Sen. Bill Cassidy (R Lousiana) according to the Hill, “is predicting he will win enough votes to pass his last ditch ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill [discussed in last Wednesday’s FEHBlog] through the Senate, despite the long odds he seems to be facing.”

In 1993, the FEHBlog nearly fell out of breakfast nook when he read that Hillary Clinton’s health care plan would end the FEHBP. The FEHBlog was much more chill when he read on the Health Affairs Blog that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (D Vermont) Medicare for All bill will end the FEHBP as well as all other employer sponsored healthcare. Needless to say, AHIP is upset, but this bill is not going anywhere for the time being.

The single payer issue boils down to this – Medicare survives by cost shifting onto employer sponsored healthcare. If employer sponsored healthcare disappears, Medicare spending, which already is high, would go through the roof.  If the medical community supports this initiative, it will be killing the golden goose. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

End of the week tidbits —

• The large Blue Cross health insurer, Anthem, is helping to control medical costs by sharing population health data with healthcare providers and vice versa according to Healthcare Finance. 
• The AMA brings us up to date on litigation and regulatory doings relating to the zany and complex PHSA § 1557 non-discrimination rule added by the ACA.  Now there’s a rule that could be simplified.
• The FEHBlog found a useful, detailed bio of Jeff T. H. Pon, the President’s nominee for OPM Director, on allgov.com