As part of a push to contain health care cost growth, business leaders, state administrators, and policymakers should focus on Consumer Driven Health Care (CDHC) plans that involve consumers in making health care decisions.[...]

While the Affordable Care Act might have taken its inspiration and ideas from the groundbreaking 2006 health care reform law in Massachusetts, the Bay State will not be exempt from some of the costs associated with the federal law.[...]

A new brief from Pioneer Institute, The Impact of the Federal Health Law’s “Cadillac Insurance Tax” in Massachusetts, estimates additional costs associated with the ACA's so-called "Cadillac tax," will affect well over 50% of workers in Massachusetts. [...]

Pioneer is releasing a new brief estimating the impact of the so-called “Cadillac tax,” targeted at high cost insurance plans, contained in Obamacare. The report finds that given our high premiums, a majority of workers in Massachusetts will pay the tax in 2018. On a more micro level, the report examines the impact of the excise tax on a small business employee, a police officer, and a teacher. The future looks expensive! For the 10 years following the introduction of the tax: Busine[...]

http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_20971016/hospital-leaders-see-little-impact-mass-from-high While much of the country held its breath as the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold President Barack Obama’s health-care law was handed down Thursday, hospital leaders in Massachusetts said the ruling would have little impact here. Massachusetts Democrats praised the decision, while Republicans criticized it. The heart of the law — an individual insurance mandate requir[...]

http://www.politico.com/politicopulse/0612/politicopulse775.html IT’S HERE – Today is THE day. No more waiting, no more “what ifs?” to ponder. Two years, three months and five days after the first lawsuits against the Affordable Care Act were filed — the same day it became law — the Supreme Court will meet at 10 a.m. today to render its verdict on President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement. –The justices still have two more cases to decide in addition to the ACA. Those will[...]

http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/2012/06/right-leaning-states-as-laboratories-of.html I laughed a bit when I heard a local radio reporter refer to the “right-leaning” Pioneer Institute in her story about suggestions the organization made to the Massachusetts legislature during the current debate between the Senate and the House on their dueling bills.  I laughed because that same station never refers to liberal advocacy groups as “left-leaning.”  Only in the “pe[...]

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2012/June/06/wed-opinions.aspx Chicago Tribune: Wisconsin Speaks. Again. Many of those voters also expect that, going forward, the dividends for Wisconsin residents, their school districts and other governments will continue to grow. As old labor contracts expire, public officials will write into the new contracts the other Walker-inspired personnel provisions — such as higher (but still relatively inexpensive) employees’ contributions to their[...]

http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2012/05/cost-cutting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbAb9I6_CaQ&feature=player_embedded It may not rank at the tippy-top of the titillation scale, but this thoughtful discussion about reining in health care costs featuring Brian Rosman of Health Care For All, and Joshua Archambault of The Pioneer Institute, covers some key issues in the House and Senate cost-cutting proposals now pending in the Legislature. The plans are estimated to save about $150 billion over [...]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2884604/posts PRICES WERE OUT OF CONTROL at the end of 3rd-century Rome, and the Emperor Diocletian was determined to rein them in. In AD 301 he issued his famous Edict on Prices, a complex piece of legislation that banned speculation and established price ceilings for a wide range of goods and services. But the ambitious law failed. Though violators could be punished with death, inflation and speculation persisted. Goods were hoarded, or sold on the blac[...]