HCR Archive - Claude Pepper Center

Healthcare issues are increasingly important to many Americans, who a majority rank healthcare as either the first or second most important policy concern heading into the 2020 elections. This high level of concern has driven the debate over healthcare reform to the front of many presidential campaigns in the 2020 democratic party primaries. The following selection of articles address what are considered the most important dimensions of the emerging healthcare reform debate at this point. We will continue to monitor the debate as it evolves over the next several months and update our selection of articles at regular intervals. We will also offer our own commentary on the topic especially as it affects older people and the disabled.

We begin the series of articles with a PowerPoint presentation we prepared to provide an overview of the information we think is useful in helping gain an informed perspective on the health care debate. We will modify the PowerPoint as the debate evolves in the months ahead.

Articles:

Would ‘Medicare for All’ Save Billions or Cost Billions? (The New York Times)
‘Medicare for All’ Gets Much-Awaited Report. Both Sides Can Claim Victory. (The New York Times)
In-Depth Analysis by Team of UMass Amherst Economists Shows Viability of Medicare For All (Political Economy Research Institute)
Health insurance deductibles soar, leaving Americans with unaffordable bills (The LA Times)
As Suicides Rise, Insurers Find Ways to Deny Mental Health Coverage (Bloomberg Businessweek)
Getting to Medicare for All (Center for Economic and Policy Research)
Bernie Sanders’s Medicare-for-all plan, explained (Vox)
Universal Health Care Might Cost You Less Than You Think (The New York Times)
Lobbyist Documents Reveal Health Care Industry Battle Plan Against “Medicare for All” (The Intercept)
Medicare for All Will Benefit Seniors a Great Deal (People’s Policy Project)
Medicare for All Makes Other Spending Priorities Easier (People’s Policy Project)
There are still a lot of questions about Medicare-for-all (The Washington Post)
Why Some CEOs Figure ‘Medicare For All’ Is Good For Business (Kaiser Health News)
Nurses Know the Human Costs of Care. That’s Why Many Want ‘Medicare for All.’ (The New York Times)
‘Medicare for All’ Could Kill Two Million Jobs, and That’s O.K. (The New York Times)
Life And Debt: Stories From Inside America’s GoFundMe Health Care System (Portside)
The No-Brainer Case for Universal Long-Term Care (People’s Policy Project)
Testimony: The Growing Cost Burden of Employer Health Insurance for U.S. Families and… (The Commonwealth Fund)
Are You Sure You Actually ‘Like’ Your Private Health Insurance? (Portside)
Low prices of some lifesaving drugs make them impossible to get (The Washington Post)
Americans know Medicare-for-all means higher taxes. But otherwise, they’re confused (The Washington Post)
New study finds 45,000 deaths annually linked to lack of health coverage (The Harvard Gazette)
It’s official: Medicare-for-all is a defining issue in the Democratic primary (The Washington Post)
The Lessons of Washington State’s Watered Down ‘Public Option’ (The New York Times)
Medicaid expansion could save FL $200 million a year, but will politicians go for it? And what does the public want? (Florida Phoenix)
Medicare for All. Single-payer. Expanding Obamacare. What’s the difference? (Salon)
‘Urgent needs from head to toe’: This clinic had two days to fix a lifetime of needs (The Washington Post)
Why Aren’t the Democrats Talking About Ending Patent Financed Drug Research? (Counterpunch)
We Have a Dental Care Crisis. Medicare for All Could Solve It (In These Times)
If the ACA Is Repealed Under Texas v. Azar, Millions Will Lose Health Insurance Coverage (Center for American Progress)
Seven reasons commercial insurance cannot meet our health care needs (Just Care)
Urinary Tract Infections Affect Millions. The Cures Are Faltering (The New York Times)
A doctor explains the 3 essential features Medicare for All must have — and 2 serious distractions (Alternet)
