Viewpoints: Bush Follows GOP Plan On Replacing Obamacare; ‘Tuning-Up’ The Cadillac Tax
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Bloomberg:
Jeb Bush Shows How To Replace Obamacare
Jeb Bush's new health-care plan looks a lot like the plan Scott Walker embraced two months ago, which in turn looks a lot like the one Marco Rubio sketched in an op-ed article and the one touted by Senators Orrin Hatch and Richard Burr and Representative Fred Upton. That's a good thing. It means that Republicans are finally reaching a consensus on what to do about health policy that draws on the best conservative thinking on the subject. Bush (for whose campaign my wife works) is helping to ratify that consensus. (Ramesh Ponnuru, 10/13)
Forbes:
Would Jeb Bush's Obamacare Replacement Increase The Deficit?
Today in New Hampshire, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush unveiled his plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. In many ways, the plan reflects the mainstream of Republican wonk thinking on health care, and expresses similarities to an earlier plan proposed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Like Walker’s plan—but in a different way—Bush’s plan seems likely to increase the deficit. ... All told, Bush’s plan to replace Obamacare is best seen as a work in progress. When it comes to the key fiscal questions of how to reform health care entitlements—Medicaid, Medicare, and tax subsidies—Bush’s plan isn’t fully fleshed out. But benchmarked by the standard of what other Republican candidates have put out, the level of detail is in the top tier. (Avik Roy, 10/13)
New Hampshire Union Leader:
Jeb Bush: Incentives, Not Mandates, Will Bring Down Health Care Costs
Obamacare is the latest example of how Washington makes health care and health coverage so extraordinarily expensive. Obamacare’s mandates and taxes force Americans to buy expensive products with benefits they don’t want and may never need. It also places a disproportionate share of the premium costs on the young and healthy. In addition to higher individual premiums, it costs small businesses more to comply with Obamacare’s myriad new rules than it does to insure a worker. As a result of Obamacare, providers are not being held directly accountable to patients for the value of the care they deliver, and little information is available to consumers on prices and quality. (Jeb Bush, 10/12)
The Washington Post's Right Turn:
Jeb Bush’s Obamacare Alternative
We have long argued that Jeb Bush’s big challenge would not be ideological, since he is a very conservative reformer. Despite his difficulties as a campaigner (which we have said would be the real test), his ideological preferences have been reinforced by a series of conservative policies — government reform (including shrinking government by attrition), tax reform (pro-growth, more fiscally responsible than some others), and now healthcare. (Jennifer Rubin, 10/13)
The New York Times' The Upshot:
Jeb Bush Has Found A Part Of Obamacare To Love
In the United States, every dollar you earn as wages is subject to taxes, but every dollar you get in health insurance is not. This system, which has been around since the 1940s, leads to some distortions in pay and health insurance. Companies may be more likely to give you a raise in the form of richer benefits than higher pay, because it’s a better value. And the federal government spends a lot more money, in the form of lost taxes, to help rich people buy health insurance than it does to help middle-income people. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 10/13)
Los Angeles Times:
Obamacare's 'Cadillac Tax' Could Use A Tuneup
The Affordable Care Act slapped a hefty tax on expensive employer-sponsored health plans in an effort to discourage companies from offering the most expansive forms of coverage while also raising money for new insurance subsidies. But the "Cadillac tax" is proving to be an idea that only an economist could love, as critics from the left and the right, from unions and corporate America, have stepped up to denounce it. In fact, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee called for its repeal almost simultaneously last month. Yet the tax, which is slated to go into effect in 2018, may simply take the wrong approach to doing the right thing. (10/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
ObamaCare Bear Market
By liberal and media acclamation, ObamaCare is a glorious success, the political opposition is fading and the entitlement state has gained another permanent annex. The reality, for anyone who cares to look, is different and suggests that ObamaCare is far more vulnerable than this conventional wisdom. As Exhibit A, note that participation on the federal and state insurance exchanges is badly trailing the original projections and declining over time. (10/13)
USA Today:
Democratic Debate Takeaways: Our View
