A NEW REPUBLICAN-CONTROLLED Congress is in place. And for the sixth time, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is facing extinction. Indeed, a gripping narrative history of the ACA/Obamacare could be written focused only on its numerous near-death experiences. Maybe the sixth time will be the curse, and maybe not. Let’s recall. One, in January 2010, […]
John E. McDonough
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Five Affordable Care Act questions for the GOP
SO, REPUBLICANS ARE planning a major blitz to repeal and delay/replace/collapse the Affordable Care Act/ACA/ObamaCare. I’ve got five questions to ask leaders of the Grand Old Party. First, if your guarantees are honest that your replacement law will be better than the ACA, why not share real numbers? President-elect Donald Trump, Speaker Paul Ryan, and […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Trump poised to dump Affordable Care Act
PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP has nominated Rep. Tom Price of George, an orthopedic surgeon and the House Budget Committee chairman, to be his first secretary of health and human services. For those lulled into believing that Trump was moderating his views on the Affordable Care Act because of recent statements on 60 Minutes that he leaned […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
State gains approval for big Medicaid overhaul
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT today approved a huge infusion of money to Massachusetts and big restructuring of the state’s Medicaid program, known as MassHealth. The five-year $52.4 billion waiver is major win for the Baker administration, and especially for Health & Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders and Medicaid director Daniel Tsai. The new waiver will preserve […]
Posted inHealth Care
Protected: Humble pie for Massachusetts health
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Baker’s big health care move
FOR THE THIRD time since 1996, the Massachusetts Medicaid program, called MassHealth, is preparing for transformation. After submitting a final proposal in July, state officials are anxiously awaiting a decision on the plan from the US Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services. The goals are to: first, transform how medical services are delivered to many […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Obama, Clinton and the new public-option debate
THE ERA OF Democratic silence on strengthening and improving the Affordable Care Act is officially over. President Obama’s tour de force review of the ACA’s successes in the new Journal of the American Medical Association is also important for his identification of key ACA improvements needed on insurance affordability, Medicaid, prescription drug prices and more. […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
The art of the non-deal deal
ON MAY 31, Gov. Charlie Baker signed a new law to avert a proposed 2016 state ballot initiative that would have redistributed as much as $450 million annually from Partners HealthCare hospitals to most of the state’s other hospitals by establishing stringent limits on hospital price variation. The new law, “Chapter 115, An act relative to […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
House GOP health care plan is an empty backpack
THIS WEEK, US House Speaker Paul Ryan released a long-promised plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. Most of the plan, “A Better Way: Health Care,” developed by a House task force, includes familiar ideas that have been in Republican rhetoric even prior to the ACA. Coverage of the plan’s basics can be found here […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Back to the future with Paul Ryan
THIS PAST WEEK at Georgetown University, House Speaker Paul Ryan proposed scrapping an essential component of the Affordable Care Act that bans health insurance companies from imposing pre-existing condition exclusions on consumers and prohibits the practice of “medical underwriting” to discriminate against anyone with a current or prior medical condition. Instead, he proposed, states could […]