Contributor
John Sheils, Actuary, Lewin Group
Related Link:
http://www.lewin.com/
Biography provided by participant
John Sheils joined The Lewin Group in 1980. He is well known for his depth in understanding the complexities of the health care financing system, for the professional integrity of his analyses, and for the speed with which he can produce estimates of comprehensive reform plans. John is a nationally recognized authority on health system reform and Medicaid eligibility who has directed several projects for Medicaid programs around the country. John received a Master of Science in Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.
Recent Responses
November 4, 2010 03:03 PM
Mandate Essential To Popular Provisions Many of the candidates say they will repeal the “bad parts” of the health reform law. The mandate is high on the list to repeal, while things like guaranteed issue, eliminating pre-existing condition exclusions and the prohibition on health status rating appear to be “good” things many would keep. But repealing the mandate while retaining the prohibition on pre-existing condition exclusions would mean that people could wait till they become ill to purchase coverage and then drop that coverage after recovery, with no penalty. Premiums would jump by 25 percent or more. An alternative…
Read moreAugust 9, 2010 08:03 AM
Cuts May Be Sustainable, For A While The CMS Actuaries explain that productivity gains for services such as health care tend to be much smaller than is assumed in the productivity adjustments adopted by Congress. But the authors conclude that these cuts are “unsustainable” without accounting for the huge increase in revenues providers will see from reduced uncompensated care and increased utilization of services for newly insured people. In fact, the CMS Actuaries reported that national health spending actually goes up under the PPACA, despite these payment reductions. So how are these payment cuts unsustainable if the Act…
Read moreMay 3, 2010 03:11 PM
Just One Percent is not Bad at All Covering 30 million or more people with no more than a one percent increase in national health spending is actually quite impressive when you consider that this is an 11 percent increase in the number of people with insurance. But the Act will not significantly slow the rate of growth in health spending. For example, David Cutler predicts $600 billion in savings to consumers and governments under the act over the next 10 years (Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2010). He argues that the act promotes savings in several ways including:…
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