Medicare for All Would Abolish Private Insurance. ‘There’s No Precedent in American History.’ (The New York Times)
How pharma, under attack from all sides, keeps winning in Washington (STAT)
Medicare Extra – Universal Coverage for Less Than $3 Trillion and Lower Health Care Costs for All (Center for American Progress)
Why Seniors Should Be The Strongest Supporters Of Medicare For All (Forbes)
Medicare Advantage plans unaccountable for billions in overcharges (Just Care)
Health Insurance Churn in the US Is a Nightmare (People’s Policy Project)
The Health 202: Is there a middle road on Medicare-for-all? Kamala Harris thinks so (The Washington Post)
How a Medicare Buy-In or Public Option Could Threaten Obamacare (The New York Times)
What Medicare-for-all skeptics are missing (The Week)
Democrats’ intense Medicare for All debate, paraphrased (The Washington Post)
Here are the Democrats’ three key disputes about Medicare-for-all (The Washington Post)
Fix Our Health Care System. Don’t Try to Make It Perfect (The New York Times)
White House races to come up with health-care wins for Trump’s campaign (The Washington Post)
Private Equity: The Perps Behind Destructive Hospital Surprise Billing (Naked Capitalism)
Democrats Are Having the Wrong Health Care Debate (The New York Times)
Democrats Are Ignoring the Power of the Hospital Industry (The American Prospect)
Medicare for all improves the lives of older adults (Just Care)
The Drug Pricing Debate Part II: The Many Acts of Congress (The Commonwealth Fund)
How Bernie Sanders Changed the Health-Care Debate (The New Yorker)
It’s Medicare’s Birthday — Let’s Improve It and Give It to Everyone (Portside)
Health care is gobbling up your wages (Axios)
2020 Dems’ health care battle is decades in the making (AP News)
It’s time for Democrats to get their facts right on Medicare-for-all (The Washington Post)
What will happen to doctors and hospitals under Medicare-for-all? It’s complicated. (The Week)
Charity becomes a lifeline even for Americans with health insurance as deductibles soar (LA Times)
Doctors Argue Plans To Remedy Surprise Medical Bills Will ‘Shred’ The Safety Net (Kaiser Health News)
The Health 202: Medicare-for-all opponents claim hospitals would shutter. But it depends where they’re located. (The Washington Post)
The Real Costs of the U.S. Health-Care Mess (The Atlantic)
An Elderly Couple Who Died In A Murder-Suicide Said They Could No Longer Afford Health Care (BuzzFeed News)
How the Erosion of Employer-Sponsored Insurance Is Contributing to Medicare Beneficiaries’ Financial Burden (The Commonwealth Fund)
It’s time for Democrats to get their facts right on Medicare-for-all (The Washington Post)
Inside the high-deductible insurance revolution that is transforming U.S. healthcare (L.A. Times)
Surprise medical bills becoming more frequent and costly (Modern Healthcare)
Where 2020 Democrats stand on Medicare-for-all (The Washington Post)
How Does the U.S. Healthcare System Compare to Other Countries? (Peter G. Peterson Foundation)
Class-Action Lawsuit Seeks To Let Medicare Patients Appeal Gap in Nursing Home Coverage (Naked Capitalism)
Tracking the rise in premium contributions and cost-sharing for families with large employer coverage (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Insurers Running Medicare Advantage Plans Overbill Taxpayers By Billions As Feds Struggle To Stop It (Kaiser Health News)
The U.S. Has the Most Expensive Healthcare System in the World (statista)
Our strategy is simple: mobilize millions of Americans across this country to stand up and demand that politicians choose a side, the American people or the pharmaceutical corporations (Portside)
Commentary: Behind-the-scenes decision making limits doctor-recommended treatments for sickest Americans (Modern Healthcare)
Medicare Advantage costs taxpayers more than traditional Medicare (Just Care)
Evaluating Medicare Programs Against Saving Taxpayer Dollars (Health Affairs)
