Tag / Healthcare

by Hoosier Econ

Average Obamacare Tax is $1130

Back in 2009 when President Obama repeated that the Obamacare mandate was not a tax.

Today, more Obamacare information keeps rolling out showing the fees or what the U.S. Supreme Court labeled a “tax”. Here is a brief excerpt from Forbes.com:

As millions of Americans scramble to file their tax returns, many are shocked by the full cost of ObamaCare’s individual mandate.

“Those who failed to obtain minimum essential health insurance coverage last year will have had to send the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) a check for $1,130, on average,” Doug Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, testified today before a congressional hearing.

You can read the rest here.

by Hoosier Econ

2015 Medicaid Spending Up 21%

The numbers are staggering in how fast medicaid is growing and spending. This isn’t a sexy topic to talk about but that is the psychosis of America’s political landscape today. Here is some recent news pertaining to this federal government social program.

Via Wall Street Journal –

    Medicaid enrollment has surged 19% nationally since ObamaCare’s expansion—50% in New Mexico, 65% in Oregon, 81% in Kentucky. The Congressional Budget Office reports that Medicaid spending rose 21% in the first five months of fiscal year 2015, “largely because of” ObamaCare.

Another source, The Heritage Foundation added more data to the topic of medicaid growth –

    This jump does not even include the Obamacare insurance exchange subsidies that are now in place—a $7 billion increase so far this year. Medicaid and the Obamacare subsidies account for $28 billion of the $88 billion in mandatory spending increases this year. The extent to which growth of Obamacare and other entitlements is responsible for this increase is even more pronounced than at first glance. Leaving GSEs out of the equation, increases in Medicaid and Obamacare subsidies accounted for half of the mandatory spending increase so far this year. Meanwhile, defense spending is down nearly 5 percent.

One more item from Heritage is the overall growth of entitlement spending.

    Chart 12 shows the growth of more than 80 welfare programs since 2007—including food stamps, unemployment insurance, housing aid, Medicaid, and disability payments. Some of these increases were results of the recession, while others were due to Obama policies that expanded eligibility and cancelled work requirements. Since 2008, spending has soared 37.2 percent in these programs. Since 2007, spending has mushroomed nearly 55 percent

entitlement spending

by Hoosier Econ

Did Indiana Just Become a Medical Tourism Destination?

pence right to try
On March 24th, Governor Mike Pence signed into law the ‘Right To Try’ Legislation. Here is snapshot of what the law entails from WFYI:

    Terminally ill patients in Indiana can now use experimental drugs that have not received final FDA approval. Gov. Mike Pence signed so called “Right to Try” legislation into law Tuesday.

    The “Right to Try” law allows terminally ill patients to use medications that have gone through the first of the FDA’s three-step approval process.

HotAir.com picked up on the story and threw out some concerns of the FDA possibly stepping in and complicating the legislation:

    Indiana’s legislature and Governor Mike Pence have tried to bridge the gap by passing a “Right to Try” law that allows patients to make the choice on experimental medication, and which protects manufacturers from liability if the results go poorly. The question raises ethical questions about where the line between mercy and human experimentation may be crossed, but CBS’ Chicago affiliate raises the question about whether this crosses a bureaucratic line with the FDA first.

I am strongly in favor of this legislation and hope Indiana tells the FDA to back off. If I’m terminally ill I should be able to have the decision in choosing treatment that is experimental. I support the legislation shielding drug companies from liability as well. In the field of medicine this can be beneficial in helping drug developers in researching the drugs to better the product down the road if it doesn’t workout in testing on people.

Lets hope this is the step in the right direction of medicine opening up to more freedom for patients and those who want to help them.

by Hoosier Econ

Report: Shortage of 90,000 Physicians by 2025

tireddoctor

In a report prepared for the Association of American Medical Colleges a grim outlook was given concerning physician supply in the United States. Here is what was found:

    Demand for physicians continues to grow faster than supply, leading to a projected shortfall of
    between 46,100 and 90,400 physicians by 2025

The report can be read here. Much of the shortage will be from stronger demand of people getting on Obamacare.

by Hoosier Econ

U.S. Healthcare Spending Has Risen

Dr. Ed Yardeni has put together a post showing the consumer has saved dollars YTD on gasoline prices, the savings is being eaten up by higher medical expenses.
healthcare spending

Last week, I observed that while consumers are spending less of their budgets on gasoline, they are spending more on health care. The latest data through January show that the percentage of current-dollar consumption for gasoline plunged from last year’s high of 3.2% to 2.1% in January. Consumers saved $133 billion (saar) on gasoline over this period.

On the other hand, the percentage of their outlays for health care goods and services rose from last year’s low of 20.0% during March to 20.6% during January. I received lots of inquiries about this topic. Most readers want to know if this is attributable to Obamacare, which seems to have raised health insurance premiums, deductibles, and copays. I think so, but I don’t have the data to corroborate this conjecture.

Health care consumption includes spending paid for by both insurance and government programs, as well as out-of-pocket costs. Presumably and anecdotally, the latter have risen sharply. However, that wouldn’t necessarily bloat overall spending, though more out-of-pocket outlays would depress spending on other goods and services.

by Hoosier Econ

How Much Do Consumers Pay to Healthcare Providers?

Just Facts Daily posed a question to readers regarding healthcare payments. Here is the question and answer:

What portion of all healthcare spending in the U.S. is directly paid by consumers to healthcare providers (i.e., not indirectly paid through middlemen like insurance companies or governments)?

Less than 25%

In 2009, consumers directly paid for 12% of all healthcare spending in the U.S., as compared to 48% in 1960. This trend has been driven by government policies and is a major factor in the rise of healthcare spending, because it reduces consumers’ incentive to shop for the best value.

by Hoosier Econ

Why Doctors Are Leaving Medicaid

The new healthcare law that passed in 2010 was more of an expansion of getting people on medicaid then getting insurance. Medicaid is the “universal health care” that most don’t realize exists and it is taking on millions of new people each year. FORBES magazine has pretty lengthy write up about this program along with medicare.

Doctors seeing Medicare patients face a 24 percent cut in reimbursements beginning January 1.  But almost no one has grasped that those cuts will hit Medicaid too—thanks to Obamacare. Together both programs cover more than 100 million Americans, and the government expects about 9 million more people to join Medicaid next year.

The number of just regular doctors is drying up as new doctors coming out of med school go into specialty areas. Doctors cannot afford new Medicaid patients and here is one reason why:

Medicaid pays doctors about 59 percent of what medicare pays them—which is why doctors increasingly refuse to take new Medicaid patients.

In 2012 doctors ran to the exits in fleeing medicaid.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a document showing that 9,500 doctors who had previously accepted Medicaid patients refused to do so in 2012.

In 2013 Congress voted to increase medicaid payments at the same rate of medicare. Now that is about to get cut again. The up and down of government intrusion in healthcare as this complicated law unfolds is taking a toll on our healthcare system. The people who suffer ultimately will be the patients.

by Hoosier Econ

How Much Does it Cost to Treat One Ebola Patient

The US State Department recently announced they will be bringing people from African countries who are infected with Ebola to the US for treatment. The expected cost per Ebola patient to be treated is $300,000. You can read the Washington Times article here but here is just a small caption:

The document has been shared with Congress, where lawmakers already are nervous about the administration’s handling of the Ebola outbreak. The memo even details the expected price per patient, with transportation costs at $200,000 and treatment at $300,000.

As with any government projected cost, this will probably go up. Each patient will be different and the costs will skyrocket if the patients turn worse like the patient in Dallas from Liberia.