The dispute resolution process has not worked well. The IDR was supposed to be an inexpensive mechanism for resolving fee disputes, but critics claim the process has become bogged down with far more disputes than anticipated. Insurers estimate 40% of disputes filed are ineligible for IDR. One result is a costly system for taxpayers.
Category: Affordable Care Act
Wednesday Links – 1 April 2026
- MAHA at CPAC: Kennedy went after Froot Loops and bemoaned how Americans don’t know how to cook anymore. Mehmet Oz, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services chief, warned about hospice fraud in California. And Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health and the acting director (of a sort) of the CDC, explained the value of repurposing already-approved drugs for new diseases. “This sounds geeky,” he told the crowd, “But it is really, really important.”
- If you are low-skilled, poor, and overly optimistic, federal student loans are likely bad for you.
- AI doing tax returns: “They struggled, hard, miscalculating the refund or amount owed to the Internal Revenue Service by an average of more than $2,000.” (NYT)
- Some states are making up some or all of the reduction in federal subsidies for Obamacare. (NYT)
- Sharing your health records with Microsoft’s Copilot. What could go wrong? (NYT)
KFF: Obamacare Did Not Drive Up the Cost of Health Coverage
Health plan premiums more than doubled in price since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) made health coverage, well, unaffordable. A 50-year-old with an ACA plan must pay 129% more today than a dozen years ago. During this same period, employee health plans rose in price by about half that amount (68%). This data is based on work by the Paragon Institute.
From a Review of We’ve Got You Covered, by Liran Einav and Amy Finkelstein
She estimated that every dollar spent on the program was worth only 50 cents to beneficiaries, and that 60 percent of expenditures merely served to compensate hospitals and physicians for medical care that they had already been providing.
Source: Chris Pope, City Journal