Affordable Care Act

Business Community Worried About Rising Healthcare Costs in Massachusetts

Lucas Willard — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 22:03:31 +0000

In an article recently published by the Wall Street Journal, Massachusetts is the state with the highest per-capita expenditure on healthcare, with the average individual paying more than $9,200 a year on health care costs. Expenses taken into account include emergency care, physician visits, nursing home care, prescription drugs, dental care, and other categories.

Blair Horner: Back to the Future to Curb Health Care Costs?

Blair Horner — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:14:10 +0000

The United States spends more on health care than any other nation on earth. Yet, the U.S. has some of the worst health care outcomes of any nation in the developed world. Why is that? It’s due to the tortured way the nation runs its system.

Blair Horner: The Budget Wraps Up

Blair Horner — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:53:17 +0000

The 2013-2014 state budget was approved last week, marking the third on-time budget in a row. Three on-time budgets haven’t occurred in a generation, so there was a lot of back-slapping and “at-a-boys” at the Capitol.

Vt. to be first state to post health care rates

Jaired Crofut — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:20:42 +0000

Vermont is poised to become the first state in the country to tell people without health insurance how much they can pay for coverage through the federal Affordable Care Act when it begins offering benefits next year.

Andrew Coates: That's what you get when you kick the can down the road

Andrew Coates — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:45:51 +0000

"Kicking the can down the road" is an idiom that means to defer something crucial in hopes that the problem will become someone else's responsibility. The other day it occurred to me that "kicking the can down the road" has become a trademark of contemporary governments worldwide -- from the European debt crisis, to the so-called sequester, to the decision to defer changing the tax on New York's wealthy until a non-election year.

New York State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried - Bringing single-payer health care to New York

Patrick Donges — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 17:26:41 +0000

In Albany today, state legislators, patient advocates, labor leaders, and health care professionals unveiled a new proposal for government funded, universal, single-payer statewide health insurance.

WAMC’s Patrick Donges spoke today with New York Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, Democrat of Manhattan’s 75th district, sponsor of the bill and chair of the Assembly Health Committee.

Federal Health Care Law Challenges Conn. Budget

Lucas Willard — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 03:00:00 +0000

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The federal health care overhaul law is providing both challenges and opportunities for Connecticut lawmakers as they try to reach a state budget compromise with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Malloy's two-year, $43.8 billion proposal includes millions of dollars in spending needed to comply with the federal health care law. But it also relies on millions of dollars in savings that the law generates.

Vermont Third in Federal Exchange Money

Pat Bradley — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:35:00 +0000

When it comes to federal money to help states set up health care exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, you might expect that California would rank first and New York second. But here's a surprise: Vermont ranks number 3.

Sean Philpott: Meet the New Boss. Same as the Old Boss ... Or is He?

Sean Philpott — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:30:16 +0000

Most pundits have been describing last week's elections as a victory for the status quo, with President Obama being reelected and Democrats retaining control of the Senate despite the timid economic recovery and despite SuperPACs spending nearly a billion dollars on largely negative campaign ads. From a health and science policy perspective, however, nothing could be further from the truth.

Professor Shirley Johnson-Lans - Chair of Economics, Vassar College

Brian Shields — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:45:00 +0000

For more on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on health care reform, WAMC’S Brian Shields spoke with Vassar College economics professor Shirley Johnson-Lans, author of The Health Economics Primer, who says the upholding by the court of the individual mandate requiring those who can afford it to buy health insurance is the backbone of the Obama plan.