Balancing Colorado’s Budget Means Ending Medicaid Bloat
Colorado’s budget deficits will continue until Medicaid spending improves. As the National Association of State Budget Officers has pointed out, Colorado’s “FY25 spending gap was due, primarily, to Medicaid related over-expenditures.” As reported by the Colorado Sun, Joint Budget Committee Staff Director Craig Harper has warned that the Colorado legislature will continue to produce budgets […]
Using the False Claims Act to second-guess what patients need: Hungry relators, outsized DOJ recoveries, and the adverse consequences for American health care
The FCA’s aggressive use in health care cases by both the government and private parties means that nowadays, allegations go well beyond “fraud” in any traditional sense of that word, allowing the government and relators’ lawyers to retroactively second-guess physician decision-making, all the while wielding the formidable threat of treble damages and potentially crippling penalties.
How flawed government health coverage incentives lead to poor quality care
by Linda Gorman Data from the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) and the Colorado Hospital Association show that government health programs are not paying their way. Colorado’s Medicaid program pays 75 percent of its patients’ hospital costs. Medicare pays just 72 percent. People who pay for their own health care pay 158 […]
Reforming Medicaid with “Health Stamps”
The idea behind health stamps is straightforward. Like food, health is generally considered a necessity. So why not treat it the same way we treat food? Continue reading
Colorado Medicaid expansion: Denver Business Journal spreads myth of unsinsured cost-shift
Medicaid, through low doctor payment rates, increases insurance premiums. This amount is much more than the amount uninsured people increase premiums when they do not pay part of all of their medical bills. Continue reading
Instead of expanding Medicaid ghetto, Colorado should emulate Florida’s Medicaid premium support program
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper wants to drag more low-income people into Medicaid, which is notorious for fraud, delivering lousy care, poor access. Instead of expanding this failed government dependency program, Colorado should look at Florida as an example of effective Medicaid reform. Continue reading
Independence Institute’s Linda Gorman in Denver Post: Hickenlooper’s plan to finance Medicaid expansion is “reckless,” the “pie in the sky they always feed us.”
“Is our current Medicaid program so inefficient that they can magically save that much money on it?” Gorman said. “This is the pie in the sky they always feed us — that somehow, magically, we’re going to reorganize everything and save money.” Continue reading
Colorado Medicaid Expansion: Remember that health coverage is not health care
John Goodman reviews studies which suggest that there is a severe quality problem in Medicaid. More information can be found in chapter 15 of [his] Independent Institute book, Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis. Continue reading
Colorado Medicaid Expansion: Seven reasons Colorado should say “no”
Medicaid Is Bad Coverage. The Exploding Medicaid Population. The Woodwork and Crowd-Out Effects. The Cost to State Budgets
Federal Controls. Rampant Fraud. Loss of State Sovereignty Continue reading
Colorado Medicaid expansion: lousy health care for the poor, big bill for taxpayers
Medicaid is notorious for underpaying doctors so enrollees have poor access to care and poor medical outcomes. Subsidized commercial insurance is a better, but not ideal, alternative. Fiscally, Medicaid expansion is bad news. Continue reading
Newborns & children drive Colorado Medicaid costs. A solution? Make Medicaid parents pay more.
Six of the ten cost drivers in Colorado Medicaid revolve around labor and delivery and routine physician visits by children. Medicaid parents can afford to pay more for these services. Continue reading
Newborns & children drive Colorado Medicaid costs. A solution? Make Medicaid parents pay more.
Six of the ten cost drivers in Colorado Medicaid revolve around labor and delivery and routine physician visits by children. Medicaid parents can afford to pay more for these services. Continue reading
