually reflect a reduction in gains reported for the 12 months that ended last March.
View ArticleA Health Care Fight That Punishes Federal Workers
The Affordable Care Act was not intended to deny a employer contribution to Congressional employees' health coverage, and accusations that Congress is acting hypocritically in sponsoring such coverage...
View ArticleThe Tax Equation in the Health Care Law
In the marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act are benefits for lower-wage workers, but also potential disincentives to work full time, an economist writes.
View ArticleDealing With Drafting Errors in the Health Care Law
Two unintended consequences of the Affordable Care Act, affecting coverage for Congressional staff members and millions of moderate-income families, show the difficulty of remedying legislative flaws...
View ArticleThe Hurdles to Success for the Affordable Care Act
The goals of the health-care law are laudable, but it is hobbled by unrealistic claims about its financing and heedlessness about its potential economic effects, an economist writes.
View ArticleMedicaid and the Incentive to Work
With Medicaid's expansion under the Affordable Care Act, an Oregon study finds little impact on the labor market from Medicaid coverage.
View ArticleThe Power of the Individual Mandate
Powerful incentives in the Affordable Care Act are likely to bring a sharp reduction in the number of working Americans who go without health insurance, an economist writes.
View ArticleThe Midterm Grade for HealthCare.gov
It's extraordinary how the rollout of HealthCare.gov was bungled and how little control over it the president seemed to have, an economist writes.
View ArticleIn the Death Spiral We Trust
Forcing the healthy to buy health insurance may not be an efficient way to run a health insurance marketplace, an economist writes.
View ArticleThe Slow Death of the Employer Mandate
A Massachusetts precedent indicates that when business is given time to mount opposition, an employer mandate for health coverage may not be viable, an economist writes.
View ArticleA Conservative Alternative to Obamacare
Some conservatives propose to abolish both employer-based health coverage and Medicaid, relying on a private market with subsidies, a plan that seems politically and structurally unrealistic, an...
View ArticleThe Single-Payer Alternative
A single-payer system of health insurance would be more consumer-friendly, as well as more cost-effective than the Affordable Care Act, an economist writes.
View ArticleYoung and Uninsured, in Charts
New Census Bureau maps and charts show how many Americans age 19 to 34 were uninsured in 2012, and where they lived.
View ArticleConflicting Pressures on Demand for Doctors
Some provisions of the Affordable Care Act could reduce the use of medical services, but others could lead to a doctor shortage, by increasing demand and limiting payments, an economist writes.
View ArticleHealth Care Prices Move to Center Stage
Most Americans wouldn't willingly wear a blindfold while shopping in a department store, and they are slowly recognizing that their eyes should be wide open when shopping for health care, an economist...
View ArticleHow Medicare Subsidizes Doctor Training
Most "graduate medical education" training is subsidized by Medicare, for somewhat strange historical reasons sustained by both legislative inertia and the stakeholders who benefit.
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