Benjamin Zycher
Health Care
Shocked, Shocked: AHIP Caves
Even if the bureaucrats and politicians have incentives to ignore the latter, benefits will have to be paid, and so premiums will have to be sufficient to cover them. So, unlike the case in a normal insurance market, the brave new world created by Obamacare introduces powerful disincentives to scrutinize ...
Business & Economics
A bone to pick with Bartlett on federal spending
Reps. Jeb Hensarling and Mike Pence recently called for a constitutional amendment limiting federal spending “to one-fifth of the economy.” Bruce Bartlett, a former official in the George H.W. Bush administration, promptly denounced the idea as “dopey,” one “terrible… on so many levels that it is hard to know where ...
Commentary
Repeal Of Bill, All Or In Part, Is Problematic
It’s springtime, and with the enactment of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid health care monstrosity, repeal is in the air. And why not? Supported by substantial popular majorities now energized as never before, congressional Republicans opposed the legislation unanimously, and the polls point unambiguously to substantial gains for the GOP this November. And ...
Business & Economics
No easy solutions for U.S., Japan to revive economies
Effective policy approaches should be similar for both the U.S. and Japan even though their economies differ in important respects, said Benjamin Zycher, a senior fellow of the Pacific Research Institute.
Commentary
A Modest And Effective Health Reform
Notwithstanding the election outcome in Massachusetts last month, efforts inside the Beltway to “reform” the health insurance system that is, to centralize the rules and outcomes of health coverage will continue, and still may prove successful if the drumbeat for “compromise” with fatally flawed ideas is heeded. This ...
Commentary
The Right Way To Reform
The collectivist, comprehensive, top-down, one-size-fits-all version of health care reform favored in much of the Beltway was defeated in Massachusetts on Jan. 19. Instead of centralizing the health insurance system, smaller reforms that address the actual sources of resource waste can now be considered. A simple reform that could be ...
Commentary
Brezhnev Lives!
Ah, California. Sunshine. The seashore. Beautiful women. Recreation galore. America’s breadbasket. The crossroads of the world, with myriad cultures and cuisines. Unparalleled resources and the great outdoors. And the land of the free lunch, delivered by the beneficent political class in Sacramento, the generosity of which knows no bounds as ...
Commentary
Danger Ahead
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: We are not out of the woods. It is wholly possible, and perhaps even likely, that the Dems will now turn to a limited version of health-care legislation designed and labeled as “insurance reform” that is, sharp limitations on underwriting ...
Health Care
Entrepreneurs’ Coverage: An Alternative Health Policy Reform
This study examines the prospective implications of a national public policy allowing individuals, families, and smaller groups to purchase an entrepreneurs coverage policy free of the benefit mandates imposed by state laws. The study finds that if such plans were offered to the public, enrollment would be about 8 percent ...
Commentary
If You Like Your Insurance . . .
But fear not. It will be different for “private” insurers operating under the command-and-control processes imposed by the beneficent bureaucrats at the Department of Health and Human Services, who clearly will be driven by the preferences of patients rather than the demands of interest groups.
Shocked, Shocked: AHIP Caves
Even if the bureaucrats and politicians have incentives to ignore the latter, benefits will have to be paid, and so premiums will have to be sufficient to cover them. So, unlike the case in a normal insurance market, the brave new world created by Obamacare introduces powerful disincentives to scrutinize ...
A bone to pick with Bartlett on federal spending
Reps. Jeb Hensarling and Mike Pence recently called for a constitutional amendment limiting federal spending “to one-fifth of the economy.” Bruce Bartlett, a former official in the George H.W. Bush administration, promptly denounced the idea as “dopey,” one “terrible… on so many levels that it is hard to know where ...
Repeal Of Bill, All Or In Part, Is Problematic
It’s springtime, and with the enactment of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid health care monstrosity, repeal is in the air. And why not? Supported by substantial popular majorities now energized as never before, congressional Republicans opposed the legislation unanimously, and the polls point unambiguously to substantial gains for the GOP this November. And ...
No easy solutions for U.S., Japan to revive economies
Effective policy approaches should be similar for both the U.S. and Japan even though their economies differ in important respects, said Benjamin Zycher, a senior fellow of the Pacific Research Institute.
A Modest And Effective Health Reform
Notwithstanding the election outcome in Massachusetts last month, efforts inside the Beltway to “reform” the health insurance system that is, to centralize the rules and outcomes of health coverage will continue, and still may prove successful if the drumbeat for “compromise” with fatally flawed ideas is heeded. This ...
The Right Way To Reform
The collectivist, comprehensive, top-down, one-size-fits-all version of health care reform favored in much of the Beltway was defeated in Massachusetts on Jan. 19. Instead of centralizing the health insurance system, smaller reforms that address the actual sources of resource waste can now be considered. A simple reform that could be ...
Brezhnev Lives!
Ah, California. Sunshine. The seashore. Beautiful women. Recreation galore. America’s breadbasket. The crossroads of the world, with myriad cultures and cuisines. Unparalleled resources and the great outdoors. And the land of the free lunch, delivered by the beneficent political class in Sacramento, the generosity of which knows no bounds as ...
Danger Ahead
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: We are not out of the woods. It is wholly possible, and perhaps even likely, that the Dems will now turn to a limited version of health-care legislation designed and labeled as “insurance reform” that is, sharp limitations on underwriting ...
Entrepreneurs’ Coverage: An Alternative Health Policy Reform
This study examines the prospective implications of a national public policy allowing individuals, families, and smaller groups to purchase an entrepreneurs coverage policy free of the benefit mandates imposed by state laws. The study finds that if such plans were offered to the public, enrollment would be about 8 percent ...
If You Like Your Insurance . . .
But fear not. It will be different for “private” insurers operating under the command-and-control processes imposed by the beneficent bureaucrats at the Department of Health and Human Services, who clearly will be driven by the preferences of patients rather than the demands of interest groups.