What’s the Reason for the Fall in Health Insurance Premiums? Hint: Not the Market (Morning Consult)
The First and Last Resort (Managed Care)
Relatively Modest Health Reform May Create More Value Than ‘Medicare for All’ (Health Affairs)
Dear America, universal health care is what real freedom looks like (USA Today)
Five arguments for Medicare for All (Just Care)
Poor and middle-class Americans are much less likely to survive into their 70s than the wealthy, federal report says (The Washington Post)
Private Equity and Surprise Medical Billing (Portside)
Single-Payer Health Care Is the First Step in the Revolution (The Nation)
Krystal Ball debunks attacks on ‘Medicare for All’ (The Hill)
Medicaid’s Dark Secret (The Atlantic)
Attention, Democrats: The health care industry is spoiling for a fight (The Washington Post)
A nation’s health in full retreat (Modern Healthcare)
Most nations grappling with increased healthcare cost trends (Healthcare Dive)
1 big thing: Medical costs drive millions into poverty (Axios)
Americans’ struggles with medical bills are a foreign concept in other countries (LA Times)
Medicine For All: The Case for a Public Option in the Pharmaceutical Industry (Portside)
The Health 202: Congress is probing secretive groups opposing medical billing reforms (The Washington Post)
How the GM workers strike makes Bernie Sanders’s case for Medicare-for-all (Vox)
Is America’s Health Care System a Fixer-Upper or a Teardown? (The New York Times)
Private Equity Tries to Protect Another Profit Center (The American Prospect)
Democrats Are Ignoring the Power of the Hospital Industry (The American Prospect)
Senators ask Medicare agency why it is not holding Medicare Advantage plans accountable for violating their contractual obligations (Just Care)
The Road to Medicare for Everyone (The American Prospect)
How to build a Medicare-for-all plan, explained by somebody who’s thought about it for 20 years (Vox)
Shifting the Burden? Consequences Of Postacute Care Payment Reform On Informal Caregivers (Health Affairs)
Wolf Richter: How Employees & Employers Get Bled by Health Insurance (naked capitalism)
Why the Private Health Insurance Industry Faces an Existential Crisis (Portside)
Value’ of Care Was a Big Goal. How Did It Work Out? (The Incidental Economist)
KHN Files Lawsuit To Force Feds To Disclose Medicare Advantage Audits (Kaiser Health News)
Health Care Policy Is Always a Human Interest Story (The New Republic)
Private Equity and Surprise Medical Billing (Institute for New Economic Thinking)
As Seniors Get Sicker, They’re More Likely To Drop Medicare Advantage Plans (NPR)
Column: Trump’s plan to ‘save’ Medicare would actually destroy it (LA Times)
Opinion: If Democrats want universal coverage, they need to abandon the ‘Medicare for all’ fantasy (LA Times)
Trump’s Stealth Attack on America’s Seniors (truthdig)
The ‘Public Option’ on Health Care Is a Poison Pill (The Nation)
How the Erosion of Employer-Sponsored Insurance Is Contributing to Medicare Beneficiaries’ Financial Burden (The Commonwealth Fund)
The Huge Waste in the U.S. Health System (The New York Times)
Did Marketplace Coverage Really Offer Financial Protection? (Roosevelt Institute)
Health Care’s Biggest Problem Is Getting Worse (Washington Monthly)
Think ‘Medicare For All’ Is The Only Democratic Health Plan? Think Again (The Fiscal Times)
Private Hospitals Use Dark Money to Smear Medicare for All (truthdig)
The Urban Institute Report Did Not Score Medicare for All (People’s Policy Project)
The Virtues and Vices of Single-Payer Health Care (The New England Journal of Medicine)
Navigating the Shifting Terrain of US Health Care Reform—Medicare for All, Single Payer, and the Public Option (Milbank Quarterly)
The Public Option Bait and Switch (The New Republic)
Why the Argument that Medicare for All Will Curtail “Freedom” Is So, So Wrong (In These Times)
State Medicaid spending swells even as enrollment flattens (Modern Healthcare)
Letters: The complexity of prior authorization runs deep (Modern Healthcare)
