The federal government’s response to the Covid-19 crisis is a disgrace. We need a national plan that includes mandatory mask policies.

Facts are a pesky thing. And the facts are clear that healthcare costs are rising at historically low rates since the introduction of Obamacare.

Jonathan Chait covers the issue of healthcare costs and conservative arguments that haven’t exactly materialized. At some point critics of the law have to face reality and address the facts surrounding healthcare policy as opposed to ideological fantasies.

At this point, one can only hope.

The recent deal announced by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to in effect leave the United States for the purpose of evading corporate taxes calls into question why Congress continues to protect this industry.

Many in Congress, particularly Republicans, have resisted efforts to permit Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate for bulk pricing for drugs Americans need. The system is broken and we’re all paying for it.

Now we have Pfizer moving forward with a merger to change its tax status, and lobbyists are now warning this this may be the tipping point.

Let’s hope we’ve reached the point where the politics around the behavior of Big Pharma becomes so toxic that we finally get progress on drug prices and these corporate schemes to avoid taxes.

Sarah Palin has become a joke for most people of the years, but there was a time when her stupidity was taken seriously by millions of Americans. Probably the worst example was her popularization of the term “death panels” in response to the rational proposal to reimburse doctors for end of life planning with their patients.

Now, six years later, it appears that sanity has won out and Medicare will finally begin to cover such critical services.

This article has a great summary of the new policy. Some of the more interesting facts include the following:

Most Americans say they’d prefer to die at home, with treatment to free them from pain. But the landmark “Dying in America” report from the prestigious Institute of Medicine found the reality too often is unwanted invasive care and not enough comfort, in part because too few people make their wishes known to their doctors and loved ones.

How can we deny patients the right to die with dignity in their own homes surrounded by loved ones?

This makes perfect sense for an ethical point of view.

It also makes sense fiscally, as we waste an incredible amount of money with unnecessary procedures at the end of life stage. This fiscal issue is what prompts fools like Palin to attack the policy, but this is entirely voluntary. The goal is to understand and honor the wishes of patients and their families.

Finally . . .

The launch was disastrous, but now we’re seeing important progress.

Calling the rollout of the website for the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, is probably an understatement. It’s incredibly disappointing to hear the stories of problems with the website, as it’s so important to so many to have this access to affordable health insurance. Also, regardless of your political opinions, the law is here and for many people having this access will be critical. Don’t let the political hype dissuade you from trying it out.

Still, it’s now likely that many people won’t try it, at not for a while, with all of the much-publicized problems with the website. Hopefully this update from HHS is a sign that they are serious about fixing the problems. They need to fix the problems, and then be diligent in letting people know as the site improves. Fortunately, the media is all over this, so if they finally get it right people should hear about it.

We’re finally getting close to the point where people can start buying insurance policies in the Obamacare exchanges, and all of the bluster about “rate shock” is running into reality. The bottom line is that the health care plan will be affordable for many people.

The main takeaway from an exhaustive new study of premiums on the Obamacare health insurance marketplaces: They’re generally going to be lower than expected, undercutting the persistent claims of “rate shock” by conservatives.

Marketplaces premiums are coming in below initial estimates, said the nonprofit, nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation in a new report released Thursday.

The expected monthly premium for a 40-year-old adult purchasing a silver-level plan (the baseline, which covers 70 percent of costs) on a marketplace had been $320, according to previous projections from the Congressional Budget Office. But in 15 of the 18 regions studied by Kaiser, the average premium will be below that — thus the study’s conclusion that the prices are going to be lower than anticipated.

“While premiums will vary significantly across the country, they are generally lower than expected,” the authors wrote.

In some states like Wisconsin, Republican administrations are trying to push the notion that premium prices are rising, but the information they are putting out there excludes the subsidies available to many people.

The key for everyone is to actually go into the health care exchanges once they are open and see for yourself what is available.

Predictions of an Obamacare apocalypse seem a little less credible today, thanks to California.

On Thursday, officials in that state offered the first detailed glimpse of what consumers buying health benefits on their own can expect to pay next year. And from the looks of things, these consumers will be getting a pretty good deal.

Based on the premiums that insurers have submitted for final regulatory approval, the majority of Californians buying coverage on the state’s new insurance exchange will be paying less—in many cases, far less—than they would pay for equivalent coverage today. And while a minority will still end up writing bigger premium checks than they do now, even they won’t be paying outrageous amounts. Meanwhile, all of these consumers will have access to the kind of comprehensive benefits that are frequently unavaiable today, at any price, because of the way insurers try to avoid the old and the sick.

Guys like Paul Krugman are heralding these new numbers.

If these numbers play out in other states as well, we could see a surge of people getting more affordable health insurance coverage.

Health care spending growth has famously slowed over the past five years, significantly enough that the Congressional Budget Office recently revised its projections of Medicare and Medicaid spending over the coming decade downward by hundreds of billions of dollars.

Now, research papers suggests the recent slowdown doesn’t just reflect temporary economic weakness, but also structural shifts in how health care is delivered and financed — possibly attributable to the Affordable Care Act — and thus might be a harbinger of a longer-term trend.

If they’re right, and the trend continues, it means workers can expect higher wages and the country’s projected medium term deficits are significantly overstated, which in turn suggests lawmakers’ continuing obsession with the current budget deficit, and deficits over the coming decade, are misguided.

One of the keys to Obamacare is to move our health care system away from fee for service care to health care delivery that takes a holistic approach where doctors and hospitals are paid for overall care and outcomes as opposed to more tests and procedures. It makes sense that this shift has started to decrease overall costs.

Here’s a fascinating tidbit. When doctors know the cost of tests and procedures, it affects how often they will order them.

We also know that patients will think twice when they have to pay even modest amounts for tests.

This is all just further evidence that we need to change the way we do things if we’re ever going to reform our health care system and fix our long term budget issues.