John R. Graham
California
Gov. Schwarzenegger’s War on Choice in Health Insurance Heats Up
Ever since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Health Care Deforminator ABX1 1 stumbled just short of the finish line last January, he and his Democratic allies in the legislature have been looking to move bits and pieces of the failed health reform plan forward. According to the Los Angeles Times’ Jordan ...
California
New Los Angeles Ordnance Turns Hospitals Into Homeless Shelters
Enterprises that “collaborate” with government generally find that the costs come to outweigh the benefits. Those who seek a “seat at the table” often end up being the main course. (Thanks to Bridgett Wagner of the Heritage Foundation for the metaphor.) And in the end, you cannot buy politicians off; ...
California
Unbalanced billing In California hospitals
Imagine if you bought an airline ticket to fly from San Francisco to Chicago and after the flight you received an extra bill from the co-pilot for what he claims is a fair price for his services. He is unsatisfied with the airline’s pay and would like you and your ...
Commentary
Another Health Care Poll: Surprising Results, Predictable Press Release
John Goodman, PhD, has dissected a national survey by the Center for Studying Health System Change, which shows (despite CHSHC’s “spin”) that the share of uninsured Americans concerned with the cost of their health care has decreased slightly from 2003 to 2007. However, both uninsured and insured patients are more ...
California
Will Another California “Safety Net” Hospital Shut Down?
I have written a lot about the collapse of Los Angeles’ Martin Luther King, Jr-Harbor Hospital, a hospital almost totally dependent on government funding and under government control. Now, it looks like the same tragic story may be spooling out in San Diego County, where Sharp Grossmont Hospital is at ...
Commentary
Making It Harder for Smokers to Get Affordable Health Care
I’ve spilled a lot of virtual ink on San Francisco’s tax-hiking proposal for so-called “universal” health care, the Healthy Access Plan. But driving up costs for small business is hardly the only mischief that the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, and public health supremos are working on. How’s this one? According ...
Health Care
Unbalanced Billing In California Hospitals: Is This A Problem the State Can Solve By Getting Out of the Way?
Imagine if you bought an airline ticket to fly from San Francisco to Chicago and after the flight you received an extra bill from the co-pilot for what he claims is a fair price for his services. He is unsatisfied with the airline’s pay, and would like you and your ...
Commentary
Letters: Hospital Charges for Uninsured Patients
To the Editor: Readers Jerry Jung and Mary Nelson propose solutions to American hospitals’ strange practice of charging uninsured patients drastically higher prices than insured patients. Their solutions demand more government action, but government is a major cause of this madness. Nobody really understands Medicare’s payment regulations, but experts agree ...
California
Healthy San Francisco Plan Finally Signs Up Some Hospitals
San Francisco’s tax-hiking and opaque pay-or-play business tax to fund its public health bureaucracy claims to have finally overcome one of the major criticisms that I had made of it. Namely, that it did nothing to improve the quality or delivery of health care to (previously) uninsured San Franciscans, because ...
Commentary
The Doubt of the Benefit: Why State Benefit Mandates are a Poor Prescription for Health Insurance
A benefit mandate is a state law that commands a health plan to pay for, or at least offer, a specified treatment or type of provider, removing the benefit from negotiation between beneficiaries and health plans. For example, a mandate may require a health plan to cover treatment of alcoholism, ...
Gov. Schwarzenegger’s War on Choice in Health Insurance Heats Up
Ever since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Health Care Deforminator ABX1 1 stumbled just short of the finish line last January, he and his Democratic allies in the legislature have been looking to move bits and pieces of the failed health reform plan forward. According to the Los Angeles Times’ Jordan ...
New Los Angeles Ordnance Turns Hospitals Into Homeless Shelters
Enterprises that “collaborate” with government generally find that the costs come to outweigh the benefits. Those who seek a “seat at the table” often end up being the main course. (Thanks to Bridgett Wagner of the Heritage Foundation for the metaphor.) And in the end, you cannot buy politicians off; ...
Unbalanced billing In California hospitals
Imagine if you bought an airline ticket to fly from San Francisco to Chicago and after the flight you received an extra bill from the co-pilot for what he claims is a fair price for his services. He is unsatisfied with the airline’s pay and would like you and your ...
Another Health Care Poll: Surprising Results, Predictable Press Release
John Goodman, PhD, has dissected a national survey by the Center for Studying Health System Change, which shows (despite CHSHC’s “spin”) that the share of uninsured Americans concerned with the cost of their health care has decreased slightly from 2003 to 2007. However, both uninsured and insured patients are more ...
Will Another California “Safety Net” Hospital Shut Down?
I have written a lot about the collapse of Los Angeles’ Martin Luther King, Jr-Harbor Hospital, a hospital almost totally dependent on government funding and under government control. Now, it looks like the same tragic story may be spooling out in San Diego County, where Sharp Grossmont Hospital is at ...
Making It Harder for Smokers to Get Affordable Health Care
I’ve spilled a lot of virtual ink on San Francisco’s tax-hiking proposal for so-called “universal” health care, the Healthy Access Plan. But driving up costs for small business is hardly the only mischief that the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, and public health supremos are working on. How’s this one? According ...
Unbalanced Billing In California Hospitals: Is This A Problem the State Can Solve By Getting Out of the Way?
Imagine if you bought an airline ticket to fly from San Francisco to Chicago and after the flight you received an extra bill from the co-pilot for what he claims is a fair price for his services. He is unsatisfied with the airline’s pay, and would like you and your ...
Letters: Hospital Charges for Uninsured Patients
To the Editor: Readers Jerry Jung and Mary Nelson propose solutions to American hospitals’ strange practice of charging uninsured patients drastically higher prices than insured patients. Their solutions demand more government action, but government is a major cause of this madness. Nobody really understands Medicare’s payment regulations, but experts agree ...
Healthy San Francisco Plan Finally Signs Up Some Hospitals
San Francisco’s tax-hiking and opaque pay-or-play business tax to fund its public health bureaucracy claims to have finally overcome one of the major criticisms that I had made of it. Namely, that it did nothing to improve the quality or delivery of health care to (previously) uninsured San Franciscans, because ...
The Doubt of the Benefit: Why State Benefit Mandates are a Poor Prescription for Health Insurance
A benefit mandate is a state law that commands a health plan to pay for, or at least offer, a specified treatment or type of provider, removing the benefit from negotiation between beneficiaries and health plans. For example, a mandate may require a health plan to cover treatment of alcoholism, ...
