Blog and News

D4PC President, Dr. Hal Scherz, has a new article published at Townhall the explains how trial lawyers and the insurance companies are the real beneficiaries of our current medical system, a system that all too often diverts precious health care dollars from patient care into defensive medicine and into the coffers of the trial lawyers and the malpractice carriers.  

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Welcome to D4PC "Morning Rounds", your daily review of healthcare news and information from Washington, DC and around the nation. These briefings will keep you up to date on recent developments and our effort to replace the PPACA with patient-centered reforms that protect the doctor-patient relationship and preserve individual freedom of choice. 

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D4PC Morning Rounds: Thursday, July 21, 2011

Welcome to D4PC "Morning Rounds", your daily review of healthcare news and information from Washington, DC and around the nation. These briefings will keep you up to date on recent developments and our effort to replace the PPACA with patient-centered reforms that protect the doctor-patient relationship and preserve individual freedom of choice.

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"Government Mandates Make Health Savings More Elusive", Forbes.com 

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Health Insurance Reform: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

"Explanation of How the 3.8 Percent Medicare "unearned " Income Tax Works"

This new tax is created to help pay for the massive entitlement program known as the PPACA (Affordable Care Act, Obamacare) since the law diverts taxpayer money out of financially strapped Medicare. It is obvious from the following explanation how this tax will affect more Americans over time as currently written.

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"Medicare's Actuary Paints A Darker Picture Than Trustees", National Review

Under current law, Medicare would spend $220 billion on physicians in 2012. But that assumes the 29 percent cut goes into effect--something that is considered unlikely. So under the alternative scenario, Medicare would spend $248 billion in 2012 on physicians, or about 12.6 percent more. At the same time, Medicare physician payment rates would decline to 57 percent of what private insurers pay in 2012, and eventually to 27 percent by 2085. With the debate over Medicare heating up, this report illustrates that the PPACA does nothing to save Medicare. In fact, it drives the nation over the national debt cliff by continuing the failed policies of this government program.

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"GOP Senators Demand Withdrawal of ACO Rule", Politico Pro

Seven Republican senators are demanding that the Obama administration withdraw the embattled ACO proposed rule, saying the criticism from providers shows that the rule is unworkable. The letter, sent Tuesday to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and CMS Administrator Don Berwick, was signed by Tom Coburn (Okla.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), John Cornyn (Texas), Pat Roberts (Kan.), and Richard Burr (N.C.).

“The concerns over the ACO regulation from some of our nation’s most knowledgeable and innovative health care providers are clear,” they wrote, pointing to an imbalance between incentives and accountability and the expense of investing in quality measures. “Unfortunately, based on the feedback we have from providers around the country, we conclude that the proposed ACO regulation will fail to accomplish its purpose.”

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"Albany Out to Boost Malpractice Lawyers", New York Post

A package of bills moving through Albany could mean big paydays for medical-malpractice attorneys -- proving the case for greater ethics disclosure among the state's elected officials, good-government advocates say.
The legislation, backed by lawmakers who moonlight as attorneys, would include increasing lawyers' fees on malpractice cases and extending the cutoff date for filing suit.

Not surprising, there is a conspicuous lack of effort on medical liability reform in the president's healthcare law.

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Government Entitlements and Economic Growth

A key argument in favor of the PPACA is that our economy is less competitive because of soaring health care costs. If this is true, increasing government entitlements will not help. The paper below demonstrates that government entitlements have a negative impact on economic growth--which is the only means we have of enlarging the economic pie for everyone.

Policy Research working Paper by Jean-Pierre Chauffour, Lead Economist International Trade Dept. world Bank. "On the Relevance of Freedom and entitlement in Development: New Empirical Evidence" (1975-2007) May 2011

Summary:

Reviewing the economic performance -- good and bad -- of more than 100 countries over the past 30 years, this paper finds new empirical evidence supporting the idea that economic freedom and civil and political liberties are the root causes of why some countries achieve and sustain better economic outcomes. For instance, a one unit change in the initial level of economic freedom between two countries (on a scale of 1 to 10) is associated with an almost 1 percentage point differential in their average long-run economic growth rates. In the case of civil and political liberties, the long-term effect is also positive and significant with a differential of 0.3 percentage point. In addition to the initial conditions, the expansion of freedom conditions over time (economic, civil, and political) also positively influences long-run economic growth. In contrast, no evidence was found that the initial level of entitlement rights or their change over time had any significant effects on long-term per capita income, except for a negative effect in some specifications of the model. These results tend to support earlier findings that beyond core functions of government responsibility -- including the protection of liberty itself -- the expansion of the state to provide for various entitlements, including so-called economic, social, and cultural rights, may not make people richer in the long run and may even make them poorer. 

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