Medicaid Reform
This is the final installment of a four-part series outlining a blueprint for meaningful state budget reform for North Carolina. This article focuses on much-needed reform to the state’s Medicaid program that could offer enrollees more options while saving millions of taxpayer dollars. A Blueprint for Budget Reform Reforms Needed for North Carolina’s Ailing Pension [...]
State Health Plan for Employees and Retirees Reform
This is the third installment of a four-part series outlining a blueprint for meaningful state budget reform for North Carolina. This article focuses on the growing and unsustainable health insurance benefits provided to state government employees and retirees A Blueprint for Budget Reform Reforms Needed for North Carolina’s Ailing Pension System State Health Plan for [...]
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In the Realm of Healthcare, the Fight Continues
The North Carolina General Assembly has officially concluded its business for 2012, ending a biennium that brought much needed policy changes to our state. While a significant portion of the short session was focused on budget adjustments, in the realm of health care, several steps were taken in the right direction. Medicaid was one area [...]
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Don’t Forget About the Other Taxes in Obamacare
The big debate about whether Obamacare imposes a “penalty” or a “tax” for not buying health insurance shouldn’t blind us to a much more expensive problem: the half-a-trillion dollars Americans will be paying with 19 new or higher taxes in the health care takeover. Much was made about last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring [...]
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High Court’s Obamacare Decision Looms
This month the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hand down one of the most consequential decisions in its history by ruling on the constitutionality of Obamacare. On March 26-28, the Court heard an unprecedented six hours of oral arguments concerning the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. The justices asked several important and [...]
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Medicaid Frills Cost NC Billions, but GA May Shy Away from Cuts
Medicaid services not required by the federal government but approved by the state legislature in years past cost $4.4 billion in 2010-2011. That accounted for 46 percent of the $10 billion Medicaid budget. North Carolina’s Medicaid program was referred to as a “Cadillac” program in a study by the Lewin Group a few years ago. [...]
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What’s NC Waiting For? The Call for a Healthcare Compact
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) continues to threaten state sovereignty and individual rights. With the uncertainty of the U.S. Supreme Court decision still looming, states must find ways to counteract this federally intrusive legislation, no matter the judicial outcome. A Healthcare Compact (Compact) could be the solution to bringing power and control [...]
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Ten Reasons to Avoid a State Health Insurance Exchange
Proponents of the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) health insurance exchanges will argue that the state setting up its own exchange, instead of the federal government, will give the state more flexibility and allow free market concepts into the exchange’s operation. Sadly, the idea of a “free market exchange” is a contradiction in terms. States will [...]
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Obamacare Grant a Step in the Wrong Direction
State legislators have given the green light for the Department of Insurance to spend $12.4 million in federal grant money to set up a preliminary health insurance exchange. These funds, considered a “Level One” grant, will be used to hire consultants, temporary full-time employees, and purchase IT services and software. A health insurance exchange, in [...]
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HSAs: Putting Patients Back in the Healthcare Driver’s Seat
America’s healthcare infrastructure desperately needs reform – both the Left and the Right can agree with this basic premise. However, their acquiescence tends to end there. Last year, Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or Obamacare). This intrusive legislation seeks to require all individuals to purchase a private commodity, health insurance, [...]
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Dr. Government Seeks Patient Medical Information
Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or Obamacare) without first reading it. As Nancy Pelosi noted at the time, “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” The repercussions of such a move are becoming clearer by the day as legislators and policy [...]
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Certifiable Improvement
North Carolina’s healthcare system could be considerably more effective at controlling costs, increasing rural access and delivering quality services. That much Republicans and Democrats agree on. It’s the details that are in dispute and one healthcare policy, certificate of need regulation, has been particularly controversial. The Certificate of Need (CON) system was mandated by federal [...]
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Certificate of Need: Access Denied
One intended purpose of Certificate of Need (CON) laws is to increase medical care accessibility to people by encouraging the expansion of medical facilities into rural areas and by decreasing costs that would prevent people from seeking care. CON laws try to do this by creating committees that oversee the creation and expansion of medical [...]
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Certificate of Need: The Cost of the Process
A hospital applying for authorization to use their own funds for hospital projects will, on average, pay a minimum of $32,000 per Certificate of Need (CON) application. The CON system has been in place in North Carolina since 1974 as an attempt to regulate federal funding for programs like Medicare and Medicaid and limit healthcare [...]
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Certificate of Need: Does It Actually Control Healthcare Costs?
“The fundamental premise of the CON law is that increasing health care costs may be controlled by governmental restrictions on the unnecessary duplication of medical facilities.” -NC Division of Health Service Regulation website. While the basic economic case against the entire Certificate of Need (CON) process has already been made, supporters of this process often [...]
Weekly Newsletter
@NCCivitas
- NC to Seek Federal Waiver to Pursue Medicaid Reform http://t.co/Uj6pBnDUwF #ncpol
- Why do liberals hate eagles? http://t.co/xCfCb058GK #nccivitas #eaglekillers http://t.co/SSFob4zRCc
- House unveils tax plan – less significant than the Senate plan. http://t.co/7HACM0Q1gx #ncga #ncpol
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