Like most debates, this one touched on a wide range of topics. But when it focused on issues such as Social Security, Medicare and college tuition, it seemed to have settled on a new slogan: “Spend, baby, spend.” The indefatigable Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, of course, led the pack. He pushed his plans to increase Social Security benefits by an average of $65 per month, pay every dime of the cost of students attending public universities, and expand Medicare to make it available to anyone. But the others weren’t far behind. [Hillary] Clinton and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, the most plausible of the three lesser-known candidates, want to expand Social Security. Both would pour money into subsidizing tuition. And O’Malley has a sweeping health plan that makes Obamacare look tame. (10/14)
Huffington Post:
Hillary Clinton Jumps At The Chance To Defend Paid Leave Laws
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a textbook, factually correct defense of paid family leave and medical leave laws during Tuesday night's Democratic debate. CNN’s Dana Bash asked Clinton about the subject, pressing her on Republican Carly Fiorina’s claim that requiring corporations to provide paid leave will hurt businesses and the economy. Clinton responded that it was a strange claim for Fiorina to make, given that Fiorina comes from California -- a state that has had a paid leave law in effect for 10 years. And the California law has worked well, by nearly all accounts. (Jonathan Cohn, 10/13)
The New York Times:
Bring Back House Calls
Before World War II, about 40 percent of all doctor-patient encounters were house calls. Today, the proportion has dwindled to less than 1 percent. The major reason, not surprisingly, is money: Traveling to patients’ homes is inefficient and almost never profitable for doctors or hospitals. But I believe that if we revived the house call, the overall savings to the health care system, not to mention the impact on patient care, would be enormous. (Sandeep Jauhar, 10/14)
Tamp Bay Times:
Fix Needed On Soaring Medicare Premium
Medicare's quirky funding formula also has created a hefty, inequitable increase in Part B premiums for about 30 percent of beneficiaries. Solving Medicare's long-term financial challenges will be hard enough without undermining the idea that the system is fundamentally fair. As it wrangles over debt ceilings, email servers and crumbling highways, Congress should fix this Medicare anomaly before 2016 rates kick in later this month. (10/13)
The Washington Post:
Why Would Paul Ryan Want To Be Speaker?
The Freedom Caucus’s demands from the next speaker, outlined in a questionnaire, include commitments to provide for the filibuster-proof repeal of Obamacare, require that any increase in the debt ceiling be coupled with entitlement reform and refuse to fund the government through temporary spending bills. Most alarming, they call on any prospective speaker to abide by the so-called Hastert rule against bringing legislation to the floor without support from a majority of the GOP caucus. This is a recipe for disaster in the form of government shutdowns and debt defaults. If I were Ryan, I would tell the Freedom Caucus to take its demands — and the speakership, for that matter — and shove them. (Ruth Marcus, 10/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
Medical Query: Were You Struck By A Duck?
You may have heard something about the new medical coding system that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has plunked down on the clipboards of hospitals and health-care providers as of Oct. 1. It’s called ICD-10, the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. Also known as the bigger, hairier stepchild of ICD-9, a system that we in the medical world have used for many years without too much trouble. (R.J. Petrella, 10/13)
The New York Times:
Safety Questions About A Birth Control Device
The Food and Drug Administration convened a panel of experts last month to examine the safety and effectiveness of a device for permanent birth control that has generated thousands of complaints from women who say they were harmed by it. The device, known as Essure, is implanted in a woman’s fallopian tubes to induce scar tissue formation to block the tubes and prevent eggs from being fertilized. ... All birth control measures carry risks and benefits. What women and doctors need to know is how this device compares with surgical procedures and intrauterine devices in preventing pregnancies and causing minimal harm. The F.D.A. needs to look hard for ways to get that information and should consider suspending sales of Essure until better data is available. (10/14)
USA Today:
Suicide By Any Other Name
The grim reaper is feeling bullish. Following success in California — the fifth state where doctors are now free to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally-ill or dying patients — so-called “right-to-die” activists have turned their eyes to Maryland, New York and beyond. “I think that this is a national wave,” Maryland Del. Shane E. Pendergrass, D-Howard, told The Washington Post. Pendergrass plans to sponsor “right-to-die” legislation in January. It’s a wave with the potential to sweep some of society’s most vulnerable — the elderly, the terminally ill and disabled — prematurely into the hereafter. (Kirsten Powers, 10/13)