DAVID HOGBERG, Ph.D
David Hogberg, Ph.D., is an adjunct fellow for the National Center for Public Policy Research, specializing in health care policy.
FEATURED APPEARANCES
On One America News Network’s “The Rick Amato Show,” Hogberg discusses how the budget deal is bad for ObamaCare (December 2014)
FEATURED ARTICLES
Refundable Tax Credits or Large Health Savings Accounts? Let’s Do Both (October 2015)
Features
by Michael Tennant – In Medicare’s Victims: How the U.S. Government’s Largest Health Care Program Harms Patients and Impairs Physicians, David Hogberg demonstrates that Medicare is far from the success story that the media and politicians would have us believe it is.
How Medicare Hurts
In Medicare’s Victims: How the U.S. Government’s Largest Health Care Program Harms Patients and Impairs Physicians, David Hogberg demonstrates that Medicare is far from the success story that the media and politicians would have us believe it is.
Where did John Slatosky go to medical school?
Bill to attend Idaho State. He attended medical school at the University of Missouri at Kirksville, graduating in 1996.
Where is Dr. Juliette Madrigal's office?
Dr. Juliette Madrigal-Dersch’s office is in Marble Falls , Texas, not far from Austin. On the wall in one of the patient rooms there hangs a picture frame. It contains a white canvass with a black bead in the middle. Underneath the bead are words that Dr. Madrigal’s daughter, Helena, said to her when she was three years old: “Mommy, I might have accidentally put something in my nose I think.”
Does Mayo Clinic accept Medicare?
In late 2009 the highly respected Mayo Clinic grabbed national headlines when it announced that one of its primary-care centers was no longer accepting Medicare. Henceforth, Medicare patients visiting its family clinic in Glendale, Arizona would have to pay cash. In 2008 Mayo lost $120 million on Medicare patients at all of its Arizona facilities. At the Glendale clinic, Medicare had covered only about half of the clinic’s expenses for treating the elderly. 1
Raise the Eligibility Age
Some Democrats are currently pushing to lower the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60, but from a financial perspective, it's the opposite that needs to happen.
Earmark Revenue From an Existing Tax
Policymakers could take an existing tax, the unearned income Medicare contribution tax, also known as the net investment income tax, and use it to fund Medicare directly. The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act established the tax in 2010 to help pay for the Affordable Care Act, but the money currently goes into a general revenue fund.
Modify Advantage Payments
One way to cut Medicare spending is to lower what the program pays to private Medicare Advantage insurers and medical providers. Medicare Advantage, or Part C, is not separately funded and instead is supported by money from Parts A, B and D.
Negotiate Drug Prices
Under current law, Medicare is prohibited from negotiating drug prices, but this might change if Democrats are able to pass the Build Back Better Act. In the version that the House passed, a provision was included for Medicare to negotiate prices for a small number of high-cost drugs, starting in 2025 for Part D and in 2027 for Part B.
Shift to a Defined Contribution Program
One of the more controversial fixes calls for transforming Medicare into a defined contribution program, similar to the one for federal employee health benefits.
