News
National Journal | Maxim to Pay $150 Million Fine for Health Care Fraud
Maxim, a company that provides help from licensed nurses to home health aides, has admitted to $61 million worth of federal fraud and agreed to pay civil and criminal penalties totaling $150 million.
Fox Business | The Real Cost of Obamacare
As we wait for Obamacare to make its way to the Supreme Court, supporters of the sweeping law keep bringing up the same point. Obamacare can mandate Americans have health insurance, because it's already a requirement to have car insurance.
National Journal | Will 67 Be the New 65 for Medicare?
President Obama may be toying with the possibility of raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 as a way of saving the federal government some money when he rolls out his deficit-reduction package on Sept. 19.
Blogs
AEI: American | Slouching Towards Socialism: Health Fact of the Week
All levels of government face growing pressures to restrain spending. One downside to the rapid growth in tax-financed health spending that I have documented in several prior posts is the vulnerability of the health system to measures taken to curb government spending. But the degree of such vulnerability varies dramatically across different components of the health sector.
Reports
Mercatus Center | Attempts to Control Medicare Spending: A Sisyphean Task?
Medicare was not designed to pay the entire amount of a person‘s medical bills. After the beneficiary pays an established deductible, Medicare typically reimburses 80 percent of the approved amount for covered services leaving the beneficiary responsible for a 20-percent copayment.
Heritage Foundation | The Case for Competition in Medicare
Rapidly rising health care costs threaten to push the federal budget past the breaking point. In 1975, total federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid was 1.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). In 2010, it was 5.5 percent. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) expects spending on these programs, together with spending on the entitlement expansions in the 2010 health law, to reach 9.7 percent of GDP by 2030.
