government healthcare spending

The Hidden Cost of Medicaid Cuts: Why the GOP’s Budget Plan Would Be a Disaster for Hospitals

House Republicans proposed Medicaid cuts last month that would have disastrous financial consequences for hospitals, especially for those in rural areas. While the plan aims to reduce government spending, healthcare executives are pointing out that these cuts would actually exacerbate the financial instability of the overall U.S. healthcare system — as well worsen health outcomes for millions of people, many of whom are children.

By Katie Adams

Legal, Policy, Payers, Providers

GOP Seeks to Drastically Cut Medicaid Spending — How Are Healthcare Leaders Reacting?

House Republicans introduced a proposal seeking to cut Medicaid spending by hundreds of billions of dollars. Healthcare leaders are slamming the budget plan, highlighting that it would result in millions of people losing coverage, as well as a surge in uncompensated care for providers.

By Katie Adams

Good news/bad news from the CMS report on U.S. healthcare spending

For the fifth consecutive year, federal healthcare spending grew less than 4 percent in 2013 – a markedly lower rate than the historical average of 7.2 percent per year from 1990-2008. But government actuaries and economists say we shouldn’t expect slow growth to last much longer. New estimates from the Office of the Actuary at […]

By Deanna Pogorelc

Channel

Health care incentives are a great American paradox – at every level

Stupidity is in the eye of the beholder. Smoking is “stupid,” some would say, because it is unequivocally bad for one’s health. But what if the pleasure gained from smoking outweighs the decrease in life expectancy? Is that still stupid? The United States of America has a general paradigm for dealing with these questions. Americans […]

By Adam Schaefer