Category: Health Economics & Costs

Has CMS Gone Totally Woke?

Posted on by John C. Goodman

On April 18, 2022, CMS issued a proposed rule that will force medical providers to advance a divisive and potentially discriminatory agenda. As explained by Do No Harm:

  • CMS wants to collect a wide variety of personal data from patients in order to create more precise categorizations of patients along race, gender, and other demographic lines.
  • CMS wants hospitals to report confidential patient information to highlight potential gaps in care between groups of patients. By labeling these differences as disparities, CMS could use this information to reward or punish certain healthcare facilities.
  • The proposed rule would distract medical professionals from providing care to patients and instead saddle them with a new mandate focused on politicized and non-medical issues.
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Is the Covid Health Emergency Being Extended to Preserve the Expansion of the Welfare State?

Posted on by John C. Goodman

From Paragon Health:

Medicaid enrollment and spending exploded during the pandemic as Congress passed legislation that boosted the federal government’s share of Medicaid costs in exchange for states keeping everyone enrolled, even when they were no longer eligible. Now 15 million or more people who are ineligible are enrolled in Medicaid. The federal spending boost, which is highly inflationary, and the Medicaid enrollment requirements persist with the official public health emergency.

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Health Care Sharing Ministries are an Alternative to Obamacare

Posted on by Devon Herrick

Consumers who want to join a sharing ministry should check to make sure the sharing ministry plan is right for them the same as they would for Obamacare plans. Many sharing ministries either have a waiting period or do not cover pre-existing conditions, for example. Many (if not all) have specific criteria for things they will not cover. These include claims such as drug addiction treatment, sometimes even out-of-wedlock pregnancies.

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$783.5M in Covid Relief Money Went to Prisoners

Posted on by John C. Goodman

Passed in March, the American Rescue Plan granted $1,400 in stimulus money to people making less than $75,000 per year. Republicans objected to sending these checks to incarcerated individuals, but lost on a party line vote. According to  a Fox News report:

In response to a public records request from conservative group American Crossroads, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) revealed that the money flowed to 560,000 individuals who were incarcerated for the full tax year 2020.

Among the recipients of Covid money was the Boston Marathon Bomber.

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