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Reinsurance Waiver Reactions Highlight Ideological Split On ACA Fixes

Billy Wynne — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 13:33:08 +0000

Inside Health Policy asked a few health policy consultants and strategists whether Democrats may be missing an opportunity to highlight the success of their own 1332 waiver policy when it comes to the state reinsurance programs.

“It is an interesting scenario, not too afield of the situation on drug pricing, where Trump has adopted what would historically be seen as Democrat-driven championing of the issue,” says Billy Wynne of Wynne Health Group. “While I think it makes some sense for federally-focused Democrats to remain more reticent, given all of the nefarious things the Trump Administration is simultaneously doing with 1332 (and 1115) waivers to actually reduce coverage and increase consumer costs, I don’t think there should be room for doubt that Democrats support states taking steps to strengthen their Exchange markets."

The party could be doing more to think broadly about waivers and how they could be used to expand coverage and bring down costs, Wynne adds.

“With relative stasis legislatively regarding ACA improvement, waivers really are the primary vehicle for the federal government to shape this state-driven phase of health reform,” he notes.

Wynne recently wrote a three-part series for Health Affairs that lays out ways that states could use the 1332 waivers and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to establish a Medicare-based public option.

Read the full article here.

The Democrats who are still undecided on Medicare-for-all, explained

Billy Wynne — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 14:40:00 +0000

House Democrats are holding their second-ever hearing on Medicare-for-all, as the party tries to sort out what its next big step on health care should be.

The Ways and Means Committee hearing on Wednesday differs from April’s historic hearingon Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s Medicare for All Act, which would cover every American in one government insurance plan, in two important ways: For one, it’s being held in a committee that actually has significant jurisdiction over health care policy; and two, the single-payer proposal is being reviewed alongside more incremental plans to expand health coverage.

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First major 'Medicare for All' hearing sharpens attacks on both sides

Billy Wynne — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 14:39:00 +0000

Supporters of “Medicare for All” notched a victory Wednesday when one of Congress’s most powerful committees debated the progressive proposal, but the venue also gave Republicans an opportunity to paint proponents as socialists.

Democrats and Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee were at odds with each other, and at times with the lively audience of Medicare for All advocates, over how to pay for a program that’s estimated to cost in the tens of trillions of dollars

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Top Democrats hesitate again on Medicare for All

Billy Wynne — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 14:37:00 +0000

Progressive Democrats cheered when House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal agreed to hold a hearing on universal health care coverage.

But Neal opened the historic hearing Wednesday by praising the Affordable Care Act -- and also raised concerns about sweeping overhaul proposals such as "Medicare for All."

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Why some CEOs figure ‘Medicare for All’ is good for business

Billy Wynne — Tue, 11 Jun 2019 14:44:00 +0000

Today, he’s at the vanguard of a small but growing group of business executives who are lining up to support a “Medicare for All” national health program. He argues not that health care is a human right, but that covering everyone with a government plan and decoupling health care coverage from the workplace would benefit entrepreneurship.

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Private Insurers Are Afraid of Medicare for All. They Should Be Excited

Billy Wynne — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 14:42:00 +0000

Since presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders announced his “Medicare for All” plan in early April, the health insurance industry has uniformly opposed the policy. David Wichmann, CEO of UnitedHealth Group—which covers almost as many people as Medicare itself—remarked that Medicare for All would “surely jeopardize the relationship people have with their doctors, destabilize the nation’s health system, and limit the ability of clinicians to practice medicine at their best.”

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Would Bernie Sanders’s Medicare-for-all save Americans money?

Billy Wynne — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 14:47:00 +0000

During a town hall on Fox News, 2020 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said his Medicare-for-all plan would save most Americans money by reducing the cost of health care. According to Sanders, any tax increase as a result of his plan would be less than what an average family currently pays in premiums, co-payments and deductibles for health insurance.

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‘Medicare for All’s’ rich benefits ‘leapfrog’ other nations

Billy Wynne — Tue, 21 May 2019 14:53:00 +0000

The “Medicare for All” plan embraced by leading 2020 Democrats appears more lavish than what other advanced countries offer, compounding the cost but also potentially broadening its popular appeal.

The plan from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders would charge no copays or deductibles for medical care, allowing only limited cost-sharing for some prescription drugs. It would cover long-term care at home and in community settings. Dental, vision and hearing coverage would be included.

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Obama budget official: ‘Medicare for All’ is Democrat version of GOP’s ‘repeal and replace’

Billy Wynne — Tue, 21 May 2019 14:49:00 +0000

Democratic proposals for a government-run health-care system are the equivalent of Republican bids pushing to repeal and replace Obamacare, and they will never pass, President Barack Obama’s former budget chief said Tuesday.

“Medicare for All” will never be implemented in the U.S. because the “details” are “too hard,” former Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag said at CNBC’s Healthy Returns conference in New York. Instead, the public will begin to see a “bogeyman” version of government-run health care emerge after the 2020 presidential election.

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Beto O'Rourke takes moderate path with Medicare for America

Billy Wynne — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 14:24:00 +0000

Beto O'Rourke says he supports universal health care, but he wants to take a different path to get there than many of his more progressive rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

The former Texas representative is backing a little-known House Democratic proposal called Medicare for America, which calls for expanding government-run health coverage while keeping employer-sponsored insurance plans.

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The Senate’s rules will make it really hard to pass Medicare-for-all

Billy Wynne — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 15:23:00 +0000

Medicare-for-all has plenty of obstacles standing in its way — the price tag, tax hikes, American aversion to disruptive change — but none might be as intractable as the Senate’s procedural rules.

There is the filibuster, of course, the 60-vote threshold for moving to a final vote on almost all legislation. Democrats aren’t going to have a 60-vote supermajority anytime soon, and Republicans seem unlikely to suddenly convert to the single-payer cause. Democrats could get rid of the filibuster entirely the next time they win a simple majority of 50 and let any bill advance with just 51 votes. But even Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the godfather of Medicare-for-all, is ambivalent about that.

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‘Medicare For All’ Is Turning Into A 2020 Litmus Test For Democrats

Billy Wynne — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 15:20:00 +0000

Sherrod Brown has been calling for universal health care since 1992. That’s when he first ran for a U.S. House seat in Ohio, vowing to decline the federally subsidized insurance for members of Congress until his constituents could get similar coverage. He won that race and he kept that pledge, buying policies on his own until 2011, after the Affordable Care Act became law.

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The Health 202: House Democrats are divided on Medicare-for-all plans

Billy Wynne — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 15:18:00 +0000

Fifty-six percent of Americans said they support the idea of a national Medicare-for-all plan in a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. But support faded 20 to 30 percentage points when people were told such an approach could result in higher taxes or longer wait times to see a doctor.

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