During the debate over Obamacare Ezra Klein was a huge proponent of  health insurance exchanges using only private insurance companies. He called the exchanges the number one cost control idea in the new law. From Klein March 22, 2010 in his list of “five most promising cost controls in the health-care bill”: (1) Create a [...]

The large for-profit private insurance company Anthem Blue Cross has found a clever new way to screw over its consumers even if they have been diligent about paying their premiums on time over the years. I encourage everyone to read the entirety of this article in the LA Times: [Andrea] Kreuzhage has been making automatic [...]

With less than three years until most aspects of the new health care law start, only 10 states have passed legislation creating new health insurance exchanges according to a report from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (PDF). The Affordable Care Act requires states to set up these exchanges; and if a state fails [...]

The recently appointed Connecticut state health care exchange board contains three former high ranking private insurance executives. From the CT Mirror: The members of the new panel include three former insurance executives, the head of a coalition of health plans for unionized workers, the head of a green energy business, and a health policy scholar [...]

It seems President Obama as expected grabbed hold of the Joe Lieberman’s trial balloon and is now also pushing to raise the Medicare retirement age to 67. From Huffington Post: According to five separate sources with knowledge of negotiations — including both Republicans and Democrats — the president offered an increase in the eligibility age [...]

The Affordable Care Act will eventually start requiring health insurance policies to be explained in a simpler to understand manner. While this a good thing there is still the huge problem that simpler is not the same thing as “simple.” Insurance policies in this country are just inherently complex, making it almost impossible for regular people who will be using the new exchanges to actually know what is the best policy for them.

I’ve often find Ezra Klein’s writing about health care policy confusing because from blog post to blog post there is often a jarring disconnect that can best be described at policy schizophrenia. The issue is most pronounced in his alternating from defender of health insurance exchanges, mostly when defending Obama, and his acknowledging they have been a proven failure, mostly when criticizing Republicans.

It is nice to see both Paul Krugman and Matt Yglesias openly admitting that the Affordable Care Act is about as right-wing any insurance coverage expansion “reform” could be. From Yglesias’s The Sensible Conservative Alternative To The Affordable Care Act Is The Affordable Care Act: If you simply do what Ponnuru and Levin propose, every [...]

It is always nice to see more people come around to my stated belief that health insurance exchanges intended to make people be “smart shoppers” for very complex products is a truly failed idea. Paul Krugman made a very straightforward case against the concept this weekend: That’s the title of a blog post by Nathalie [...]

I’m glad to see that Paul Krugman has attacked the absurd idea that health care patients should be treated as consumers, and Jonathan Cohn has chosen to echo Krugman’s argument.  What I can’t understand is where was powerful denouncing of the absurd idea that we need more “consumer-driven” health care during the debate over the [...]