Category Archives: Health Care Economics

Will Aurora merger pay off for customers?

For the life of me, I can’s see how the proposed mega-merger between Aurora Health Care of Wisconsin and Advocate Health Care Network of Illinois will benefit payers like my company Serigraph or its co-workers. The main rationale for the … Read the rest

A third way: Default to Medicare Advantage for all

Most Republican leaders at state and national levels are proving that they are as clueless about reforming health care economics as the wonks who designed Obamacare. At the Wisconsin level, Republicans and Democrats on the Joint Finance Committee voted 16-0 … Read the rest

Time for long ball on health care reform

Avid golfer Donald Trump hit an iron off the tee with his first run at repealing and replacing Obamacare. Predictably, it fell short. It’s time for him to get out “the big dog,” the driver, and hit the long ball. … Read the rest

What happened to Trump’s Art of the Deal?

President Trump may know a thing or two about hotel deals, but he totally flubbed the art of the deal with Republicans in Congress as they tried to replace Obamacare. So did his quarterback in the House, Speaker Paul Ryan. … Read the rest

GOP replacement plan: missed opportunities

In their rush to repeal and replace Obamacare, Paul Ryan’s Republicans in the House essentially punted. They had seven years while vehemently opposing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which played out as the unaffordable Care Act, to craft with an … Read the rest

Health costs fueled rise of Trump, Sanders

Donald Trump

In the eyes of many, the fuel that fed the Trumpian and Sanders bonfires was economic stagnation across a broad swath of the middle class in American. The resentments from not moving ahead, or from their fear that their children … Read the rest

Walker targets big health care savings

Governor Scott Walker

The immediate resistance to the one bold initiative in Gov. Walker’s state of the state message is perplexing. He called for self-insurance for health care for state employees, a move everyone should love except for the incumbent health insurers. The … Read the rest

Can one county be model for health?

If leaders in health care had their way, Washington County‘s 132,000 residents would be the healthiest in the nation and in Wisconsin. That’s an ambitious goal, though the county already ranks in the top fifth of Wisconsin’s 72 counties for … Read the rest

Memo to David Brooks: look deeper on health costs

DavidBrooks

David Brooks, the right-of-center pundit for the New York Times, a balancing attempt on its left-leaning pages, is onto something – health care cost inflation is trending lower – but he hasn’t figured out why. In a recent column, he … Read the rest

Companies hold health inflation to 2%

Thomas J. Doney, President of Cypress Benefit Administrators

Tom Doney, an old hand in the health plan and network discount business, has 421 self-insured employer clients in 50 states that are proving health costs can be held to 2% annual increases. That track record for his Cypress health … Read the rest