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Health Care | Entitlements

Expanding Medicaid: The Conflicting Incentives Facing States
Charles Blahous | 2013-03-05

Recent decisions by individual states concerning the Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s now-optional Medicaid expansion have been much in the news of late. Today the Mercatus Center is publishing my comprehensive study of the conflicting incentives facing states as they make their choices about expansion.

The Incredible Lowering of the Medicare Drug Benefit Baseline
James C. Capretta | 2013-02-15

This week, President Obama took credit for the slowdown in health care cost inflation, proclaiming in his State of the Union address that “[a]lready, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs.”

Understanding Social Security Benefit Adequacy: Why Benefit Growth Should Be Slowed
Charles Blahous | 2013-01-31

Many federal policy makers are aware that the Social Security program faces a substantial financing shortfall requiring correction. This would involve either increasing program taxes or slowing the growth of benefits – most likely both, given the size to which the shortfall has already grown in addition to the fact that neither party enjoys sufficient political power to impose its preferred solution on the other.

Transformation in Progressives’ Outlook May Reduce Long-Run Costs of Entitlements
e21 Staff Editorial | 2012-12-17

Policymakers should use the “fiscal cliff” and discussions over deficit reduction to fundamentally rethink the nature of U.S. entitlements. Huge savings could be gained by focusing social insurance programs on the core function of guarding against poverty and a lack of access to medical care in old age.

Medicare Reform After the Election
James C. Capretta | 2012-12-13

In the “fiscal cliff” talks, Republicans are demanding serious entitlement reforms in exchange for an agreement to raise revenues. But in the aftermath of the November election, what kinds of reforms should be on the table, especially in the Medicare program? President Obama made clear during the campaign his opposition to the one idea that could really make a difference — premium support of the kind developed and championed by the Republican vice presidential candidate, Paul Ryan.

The Turnaround Washington Needs: Governor Romney’s most important mission, if he wins.
Michael D. Scott and James C. Capretta | 2012-11-02

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney spent many years at Bain Capital, which specializes in “turning around” failing businesses. Bain, and companies like it, invests in firms with broken business models and balance sheets to make them solvent and profitable again by cutting costs, shedding liabilities, reworking contracts, improving productivity and revenue, and focusing on core competencies. Once the business is profitable, it often monetizes some, or all, of its stake in the revitalized company.

The Real Stakes in the Medicare Debate
Charles Blahous | 2012-10-23

As a public trustee for Medicare I am often asked how the program’s future may be affected by the current political debate. In my opinion, the most salient Medicare policy choice before us has been badly under-reported. This campaign season is somewhat unusual in that the two sides agree that future Medicare cost growth needs to be constrained relative to its growth rates in recent years. The two sides even roughly agree on what the future growth rate needs to be, though they disagree on the best means of achieving it.

ObamaCare's Heavy Toll on Middle Class Americans
James C. Capretta and Tom Miller | 2012-10-19

President Obama likes to say his campaign is about building up the middle class, but his signature initiative in office will pile thousands of dollars in new taxes and higher health costs on top of America’s middle class. ObamaCare is nothing if not a massive redistribution machine. It places huge new financial burdens on some Americans, primarily those who already have health insurance, in order to extend new federal entitlement commitments to others, primarily the uninsured.

The End of Social Security Self-Financing: What Next?
Charles Blahous | 2012-10-10

Today the Mercatus Center is releasing my study entitled, “The End of Social Security Self-Financing: What Does it Portend for Social Security’s Future?” The piece explores the implications of the Obama Administration and Congress having recently cut the Social Security payroll tax and financed benefit payments from the general government fund, thereby ending decades of bipartisan commitment to FDR’s original vision for Social Security -- that it be a self-financing program in which total benefits were limited by the amount of worker contributions. This financing change has the potential to fundamentally transform the future Social Security debate, possibly affecting important policy choices ranging from its rate of benefit growth, to whether a contribution-benefit link is maintained, to how eligibility ages are set, to whether formal means-testing is adopted.

Sorting Out Public Opinion on Medicare Reform
e21 Team | 2012-09-25

In seeking to limit the growth of federal spending, restraining Medicare’s growth is the top priority. Medicare is such a large program, and its enrollees are such an important component of the electorate, that policymakers are exceptionally wary of making the necessary changes. A reasoned policy debate on the issues is made even more difficult because public opinion is typically misinterpreted and the debate is accordingly poorly framed.


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