Personal Option in the news

BY ROSS KAMINSKY | Dean Clancy is a senior policy fellow at Americans for Prosperity and a Paragon Health Institute public advisor. He was involved in the creation of Health Savings Accounts. We’ll discuss AFP’s new campaign to promote “site-neutral payments” to ensure that Medicare patients pay the same for drugs regardless of where they’re administered. Unsurprisingly, hospitals are vehemently opposed.

BY AAMIR HUSSAIN | U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) calls his healthcare reform bill “the world’s greatest healthcare plan.” That’s a bold statement, but his plan represents a strong and workable alternative which purports to give individual Americans more direct control over their healthcare. This proposed legislation maintains certain well-received aspects of Obamacare while abolishing all health insurance purchase mandates.

BY DEAN CLANCY | In her June 2 op-ed, “What’s knocking Americans off Medicaid rolls? Paperwork.,” Catherine Rampell wrote that “bureaucratic snafus” are causing millions of Americans to lose Medicaid coverage gained during the pandemic emergency. This mismanagement — along with the fact that as of 2021, about 1 in 5 Medicaid dollars are spent improperly — calls into question the government’s ability to manage health care on a large scale.

BY DEAN CLANCY | Forty percent of voters say the high and rising cost of healthcare represents a “crisis,” according to a recent poll. A majority (56%) say they feel “helpless” when dealing with the U.S. healthcare system — that the system is in charge, not them.

BY RYAN NORRISS | A recent study ranked Arkansas’ health-care system 47th in the country–and dead last for health-care outcomes. There’s no one in the state who thinks that’s acceptable. To fix the problem, we need to abandon the idea that a one-size-fits-all government program is the solution. But with a ranking of 47th in the country, we need to be looking for innovative answers. A “public option” or so-called Medicare-for-All would only exacerbate the problem.

BY CANDANCE CARROLL and MURRELL SMITH | At a time when “bipartisan” might seem vanishingly rare, the word “unanimous” has become nearly unthinkable. But on May 2nd the South Carolina House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation that will increase the number of hospital beds and services available to our residents. The bill, which sailed through the state Senate earlier this year, repeals Certificate of Need (CON) laws that require government approval to expand medical facilities and give competitors veto power over rival health care investments.