In this episode of the Straight Talk podcast (23:32), Mike sits down to answer some questions from readers.
Mike takes on your tough questions, including how the Health Insurance Tax is affecting your premiums (hint: they are taking a hit, but there are other factors that can cause your rates to go up. Mike spells them out).
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Want in on an inside conversation between Healthcare Economist Mike Bertaut and one of his Straight Talk producers? They are interesting exchanges. In this one, which we recorded for you, we talk about the latest news with the ACA, even going back in time a bit.
We also talk about how the ruling could affect some really popular benefits of the ACA, Read more
“Cut the grass, son!” Yep, that’s my Dad, circa early 1970s, encouraging 11-year-old me to get off my butt and do some work, which frankly at that age I was keen to avoid. But he was home from working offshore and would be for at least a week, and it was July in Morgan City. You could almost watch the grass grow, so I wasn’t getting out of it. Read more
You ever hear the expression “You just can’t make this stuff up?” It implies that reality is so bizarre, so unexpected, that it HAS to be unscripted and random.
If you’ve followed the fate of the Affordable Care Act through the courts over the past decade, you would become a believer of “you just can’t make this stuff up.” Read more
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled that the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate is unconstitutional.
It’s a big ruling, the second step in a long process to determine the future of the law. But the Fifth Circuit stopped short of what the people who brought the lawsuit wanted. In fact, the judges on the Fifth Circuit, right here in Louisiana, sent the lawsuit back to the district judge in Texas to “conduct a more searching inquiry” into which parts of the law could survive without the mandate. Read more
I watched the Affordable Care Act completely change the way health insurance is paid for and delivered over the past decade. Today, I think it’s prudent to apply some of what I’ve learned on those front lines to the current healthcare debate: Medicare for All.
As you might expect, there are many risks and many unknowns in this proposed massive undertaking that would re-route 20% of our country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Here are the top 10 things I believe will have to be carefully thought out before such a program has a chance of success. Read more
