Health Care
Instead of a ‘Public Option’, We Need a ‘Personal Option’
Originally published at RealClearHealth Health care is a mess—and our political leaders aren’t helping. Presidential candidates only offer vague ideas to address our health care problems. From former President…
Read More: Instead of a ‘Public Option’, We Need a ‘Personal Option’Under Obamacare, Pennsylvania families have been forced to pay more for health care, and more than 800,000 Pennsylvania adults have received taxpayer-funded health coverage through a broken Medicaid system. Without Congressional action, states are unable to carry the full burden of Obamacare on their own. However, state policymakers can focus their own reform efforts on giving patients more control over health care and restoring Medicaid as a safety-net program. Access to health care should be measured, not by the number of those with insurance, but by the ability of individuals to independently secure the affordable, reliable care they deserve.
Health Care
States Take a Stand Against Medicaid Expansion
The Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act would cost Pennsylvania an additional $2 billion through 2019, should the commonwealth participate. That represents merely the state share, as taxes…
Media
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What if Congress Passed the “TV Mandate”?
A friend of mine recently purchased a new flat screen TV, getting a no-interest loan for three years to finance it. He remarked in amazement at this wonder, noting he…
Media
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State Officials Have the Power to Stop Federal Health Care
The Supreme Court health care ruling last week gave Pennsylvania two opportunities to undermine the Affordable Care Act. States can decline to set up a state exchange and choose not…
Media
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Constitutional, but Still Unaffordable, Unsustainable and Nonsensical
My response to today’s Supreme Court of the United States ruling on President Obama’s healthcare reform law: Just because something is ruled Constitutional doesn’t make it affordable, sustainable or…
Media
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New Healthcare Regs Would Cost PA Taxpayers $50 Million
A bill on the floor of the state House would circumvent consumer freedom when it comes to prescription drugs. Many employers, including the state, encourage employees to buy less costly…
Media
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Medicaid Flexibility: The Key to a Sustainable Safety Net
As we inch towards the state budget deadline, welfare spending reductions in Pennsylvania continue to be contentious. The reductions that are proposed concentrate on 20 percent of spending, since…
Media
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Medicaid Waivers & the Looming Fiscal Crisis
In the waning days of 2008, the state of Rhode Island secured a global waiver for its Medicaid program. The waiver exempted the state from many federal rules and mandates in exchange for a…
Media
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Not Why I’m Here
“Why am I here?” That’s an excellent question to ask yourself if you work in Harrisburg. This week, as I read a piece by Karen Langley in the Pittsburgh…
Media
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Change We Can’t Afford
This week, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act celebrated its two-year anniversary before the U.S. Supreme Court. The controversial health care law finds itself in front of the highest…
Commentary
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PPACA Will Put a Quarter of Pennsylvanians on Medicaid
There is no shortage of media coverage marking PPACA’s two year anniversary, but one statistic from the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare did grab my attention: Instead of…
Media
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Ending the Cycle: Reforming Welfare in Pennsylvania
Government welfare, with its goal to provide a helping hand to those in need, has instead become a vast series of programs that fall far short of the good intentions…
Report
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CF Joins More than 400 State Lawmakers in Brief on Health Care Law
The Commonwealth Foundation joined 17 other organizations and 333 state legislators from across the country in an amicus curiae brief challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act passed…
Media
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No Rush on Health Insurance Exchanges
In late November the Department of Insurance announced that Pennsylvania would begin implementing a state health insurance exchange as laid out in PPACA (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care…
Media
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How Much Will Obamacare Cost You?
The federal health care overhaul will be paid for with spending cuts and an estimated $420 billion in new taxes. How much of that $420 billion will come out of your pocket?…
Media
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Changing the Incentives in Medicaid
Medicaid spending is set to skyrocket under the federal health care overhaul in the next two years, but it already consumes 31 percent of Pennsylvania’s budget. It is no…
Media
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Pennsylvania Welfare Spending & Medicaid
Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed FY 2011-12 budget would represent the first time General Fund spending on the Department of Public Welfare would exceed that for the Department of Education.
Fact Sheet
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Rescuing the States from Medicaid
State Medicaid spending has increased four times faster than elementary and secondary education spending and nine times faster than transportation spending over the past two decades. In Pennsylvania,…
Media
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Still Learning “What’s in the Bill”
My brother sent me the following text message while at his local pharmacy: Just realized that OTC [over-the-counter] drugs are no longer covered by HSA thanks to Obama. I…
Media
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Medicaid Reforms Needed as Welfare Spending Surpasses Education
Under Gov. Corbett’s budget proposal, Pennsylvania would spend more on welfare than education for first time. A large chunk of that welfare spending is in Medicaid, a joint state-federal program…
Media
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Medicaid Reforms Start with the States
Medicaid spending threatens to consume the entire Pennsylvania state budget, and we aren’t alone. Without greater flexibility, states will be forced to cut services, raise taxes or drop out…
Media
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Five Reasons Corbett Should Stop Implementing Obamacare
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has indicated the state will continue to implement federal health care mandates, such as an an insurance exchange, at least for the time being. Here are…
Media
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