Studies | Health http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st242 | by John C. Goodman | Monday, April 30, 2001 Executive Summary Why should government be involved at all in our health care system? Aside from providing care for low-income families, the most persuasive argument is that in the absence of coercion people will have an incentive to be uninsured “free […]

Why We Lost the War on Poverty By John Goodman | Health Alerts | May 7, 2014 – See more at: http://healthblog.ncpa.org/why-we-lost-the-war-on-poverty/#sthash.oKZ8tgWI.dpuf Take a look at the graph below. From the end of World War II until 1964 the poverty rate in this country was cut in half. Further, 94% of the change in the […]

Medicare Ban on Sex-Reassignment Surgery Lifted Decisions on Procedure Now Will be Made on Case-by-Case Basis By Stephanie Armour, WSJ, June 1, 2014 WASHINGTON—Transgender people who receive Medicare benefits will no longer be automatically denied coverage for sex-reassignment surgery, a federal review board ruled Friday. The decision means that Medicare, the federal health insurance program […]

When I turned 65, I debated whether to apply for Social Security Retirement Benefits. Since, I planned to practice until age 72; I knew that I would lose a major portion of my benefits since I was still working. But I found out that not applying for benefits would cost me far more than the […]

17 Medicare Facts by Twila Brase, RN, PHN 1. Medicare is essentially compulsory. People who refuse to join Medicare Part A are not allowed to receive their earned Social Security benefits.1 Brian Hall, et al. v. Kathleen Sebelius, et al, was filed October 9, 2008 and appealed June 14, 2011. On June 30, 2011, U.S. […]

Numbers You Need to Know About Medicare Advantage Cuts Submitted by Randall Clough on Mon, 03/17/2014 – 11:41 1.      $420 to $540: Average Annual Premium Increase And/Or Benefit Reduction For Medicare Advantage Enrollee In Florida Due To Proposed Cuts From Obama Administration 2.      78%: Percent Of Seniors In Swing States That Say Medicare Advantage Cuts […]

Panel Urges Overhauling Health Care at End of Life September 23, 2014 The country’s system for handling end-of-life care is largely broken and should be overhauled at almost every level, a national panel concluded in a report released on Wednesday, according to the New York Times. According to some, the system is geared toward towards simply doing […]

by Jagadeesh Gokhale | CATO Determining whether medical impairments imply inability to work is becoming more difficult in a growing number of cases, with the result that many applicants with residual work capacities are admitted to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), a program facing imminent insolvency. In this paper, Cato scholar Jagadeesh Gokhale encourages a change […]

THE TWO-MIDNIGHT RULE Mac Sterling, MD and Melvyn Sterling, MD “The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of hospitals and OPOs Of Medicare and dings And why two midnights are the cause Of patients selling rings.” —with apologies to Lewis Carroll Medicare has formulated a new rule—the two-midnight rule—to reduce […]

Approximately in July of 2014 there were a number of new Medicare regulations that came down the pike which we had to learn second hand. We wrote the same prescriptions we’ve written for decades and our patient and pharmacists called or faxed back that those Rx were no longer covered. Medicare had changed to a […]