In a disappointing but sadly expected move, Jared Bernstein’s tries to use the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) newly released data on hospital prices to argue for Obamacare even though the law does almost nothing to solve the underlying problem. Bernstein writes: You go to buy a Snicker’s bar, you a) face a [...]

House Republicans have a problem. They have trapped themselves in a no man’s land of political hostage taking. The GOP leadership has basically admitted they can’t really play chicken with the debt limit again, but at the same time many in the rank and file refuse to give up on the idea that voting on [...]

I would like to take a moment to praise the Obama administration for having the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) release this huge database of what different hospitals charge for common procedures. The New York Times was given a preview of the data and put together a few examples of the widely divergent and [...]

Since Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took office he has been a one man force of nature. At every turn he has decided to exploit the current Senate rules any way he can to advance his agenda. He doesn’t just threaten to filibuster a big piece of legislation for public attention like some, he also uses [...]

A new study in Health Affairs appears to disprove the commonly cited myth that public insurance programs “shifts cost” onto private insurance. The idea behind the myth is that public insurance programs pay providers less than what procedures cost which forces them to make up the difference by charging private insurance companies more. In reality, [...]

President Obama and Congressional Republicans actually view concerns about the deficit in two different ways and that is what has prevented a deal. Obama for whatever reason actually thinks reducing the long term deficit should be important. He has put forward plans to include spending cuts and tax increases in order to achieve this goal. He [...]

Larry Summers has decided to rush into the fray to defend his “colleagues and friends” Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff. Unfortunately, the only way for Summers to defend his friends is by trying to rewrite history. Summer tried to pretend the problem was simply a matter of making some errors. From Summers: First, this experience [...]

There is growing concern that a problematic implementation of the Affordable Care Act will hurt Democrats in 2014. In response, some on the left, like Jonathan Cohn, have pointed to Medicare Part D as an example why such concerns are overblown. They argue while the implementation of the drug benefit program was rocky, it was [...]

Getting a lot of attention today is a new study about Oregon’s Medicaid program. Basically several years ago Oregon wanted to greatly expand the program but didn’t have enough money to cover everyone they wanted. As a result they held a lottery. This created a perfect natural experiment on the effect of Medicaid coverage. The [...]

The Obama administration has decided to fight a court order to allow Plan B to  be sold over the counter to younger women. This is a very disappointing move by a man that goes to great lengths to pretend to be a “technocrat.” This whole fight started when back in 2011 the FDA, after extensive review, concluded that [...]