Per today’s N&O, it appears Medicaid service providers in NC can expect another reduction in reimbursement rates: In the current state budget, Perdue and the legislature agreed that Medicaid reimbursement rates would be reduced by $26.6 million or 1.35 percent, if the state found it necessary to close a gap in federal Medicaid funding. Perdue’s [...]
Healthcare Archives
- 1Aug17
Who Should Pay for Loida’s Tuition and Healthcare?
Towards the end of June, three students spent several days on a hunger strike at a camp site near the N.C. State Archives building. The strike ended on June 27th when one of the students, Loida Ginocchio-Silva, went to the emergency room for dehydration and heat stroke related conditions. Their intention was to persuade Senator [...]
- 2Aug12
Update: Changes to UNC Health Care
UNC students can now opt out of health care coverage for abortions, an option not possible less than a week ago. After numerous pro-life students and activists spoke out, the UNC system is changing the details of the new coverage plan. Fellow Civitas blogger Jason Sutton covered the divisive issue earlier this week (read it [...]
- Aug12
State Health Plans Needs Money; Fiscal Outlook Dreary
Looks like North Carolina’s State Health Plan, which provides over 650,000 current or retired state employees with health benefits, may need and infusion of cash. According to WRAL, the executive director of the plan has said that in next few years, the plan requires at least an additional $400 million in cash. An outside consultant says that [...]
- 2Aug10
UNC Students Subsidize Abortion Through Mandated Health Coverage.
Students for Life of America has learned that health insurance offered to UNC System students, who are now required to have health insurance as a condition of enrollment, covers elective abortions. The health insurance plan offered through the university for those students who do not have health insurance otherwise is through Pearce & Pearce. The [...]
- Jul28
Confused N&O Editors
Economically-illiterate and authoritarian commentary on health care reform has become the norm for the Raleigh News & Observer. Consider today’s latest installment, which indicates how confused and ignorant the authors of the article are on the topic. The article’s focus is on a report claiming the ”cash reserves” held by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina are [...]
- Jun10
A Unique Problem Concerning Inmate Health Care
In today’s Department of Justice and Public Safety (JPS) appropriations conference committee meeting, Senator Ellie Kinnaird (D – Orange), asked why hospitals would need to incur additional security costs to create a physical buffer zone between inmate patients and other patients if guards were already present. One would think the answer to that question is [...]
- May21
Join the Healthcare Lawsuit, Become “Jobs Governor”
Yesterday, Governor Perdue and Lieutenant Governor Walter Dalton spoke at the National Federation of Independence Business (NFIB) luncheon in Raleigh. At the event it was noted that NFIB, which serves the purpose of promoting and protecting “the rights of small business owners to own, operate and grow their business,” had joined the lawsuit against the [...]
- Apr27
Health Reform Costs Continue to Pile On for the States
Health care reform did not come cheap. States already struggling to find the funds to cover the cost of Medicaid expansion, haven’t even scratched the surface of the unfunded mandates and liabilities that lie ahead. On Friday states must decide whether to aid the Department of Health and Human Services in the set up of [...]
- Apr26
Next Up for Health Care “Reform”: Price Controls and Rationing
Last month, I exposed the fallacy that somehow government can “cut costs” of medical care and health insurance. This WSJ article tells us that federal lawmakers are now considering a bill that I warned would be coming: a measure to impose price caps in health insurance. When President Obama signed his health-care reform last month, [...]
- 1Apr23
Obamacare’s Latest Target: Marriage
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will change more than just healthcare and insurance rates; Obamacare is crawling into bed and impacting America’s marriage rates. At least according to Real Clear Politics columnist, Diana Furchtgott-Roth’s new article, “Hello Healthcare, Goodbye Marriage.” How will the new healthcare law impact marriage trends? “The health insurance premium [...]
- Apr23
Obamacare: Restricting Access to Medical Care
Perhaps contributing to President Obama’s recent dip in North Carolina opinion polls is that more people are realizing the ”universal coverage” provided by Obamacare does not mean universal access to medical care. In other words, expanding (by force) insurance coverage for tens of millions more Americans will drive up demand for medical care. Conversely, “cost control” [...]
- Apr21
State Health Care Funds Drained by New Federal Health Care Law
According to a Kaiser Health News report: “The new health care law could shift billions of dollars from cash-strapped states to the federal government by changing the way Medicaid prescription drug rebates are treated, according to state and industry officials and an examination of Medicaid spending data.” Democrats included a provision in the health care [...]
- Apr16
Roy Cooper, Is It For The People Or The Party?
Is Roy Cooper picking party over the best interest of citizens and the constitution? Attorney General Roy Cooper has decided that Obamacare isn’t such a bad thing. His excuse for passing constitutional muster is what shows up on most talking points memos for the left. Cooper said his office reviewed the health reform law and [...]
- Apr09
Forcing Consumers to Buy and Producers to Sell
A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it … gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman. Capitalism and Freedom (1962). Most Americans are [...]
- Apr06
The High Price of Obamacare
Sheldon Richman reminds us that the high price we’ll be paying for Obamacare comes in many forms. First, are the explicit taxes such the Medicare tax hike on high levels of investment income, the “fees” on medical device and drug companies and the tax on “Cadillac” insurance plans (not implemented until 2018 so Obama can avoid [...]
- Apr05
Approval ratings increase, but for how long?
President Obama’s approval rating is up to 42% according to a new Gallup poll released today. One reason for Obama’s increase in ratings may be the passage of the heatlh care bill. Obama’s approval ratings on healthcare policy were in the 40% to 44% range in surveys conducted in the second half of 2009 but fell [...]
- Apr02
Safest Bet Ever
In this article, economist Don Boudreaux reminds us of the federal government’s past cost estimates for health care “reform” efforts, and issues a challenge to current bureaucrats to put their money where their Obamacare estimates are: When Medicare was created in 1965, its champions predicted that, by 1990, taxpayers would be spending $12 billion annually [...]
- Mar31
DHIP:Big government comes to your neighborhood
Yesterday’s News & Observer had a short story on the U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin’s appearance in Durham to praise that city’s Durham Health Initiative Project (DHIP). DHIP is project between Duke Medicine and local government which attempts to map the health maladies of all of Durham — neighborhood by neighborhood –and then convince individuals to get care. The [...]
- Mar31
Patient, Doctor, and Government – Who Decides?
What is comparative effectiveness research and how will it affect the future of America’s health care? Did you know… Government funding for comparative effectiveness research has increased nearly seven-fold in the last two years? North Carolina will receive more than $30 million dollars this year for comparative effectiveness research? The North Carolina Legislature has already [...]