News
National Journal | Appeals Court's Health Law Ruling Keeps Medicaid Intact
But there’s one unique piece of the legal challenge brought by 26 states that likely ends in Atlanta: the argument that the expansion of Medicaid in 2014 is unconstitutional because it “coerces” states into participating in the federal program.
NYT | Medicaid Pays Less Than Medicare for Many Prescription Drugs, U.S. Report Finds
Under existing law, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the cost of Medicare’s outpatient drug benefit will increase an average of nearly 10 percent a year, to $175 billion in 2021, from $68 billion this year.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Breaking Health Care Research: “Accountable Care” Unlikely
Medicare continues to be a looming problem in the fiscal crisis. In an effort to lower the program’s cost and improve quality of care for the seniors it serves, Obamacare creates accountable care organizations (ACOs), which are supposed to encourage health care providers to band together and create savings through better coordinated care.
AEI: American | Health Reform That Could Have Been
Health exchanges are a positive component of the law (though the regulations placed on them are burdensome), but only some consumers will gain access to them. Most (below age 65) will still obtain insurance from their employers. PPACA did nothing to move us away from employer-provided health insurance. In many ways, it even expanded the influence that employers have over our health insurance.
Daily Finance | Medicare's Next Patient: The Federal Budget Deficit
In 2010, the health-care subsidy for the elderly cost more than $524 billion, eating up 15.2% of total government spending. Even worse, its costs are projected to rise at a rate of 5.4% per year, surpassing $1 trillion in just over a decade.
Reports
NBER | Caution, Drivers! Children Present: Traffic, Pollution, and Infant Health
Using an instrumental variables approach that exploits the relationship between traffic, ambient weather conditions, and various pollutants, our findings suggest that ambient pollution levels, specifically particulate matter, still have large impacts on weekly infant mortality rates.