Hospitals call for overhauling Medicare Advantage prior authorization rules (Modern Healthcare)
Elizabeth Warren’s health-care dilemma (The Washington Post)
How the mainstream media tries to convince you that Medicare for All is impossible (salon)
Premiums for popular Obamacare plans to drop 4 percent (Politico)
Changes In The Equity Of US Health Care Financing In The Period 2005–16 (Health Affairs)
How the US could afford ‘Medicare for all’ (The Conversation)
What the Health Care Debate Still Gets Wrong (Boston Review)
Payer cost control moves swamped by provider consolidation: study (Modern Healthcare)
Why prescription drugs cost so much more in America (Financial Times)
The Role of Private Equity in Driving Up Health Care Prices (Harvard Business Review)
My family faces an impossible choice: caring for our mom, or building our future (The Washington Post)
Elizabeth Warren’s plan to pay for Medicare-for-all, explained (Vox)
Medicaid expansion reduced preventable hospitalizations (Modern Healthcare)
The Health 202: Medicare-for-all would virtually erase the massive health insurance industry (The Washington Post)
Medicaid expansion reduced preventable hospitalizations (Modern Healthcare)
Financial Hardships Of Medicare Beneficiaries With Serious Illness (Health Affairs)
Warren’s Medicare for All Plan Jumpstarts a Stalled Debate, Finds a Way to Circumvent the Power of Employers (Medium)
Executive Order, Other Administration Actions Would Weaken Medicare (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
Employer Health Insurance Is Increasingly Unaffordable, Study Finds (The New York Yimes)
Amid 1,800 public comments, Lee TennCare waiver panned with just 9 supporting (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
20 years after ‘To Err is Human,’ hospital care quality measures are still of little use (Modern Healthcare)
Florida’s refusal to expand Medicaid cost 2,800 deaths, report says (Tampa Bay Times)
Executive Order, Other Administration Actions Would Weaken Medicare (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
The emerging language of healthcare is setting us up to fail (Modern Healthcare)
Family caregivers need support: Medicare should cover in-home care aides (The Hill)
The Health 202: Not sure about Medicare-for-all? Visit Canada. (The Washington Post)
The furor over Medicare-for-all ignores a key question (The Washington Post)
Americans have questions about Medicare-for-all. Canadians have answers. (The Washington Post)
Senator Warren details strategy for passing Medicare for all (justcare)
Health Care Dysfunction Makes it to the Presidential Debate (Health Care Renewal)
The Hidden Costs of Healthcare (Institute for New Economic Thinking)
The Army Built to Fight ‘Medicare for All’ (Politico)
Substandard health insurance comes with low premiums but high risk (MPRnews)
“There’s a Fear Factor, a Fear of Change.” (Politico)
2,200 University of Chicago nurses ratify contract (Modern Healthcare)
How Cubans Live as Long as Americans at a Tenth of the Cost (The Atlantic)
Would a public option reduce your out-of-pocket health care costs? (justcare)
How a fight over health care entangled Elizabeth Warren — and reshaped the Democratic presidential race (The Washington Post)
Medicaid covers sick or dying children. But it takes ‘going to battle’ to get it (STAT)
Why the Less Disruptive Health Care Option Could Be Plenty Disruptive (The New York Times)
Executive Order on Medicare Advantage Plans: Few Details but Important to Monitor (Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation)
This Doctors Group Is Owned by a Private Equity Firm and Repeatedly Sued the Poor Until We Called Them (ProPublica)
The American Health Care Industry Is Killing People (The New York Times)
Analysis: Choosing A Plan From The Impossible Health Care Maze (Kaiser Health News)
Trends in Employer Health Care Coverage, 2008–2018: Higher Costs for Workers and Their Families (Commonwealth Fund)
Pharma’s Take On The Pelosi Drug-Pricing Bill: Fair Warning Or Fearmongering? (Kaiser Health News)
