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Jul 24, 2024 | 
paragoninstitute.org | Brian Blase |Drew Gonshorowski
This paper proposes reducing Medicaid’s federal reimbursement for expansion enrollees and lowering the FMAP floor for wealthy states to improve equity and save federal funds. What’s the Problem? No major government program has grown as much over the past generation—and with such poor results—as Medicaid. The reason for the substantial growth: the federal government provides an open-ended reimbursement of state Medicaid expenditures.
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Jun 26, 2024 | 
paragoninstitute.org | Brian Blase |Drew Gonshorowski |Joe Albanese |Jackson Hammond
On June 18, 2024, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released two key analyses for health policy: its updated revenue and expenditure baselines for government programs and its annual report on health insurance coverage.
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Jun 26, 2024 | paragoninstitute.org | Brian Blase |Drew Gonshorowski |Joe Albanese |Jackson Hammond
On June 18, 2024, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released two key analyses for health policy: its updated revenue and expenditure baselines for government programs and its annual report on health insurance coverage.
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Jun 19, 2024 | 
paragoninstitute.org | Brian Blase |Drew Gonshorowski
This paper discusses the substantial increase in fraudulent enrollment in ACA exchange plans, driven by enhanced subsidies and administrative actions, and proposes measures to mitigate improper and fraudulent enrollments. What This Paper CoversThe Affordable Care Act (ACA) provided large subsidies for lower-income people to buy coverage in the exchanges.
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May 29, 2024 | 
paragoninstitute.org | Theo Merkel |Drew Gonshorowski |Brian Blase
Many know that health care is the largest component of federal spending, but as this week’s Paragon Pic shows – the sheer size of the revenue impact of health care tax provisions is also unrivaled anywhere else in the American economy. The goal of these health tax provisions is to make health care and the financial protections provided by insurance more affordable. Together, they are utilized by close to 200 million Americans.
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May 20, 2024 | 
paragoninstitute.org | Drew Gonshorowski |Brian Blase
A new Health Affairs piece by Dong Ding, Benjamin Sommers, and Sherry Glied found that 30 percent of Medicaid enrollees in 2022—26.4 million of 88 million enrollees — did not know they had Medicaid coverage. By March 2023, Medicaid enrollment reached 94 million, likely increasing the number of people unaware they had Medicaid to nearly 30 million. The main reason for the explosion in Medicaid and unaware program enrollees: states did not conduct eligibility reviews for more than three years.
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May 14, 2024 | 
paragoninstitute.org | Brian Blase |Drew Gonshorowski
PresidentatParagon Health InstituteBrian Blase, Ph.D., is the President of Paragon Health Institute. Brian was Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the White House’s National Economic Council (NEC) from 2017-2019, where he coordinated the development and execution of numerous health policies and advised the President, NEC director, and senior officials. After leaving the White House, Brian founded Blase Policy Strategies and serves as its CEO.
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May 8, 2024 | 
paragoninstitute.org | Drew Gonshorowski |Brian Blase
Premium subsidies received by insurers offering Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange plans are escalating in cost. Both legislative changes and Biden administration regulatory actions, many legally dubious, increased the size of subsidies and extended eligibility for them. This week’s Paragon Pic shows the escalating cost, comparing the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) most recent estimates with its projections in September 2020 prior to several policies that inflated the subsidies.
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Apr 14, 2024 | 
paragoninstitute.org | Stephen A. Moses |Brian Blase |Caitlin Owens |Drew Gonshorowski
The budget debates in Washington largely ignore the growing and biggest part of the budget—health care entitlement programs. Within the next few years, rising interest payments on the massive federal debt and higher general interest rates and inflation will necessitate reforms. Policymakers should enter that debate grounded in the facts.
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Apr 10, 2024 | 
paragoninstitute.org | Brian Blase |Drew Gonshorowski |Emma Gallutia
The No Surprises Act, legislation enacted to cure surprise medical bills, is not working as intended and is likely raising health care expenditures. Understandably, Congress wanted to protect insured patients from excessive costs in two situations: 1) in medical emergencies and 2) when they go to in-network facilities but receive treatment from a provider who is out of their network.
