The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released a useful report presenting more than 100 spending and revenue options for deficit reduction.Of the 38 options discussed for discretionary spending, about a third involve defense. With mandatory programs, the CBO said, policymakers…
Congress has approved a one-year extension of Medicare payment rates for physicians, avoiding steep cuts that would otherwise have taken effect. Rather than finding a better long-term alternative to the current payment formula, lawmakers have repeatedly used stop-gap measures to…
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently updated its estimate of National Health Spending. This unusual mid-year update, delivered in an article in Health Affairs, reflects changes due to the passage of the health care reform law in March,…
Congress late last week agreed to extend the so-called “Doc Fix” for five months at a cost of $6 billion. But a permanent fix would cost around $210 billion over 10 years. And the longer we wait for a permanent…