Medicare For All Would Improve Hospital Financing (Health Affairs)
More Americans Delaying Medical Treatment Due to Cost (Gallup)
Why I’m a libertarian defeatist about Medicare-for-all (The Week)
Scenes From the Ragged Edge of American Health Care (The New Republic)
Crisis Looms in Antibiotics as Drug Makers Go Bankrupt (The New York Times)
What Is The Status Of Research On Low-Value Care? (Health Affairs)
Program meant to curb repeat hospital stays fails big test (Modern Healthcare)
New international health care price reports shows US pays too much (Just Care)
The U.S. Spends $2,500 Per Person on Health Care Administrative Costs. Canada Spends $550. Here’s Why (Portside)
What the Health Care Debate Still Gets Wrong (Boston Review)
The Impact of CEOs in the Public Sector: Evidence from the English NHS (naked capitalism)
More than a third of U.S. healthcare costs go to bureaucracy (Reuters)
Medicaid’s Dark Secret (The Atlantic)
Trump poised to kick off election-year fight over Medicaid (The Hill)
Medicare for all would save $600 billion a year in administrative costs (Just Care)
How to End the Democrats’ Health Care Demolition Derby (Washington Monthly)
The Netherlands has universal health insurance — and it’s all private (Vox)
Warren’s Attempt to Turn Her Greatest Weakness Into a Strength (The Atlantic)
In Historic Shift, Second Largest Physicians Group in US Has New Prescription: It’s Medicare for All (Common Dreams)
What Medicare for All Really Looks Like (The American Prospect)
Why a Medicare for All public option won’t work (The Charlotte Observer)
Report: Medicaid recipients often use ER for dental issues (Modern Healthcare)
Chart reviews boost Medicare Advantage payments by $6.7 billion, OIG finds (Modern Healthcare)
Health Conundrum: How State Budgets Can Find The Balance Between Social Versus Medical Services (Health Affairs)
Billions in Estimated Medicare Advantage Payments From Chart Reviews Raise Concerns (US Department of Health)
House Passes Groundbreaking Drug Pricing Legislation that Adds a Dental Benefit to Medicare & Protects Low-Income Seniors (Justice in Aging)
What Would Happen If The ACA Went Away? (naked capitalism)
Health Care Costs Under Job-based Plans Have Grown Rapidly, While Wages Remained Flat (Portside)
How to Fix American Health Care (Foreign Affairs)
The Terribly Difficult Things Health Care CEOs Must Do to Make the Big Bucks: Back-to-Back Meetings, Complicated Schedules, Fatiguing Driving?! (naked capitalism)
Electronic Health Records Creating A ‘New Era’ Of Health Care Fraud (naked capitalism)
Health Care in 2019: Year in Review (The Commonwealth Fund)
What We Learned in 2019: Health and Medicine (The New York Times)
Trends in Employer Health Care Coverage, 2008–2018: Higher Costs for Workers and Their Families (The Commonwealth Fund)
Millions of Americans Flood Into Mexico for Health Care — the Human Caravan You Haven’t Heard About (truthout)
Private insurers are the biggest obstacle to guaranteed affordable health care (Just Care)
The Slowdown in Medicare Spending Growth for Baby Boomers and Older Beneficiaries (The Commonwealth Fund)

Reports:

Surge in Opposition Lobbying and Advocacy Validates the Credibility of the Medicare for All Movement (Public Citizen)
Economic Analysis of Medicare for All (Political Economy Research Institute)
Commercial Health Care Financing: The Cause of U.S., Dutch, and Swiss Health Systems Inefficiency? (SAGE journals)
Will Health Care Costs Bankrupt Aging Boomers? (Urban Institute)
Kaiser Family Foundation/LA Times Survey Of Adults With Employer-Sponsored Insurance (KFF)
Warren Doubled Down On ‘Medicare For All’ As Voters Had Second Thoughts (NPR)
2019 Employer Health Benefits Survey (KFF)

Issue Briefs:

Interactive:

Compare Medicare-for-all and Public Plan Proposals

Health Care Financialization:

Who Advocates For Surprise Medical Billing? – Private Equity Hides Behind Physicians’ White Coats (naked capitalism)

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