Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
Many of the Republicans in the House have committed to cutting discretionary spending this year by $100 billion. That’s a pretty big chunk out of the $477 billion total, and because the Federal fiscal year is well under way, this … Continue reading What we won’t see from the new GOP budget hawks
Read More...So, you want to get serious about reducing the cost of entitlement programs? How does $25 billion a year, or a quarter-trillion over ten years sound? Does it sound even better if there’s no increase in taxes? How about if … Continue reading Fixing health reform – Part Three, reducing costs
Read More...That’s the answer to the question posed by Bob Laszewski in a post this morning; to paraphrase: When will the US get serious about controlling health care costs? Right after the bond market collapse… Health care is the single largest … Continue reading When the Chinese stop buying our bonds
Read More...To understand how hard it is going to be to control health care costs, one merely has to consider the outrage surrounding TSA’s recent roll-out of ‘enhanced security’ measures – measures which include ‘enhanced pat downs’ and full body scans. … Continue reading Body scans and reforming health care – good luck with that
Read More...I’ve been somewhat reluctant to write this post, as it takes issue with one of the key presenters at a workers comp conference that I believe is consistently the best I’ve attended. It’s here for one reason: it illustrates how … Continue reading Bias and credibility – a cautionary tale
Read More...Much of my writing over the past few weeks has focused on the future of work comp – the impact of reform, economic influences, the increasing negotiating power of health systems, changes in Medicare’s physician fee schedule (which WILL impact … Continue reading Where the work comp world is headed – part 4, pharma costs
Read More...I’ve been avoiding posting on health reform of late, mostly because I’m so dismayed by what’s happened, and what’s happening. The Republican Congress passed and then-President Bush signed into law Medicare Part D which added about $8 trillion to our … Continue reading Unsustainable, irrational, unaffordable health reform
Read More...The recent demise of the health reform effort was killed in large part by Americans’ overwhelming demand for more and more, while wanting to take less and less responsibility. Uwe Reinhardt’s recent column describes the problem quite well. Americans want … Continue reading Have their cake, eat it too, and have someone else pay for their gluttony
Read More...Health reform won’t happen this year; ignore all the brave happy talk – there will be no bill that reforms the insurance markets, lowers costs, and/or expands coverage. You can’t have insurance market reform – ending medical underwriting and risk … Continue reading Why health reform is dead
Read More...That’s what it is going to cost to ‘fix’ Medicare’s physician reimbursement problem. A bill introduced into the Senate, and now scheduled for a vote within days would eliminate the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) program (which determines, or is … Continue reading A Quarter Trillion Dollars – from where?
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