Here’s a picture from a New England Journal of Medicine article showing that in 2015 and 2016, Obamacare premiums grew more slowly than private insurance premiums rose before the law came into effect:
The Obamacare markets are new and unsettled. But so far they aren’t leading to runaway inflation. But what will happen to these markets if the Republicans are able to repeal and delay? Cue the ominous movie music!
Because of Obamacare, more Americans have healthcare insurance and therefore more people are able to pay for medical care when they receive it. As a result, there has been a $5.7 billion drop in uncompensated hospital care just in those states that, per Obamacare, expanded Medicaid eligibility:
California is in the middle of an historic drought, with the government setting limits on how long people can sing in the shower. Farmers in the state may soon need to cut back on planting or production, as ground water dries up. But California is still fruitful ground for testing promising ways to improve how…
In a recent Washington Post article, Sarah Kliff reported that “Cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients” because of reductions in reimbursement caused by the sequester. Specifically, oncologists will no longer be able to markup the price of chemotherapy by 6% “to cover the cost of storing and administering” the drugs….
Dr. Norah Neylon was caring for a 50-year-old woman who was overwhelmed with care-giving responsibilities of her own. The woman’s mother was experiencing early signs of dementia. Five of her relatives had died in the past three years. She frequently had to fly back and forth from California to the Caribbean to take care of…
People like me, trained to be physicians, have pushed hard to promote health insurance in the United States because we believe, with some evidence to back up our claims, that good health insurance promotes better health. When people don’t have insurance, they delay necessary medical care for too long, and their health suffers as a…
Shutterstock As a primary care physician, I have counseled thousands of patients to get cancer screening—blood tests to look for prostate cancer, mammograms to detect impalpable breast cancers, and colonoscopies to find precancerous colon lesions. I’ve even tried to find cancers on physical exam, palpating people’s necks for thyroid growths, for example. The goal of…