Will passing Amendment 69 lead to a doctor strike?
Passage of Amendment 69 would change the Colorado Constitution to give an entity called ColoradoCare the right to set prices for all medical services provided by any health provider licensed by the state. This includes physicians. What if ColoradoCare sets prices too low? Hospitals can provide lower quality care, let facilities deteriorate, and stop investing […]
Amendment 69: What You Need to Know About the “ColoradoCare” Single-Payer Health Care Measure
The ColoradoCare Amendment imposes the highest state income taxes in the nation. It creates a centrally run, monopoly health program. It does not guarantee health care or replace health insurance.
Budget chicanery with Colorado Medicaid, hospital provider 'fees'
Medicaid is the largest health care program in the United States. It spends a lot on relatively low quality care. Since 2007, Colorado officials have acceded to the federal government’s wishes, expanding both Medicaid and the role of government in Colorado health care. The feds said it would reduce health expenditures by improving health. Now […]
Budget chicanery with Colorado Medicaid, hospital provider ‘fees’
Medicaid is the largest health care program in the United States. It spends a lot on relatively low quality care. Since 2007, Colorado officials have acceded to the federal government’s wishes, expanding both Medicaid and the role of government in Colorado health care. The feds said it would reduce health expenditures by improving health. Now […]
Colorado's Obamacare exchange spends big for little new coverage
In the recent King v. Burwell decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said that the federal health benefits exchange can provide Obamacare premium subsidies. Given this, it may be time for Colorado officials to shut down the Colorado exchange and let people use the federal one. In 2012, the Colorado exchange predicted that its 2015-2018 expenditures […]
Colorado’s Obamacare exchange spends big for little new coverage
In the recent King v. Burwell decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said that the federal health benefits exchange can provide Obamacare premium subsidies. Given this, it may be time for Colorado officials to shut down the Colorado exchange and let people use the federal one. In 2012, the Colorado exchange predicted that its 2015-2018 expenditures […]
Note to health reformers: Selling the same thing for a different price is normal market behavior
Understanding the price of ketchup may go a long way towards explaining why mainstream health care reformers gives such bad reform advice. Per-capita health spending varies a great deal. It varies by geography, it varies by health status, it varies by demographics, and it varies by individual patient characteristics. Academics and government officials decry this […]
Colorado invites Medicaid fraud: Pays hundreds of millions in claims without provider ID numbers
The federal Health and Human Services Inspector General’s Office recently issued a report finding fault with Colorado Medicaid’s internal accounting controls. In 2011, it paid 798,411 Medicaid claims worth $425.4 million even though they were missing legally required National Provider Identification (NPI) numbers. Services provided under the Home & Community Based Services Waiver generated 767,936 […]
Senate Bill 275: Why should members of the Colorado legislature be above the law?
Some members of the Colorado legislature want to be exempt from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the federal law requiring everyone else to protect individual health information from purposeful or accidental disclosure. “Health oversight agencies” are exempt from HIPAA requirements. If Senate Bill 275 passes, the entire Colorado legislature will become a […]
How government makes health coverage more costly
Government does a variety of things that make health coverage more costly. Now that the legislature has empaneled a commission (disclosure, I sit on the commission as health care economist) to look at Colorado health care cost drivers, we can hope that it will encourage officials to take a hard look at what the state […]
Colorado's 'Gruber Model' health exchange predictions not performing well
Obamacare advocates claimed that people were unable to afford health insurance and that creating the equivalent of government run brokerage firms called health benefits exchanges would help millions of people. In 2011, Connect for Health Colorado, the Colorado exchange, hired Gruber and Associates to predict the effects of Obamacare in Colorado. As the graphs show, […]
Colorado’s ‘Gruber Model’ health exchange predictions not performing well
Obamacare advocates claimed that people were unable to afford health insurance and that creating the equivalent of government run brokerage firms called health benefits exchanges would help millions of people. In 2011, Connect for Health Colorado, the Colorado exchange, hired Gruber and Associates to predict the effects of Obamacare in Colorado. As the graphs show, […]
