John R. Graham
Commentary
Arizona’s Prop 101: Opponents of Patient Choice Sow Confusion
The Arizona Republic (via the Tucson Citizen) ran an article yesterday quoting some Arizona’s health care elites’ concern that Proposition 101 is “too ambiguous”. On the contrary, it could not be simpler. And that’s what terrifies these elites. Prop 101, the “Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act”, is a ...
Business & Economics
Product Liability Law: Should FDA Approval Pre-empt State Tort Law?
This morning’s New York Times carried a story which addressed the question of whether medicines licensed by the FDA should be above and beyond state product liability law. In legalese, it asks whether the federal Food, Drug & Cosmetics Act “pre-empts” state law. The NY Times tells the story of ...
Commentary
Albany must cut back on health care mandates
Gov. David A. Paterson just headed off a budget crisis by persuading legislators to cut spending by a billion dollars. But with the three-year deficit projected at $26.2 billion, this compromise won’t improve the state’s fiscal outlook. This is largely because of health care expenditures. Health care is the second-largest ...
Agriculture
Brokeback Mountain: Are Health Costs Killing Ranchers, Farmers?
One of America’s health care zombies that refuses to die is the notion (created by the Commonwealth Fund) that millions of people who have health insurance are “underinsured”, largely due to policies with high co-payments and high deductibles. This results in “medical bankruptcy”, another exaggeration. The Commonwealth Fund’s conclusions have ...
Commentary
Massachusetts’ Underwhelming Health “Reform”
Massachusetts’ health care leaders continue to believe that they can solve problems by just ordering them to go away. The first step in this was the April 2006 Commonwealth Connector reform signed by Governor Romney, which simply commanded people to buy health insurance, and fined them if they did not. ...
Commentary
Rhode Island’s Medicaid Waiver Promises Positive Reform
Last month, I made encouraging remarks to the Heartland Institute’s outstanding monthly Health Care News about Rhode Island governor Carcieri’s evolving proposal to reform Medicaid. Well, the proposal is fully formed, and the state has just submitted its application for a waiver to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ...
Business & Economics
California Health Insurance Rescissions: Trial Lawyers Lose Out?
I’ve written a lot about the political gyrations around California health plans “rescinding” policies of individual policyholders. (Most recent post in the thread here.) A refresher: regulators, legislators, and the media piled onto the plans for “post-claims underwriting”. That is, plans asked overly complicated questions on the applications, wrote the ...
Commentary
Why No SCHIP Vote This Fall? Because It’s Expanding Without It
Between last September and December, State Policy Network bloggers invested a lot fighting Congress’ irresponsible effort to drive more kids out of health plans that their parents (or at least their parent’s employers) choose, and into government-controlled programs (SCHIP), by increasing the Federal Poverty Line cut-off under which kids qualify ...
Commentary
Will law impress fast-food junkies? Fat chance.
The latest deployment in the war on obesity is upon us. SB 1420, sponsored by state Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, will require California fast-food restaurants to post the amount of calories in every item on their menu boards. SB 1420’s backers believe that when we’re forced to see the ...
Commentary
Medi-Cal’s Fee Cutbacks are the Symptom; Medi-Cal is the Disease
Last week, I wrote about the malformation of health care financing that allows a federal judge to roll back Medi-Cal (Medicaid) fee reductions, which the governor and legislature had agreed to in order to buy some breathing room while they negotiate a budget to cover California’s out-of-control deficit. I don’t ...
Arizona’s Prop 101: Opponents of Patient Choice Sow Confusion
The Arizona Republic (via the Tucson Citizen) ran an article yesterday quoting some Arizona’s health care elites’ concern that Proposition 101 is “too ambiguous”. On the contrary, it could not be simpler. And that’s what terrifies these elites. Prop 101, the “Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act”, is a ...
Product Liability Law: Should FDA Approval Pre-empt State Tort Law?
This morning’s New York Times carried a story which addressed the question of whether medicines licensed by the FDA should be above and beyond state product liability law. In legalese, it asks whether the federal Food, Drug & Cosmetics Act “pre-empts” state law. The NY Times tells the story of ...
Albany must cut back on health care mandates
Gov. David A. Paterson just headed off a budget crisis by persuading legislators to cut spending by a billion dollars. But with the three-year deficit projected at $26.2 billion, this compromise won’t improve the state’s fiscal outlook. This is largely because of health care expenditures. Health care is the second-largest ...
Brokeback Mountain: Are Health Costs Killing Ranchers, Farmers?
One of America’s health care zombies that refuses to die is the notion (created by the Commonwealth Fund) that millions of people who have health insurance are “underinsured”, largely due to policies with high co-payments and high deductibles. This results in “medical bankruptcy”, another exaggeration. The Commonwealth Fund’s conclusions have ...
Massachusetts’ Underwhelming Health “Reform”
Massachusetts’ health care leaders continue to believe that they can solve problems by just ordering them to go away. The first step in this was the April 2006 Commonwealth Connector reform signed by Governor Romney, which simply commanded people to buy health insurance, and fined them if they did not. ...
Rhode Island’s Medicaid Waiver Promises Positive Reform
Last month, I made encouraging remarks to the Heartland Institute’s outstanding monthly Health Care News about Rhode Island governor Carcieri’s evolving proposal to reform Medicaid. Well, the proposal is fully formed, and the state has just submitted its application for a waiver to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ...
California Health Insurance Rescissions: Trial Lawyers Lose Out?
I’ve written a lot about the political gyrations around California health plans “rescinding” policies of individual policyholders. (Most recent post in the thread here.) A refresher: regulators, legislators, and the media piled onto the plans for “post-claims underwriting”. That is, plans asked overly complicated questions on the applications, wrote the ...
Why No SCHIP Vote This Fall? Because It’s Expanding Without It
Between last September and December, State Policy Network bloggers invested a lot fighting Congress’ irresponsible effort to drive more kids out of health plans that their parents (or at least their parent’s employers) choose, and into government-controlled programs (SCHIP), by increasing the Federal Poverty Line cut-off under which kids qualify ...
Will law impress fast-food junkies? Fat chance.
The latest deployment in the war on obesity is upon us. SB 1420, sponsored by state Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, will require California fast-food restaurants to post the amount of calories in every item on their menu boards. SB 1420’s backers believe that when we’re forced to see the ...
Medi-Cal’s Fee Cutbacks are the Symptom; Medi-Cal is the Disease
Last week, I wrote about the malformation of health care financing that allows a federal judge to roll back Medi-Cal (Medicaid) fee reductions, which the governor and legislature had agreed to in order to buy some breathing room while they negotiate a budget to cover California’s out-of-control deficit. I don’t ...
