Fair Enough? Inviting Inequities in State Health Benefits by Jennifer Ruger :: SSRN

The Obama administration scored a political point in December with its bulletin on essential health benefits, appeasing critics of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by giving states the right to determine what those benefits should be. The proposal is politically savvy. But is it fair?

via Fair Enough? Inviting Inequities in State Health Benefits by Jennifer Ruger :: SSRN.

Doctors call for end to 45 medical tests – Health – Cancer – msnbc.com

Nine medical societies, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American College of Cardiology, representing nearly 375,000 physicians are challenging the widely held perception that more health care is better, releasing lists Wednesday of tests and treatments their members should no longer automatically order.

via Doctors call for end to 45 medical tests – Health – Cancer – msnbc.com.

Hartzband and Groopman on the Rise of the Medical Expertocracy – WSJ.com

Democrats and Republicans share a fundamental misconception about medical care. Both assume that, as in mathematics, there is a single right answer for every health problem. These “best practices,” they believe, can be found by gathering large amounts of data for experts to analyze. The experts will then identify remedies based strictly on science—impartial and objective.

Yet in medicine, there are many contrary opinions about “best practices.” You cannot pick up a newspaper, turn on the TV or surf the Internet without encountering conflicting reports about various tests and treatments. Medical experts disagree about many issues, often dramatically.

via Hartzband and Groopman on the Rise of the Medical Expertocracy – WSJ.com.

Medicine must allow for customization: A lesson for policymakers — and regulators – Health – AEI

As appealing as it is – as useful as it is – to imagine that there exists a gold-standard way to practice medicine, and a single-best way to approach most human ailments, the reality is considerably more complex and messy, as Hartzband and Groopman’s (continued) critique of so-called “best practices” makes clear.

The heart of their argument is this: “For patients and experts alike, there is a subjective core to every medical decision. The truth is that, despite many advances, much of medicine still exists in a gray zone where there is not one right answer. No one can say with certainty who will benefit by taking a certain drug and who will not. Nor can we say with certainty what impact a medical condition will have on someone’s life or how they might experience a treatment’s side effects. The path to maintaining or regaining health is not the same for everyone; our preferences really do matter.”

via Medicine must allow for customization: A lesson for policymakers — and regulators – Health – AEI.

The Weekend Interview with Timothy Dolan: When the Archbishop Met the President – WSJ.com

“I said, ‘I’ve heard you say, first of all, that you have immense regard for the work of the Catholic Church in the United States in health care, education and charity. . . . I have heard you say that you are not going to let the administration do anything to impede that work and . . . that you take the protection of the rights of conscience with the utmost seriousness. . . . Does that accurately sum up our conversation?’ [Mr. Obama] said, ‘You bet it does.’”

The archbishop asked for permission to relay the message to the other bishops. “You don’t have my permission, you’ve got my request,” the president replied.

“So you can imagine the chagrin,” Archbishop Dolan continues, “when he called me at the end of January to say that the mandates remain in place and that there would be no substantive change, and that the only thing that he could offer me was that we would have until August. . . . I said, ‘Mr. President, I appreciate the call. Are you saying now that we have until August to introduce to you continual concerns that might trigger a substantive mitigation in these mandates?’ He said, ‘No, the mandates remain. We’re more or less giving you this time to find out how you’re going to be able to comply.’ I said, ‘Well, sir, we don’t need the [extra time]. I can tell you now we’re unable to comply.’”

via The Weekend Interview with Timothy Dolan: When the Archbishop Met the President – WSJ.com.

The Opt-In Revolution? Contraception and the Gender Gap in Wages by Martha Bailey, Brad Hershbein, Amalia Miller :: SSRN

Decades of research on the U.S. gender gap in wages describes its correlates, but little is known about why women changed their career paths in the 1960s and 1970s. This paper explores the role of “the Pill” in altering women’s human capital investments and its ultimate implications for life-cycle wages. Using state-by-birth-cohort variation in legal access to contraception, we show that younger access to the Pill conferred an 8-percent hourly wage premium by age fifty. Our estimates imply that the Pill can account for 10 percent of the convergence of the gender gap in the 1980s and 30 percent in the 1990s.

via The Opt-In Revolution? Contraception and the Gender Gap in Wages by Martha Bailey, Brad Hershbein, Amalia Miller :: SSRN.

Not-So-Smooth Operator – WSJ.com

The shift started on Jan. 20, with the mandate that agencies of the Catholic Church would have to provide services the church finds morally repugnant. The public reaction? “You’re kidding me. That’s not just bad judgment and a lack of civic tact, it’s not even constitutional!” Faced with the blowback, the president offered a so-called accommodation that even its supporters recognized as devious. Not ill-advised, devious. Then his operatives flooded the airwaves with dishonest—not wrongheaded, dishonest—charges that those who defend the church’s religious liberties are trying to take away your contraceptives.

via Not-So-Smooth Operator – WSJ.com.

The Latest Mandate Announcement: ‘We Need a Process to Get Past November!’ – By James C. Capretta – The Corner – National Review Online

At 4:15 p.m. this afternoon, the Obama administration issued its latest pronouncement on the HHS mandate, in the form of an Advanced Notice on Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM). So what did the administration have to say on this late Friday afternoon?

Basically, it was a thinly veiled attempt to punt the entire issue into 2013, thus allowing the president to continue his doublespeak on the issue — pretending that he is interested in protecting religious liberty with pronouncements about a forthcoming concession while the policies he actually implements go in exactly the opposite direction.

via The Latest Mandate Announcement: ‘We Need a Process to Get Past November!’ – By James C. Capretta – The Corner – National Review Online.

Birth control rule won’t apply to all student plans at colleges, White House says – The Washington Post

The Obama administration’s controversial birth control health insurance coverage rule will not apply to a type of plan used by about 200,000 college and graduate students, officials said Friday.

The administration’s authority to issue the rule stemmed from the 2010 health-care law. Officials said they have concluded that for technical legal reasons the law’s reach does not extend to “self-insured” student plans, meaning those for which a college or university collects premiums directly from students, then uses the pool to pay for their health care.

via Birth control rule won’t apply to all student plans at colleges, White House says – The Washington Post.

Obama Administration Says Birth Control Mandate Applies to Religious Groups That Insure Themselves – NYTimes.com

The Obama administration took another step on Friday to enforce a federal mandate for health insurance coverage of contraceptives, announcing how the new requirement would apply to the many Roman Catholic hospitals, universities and social service agencies that insure themselves.

via Obama Administration Says Birth Control Mandate Applies to Religious Groups That Insure Themselves – NYTimes.com.