John R. Graham
Commentary
Thrills, Chills and Hospital Bills: Maybe They’re Not So Crazy After All
The other day, I examined the pointlessness of a class-action lawsuit ordering Scripps Health hospitals in San Diego to give post facto discounts to uninsured patients who had been charged “too much”, even though most of them had not paid their bills anyway! Today, we learn the overall payment to ...
Commentary
Another CON Bites the Dust?
In some late-breaking news, Florida Governor Charlie Crist has proposed repealing the state’s certificate-of-need (CON) law for acute-care hospitals to “increase competition and efficiency in the healthcare marketplace,” according to a plan included in the governor’s fiscal 2009 budget. The proposal suggests licensing as an alternative to Florida’s CON law, ...
Commentary
Thrills, Chills, & Hospital Bills: Why Are They So Crazy?
There is little credibility to (most) hospitals’ claims that uninsured patients drive them to the brink of insolvency by crowding emergency rooms and then not paying their bills, as explained in my analysis of the California Health Care Deforminator, Model ABX1 1. Indeed, it looks like the hospitals bring these ...
California
California Health Care Deforminator: Model ABX1 1
Californians entered 2007 hopeful that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders would collaborate to find real solutions to overcome the “root causes” of rapidly increasing health costs, the growing number of uninsured, and the rise in small businesses increasingly unable to provide health benefits. Instead, they got a proposed tax ...
California
California Health “Reform” Plan Would Break the Bank
Flash Report, January 28, 2008 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, and their allies in Big Business and Big Labor are in desperate need of a reality check about the states’ finances. A small group of these elites is pushing a massive healthcare spending package that would exacerbate ...
California
Healthy San Francisco raises costs for everyone
Two years ago, our family moved from San Francisco to Marin County, motivated partly by high prices in San Francisco restaurants. Now we mostly dine north of the Golden Gate Bridge and for 2008 we were prepared to give up on San Francisco entirely. The reason? San Francisco’s Health Access ...
California
California’s Public Retiree Health Care Liabilities
Although we have no time for Governor Schwarzenegger’s California Health Deforminator Model ABX1 1, we’re sure glad he struck a commission to get a handle on the state’s public sector retiree health benefits. You know all that talk about how retiree health benefits are sinking the Big 3 Detroit automakers, ...
Government Spending
Emergency Room “Crisis”: An Onion With Many Layers
The California Hospital Association has come on board Governor Schwarzenegger’s and Speaker Nuñez’ Health Reform Deforminator Model ABX1 1 – provided much of the cash thrown off the whirlygig of taxing and spending lands in its members’ coffers. Those in favor of more government spending on health care have succeeded ...
California
Reality Check in Aisle 3: Safeway Has No Place In California’s Health Reform Debate
Perhaps the most hypocritical element of California Health Deforminator Model ABX1 1, the deal forged between Gov. Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Nuñez, is the omnipresence of Safeway CEO Steve Burd at the governor’s side whenever he talks up the so-called “reform”. Mr. Burd has become the governor’s number one corporate ...
California
Healthy San Francisco Access Plan: Mostly Illegal, Popularity Dwindling
At the end of last year, a federal judge ruled that the San Francisco Health Access Plan’s “pay or play” mandate (that employers provide health benefits or pay a tax of $1.17 to $1.76 per hour per worker) violated ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act) and tossed it out. ...
Thrills, Chills and Hospital Bills: Maybe They’re Not So Crazy After All
The other day, I examined the pointlessness of a class-action lawsuit ordering Scripps Health hospitals in San Diego to give post facto discounts to uninsured patients who had been charged “too much”, even though most of them had not paid their bills anyway! Today, we learn the overall payment to ...
Another CON Bites the Dust?
In some late-breaking news, Florida Governor Charlie Crist has proposed repealing the state’s certificate-of-need (CON) law for acute-care hospitals to “increase competition and efficiency in the healthcare marketplace,” according to a plan included in the governor’s fiscal 2009 budget. The proposal suggests licensing as an alternative to Florida’s CON law, ...
Thrills, Chills, & Hospital Bills: Why Are They So Crazy?
There is little credibility to (most) hospitals’ claims that uninsured patients drive them to the brink of insolvency by crowding emergency rooms and then not paying their bills, as explained in my analysis of the California Health Care Deforminator, Model ABX1 1. Indeed, it looks like the hospitals bring these ...
California Health Care Deforminator: Model ABX1 1
Californians entered 2007 hopeful that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders would collaborate to find real solutions to overcome the “root causes” of rapidly increasing health costs, the growing number of uninsured, and the rise in small businesses increasingly unable to provide health benefits. Instead, they got a proposed tax ...
California Health “Reform” Plan Would Break the Bank
Flash Report, January 28, 2008 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, and their allies in Big Business and Big Labor are in desperate need of a reality check about the states’ finances. A small group of these elites is pushing a massive healthcare spending package that would exacerbate ...
Healthy San Francisco raises costs for everyone
Two years ago, our family moved from San Francisco to Marin County, motivated partly by high prices in San Francisco restaurants. Now we mostly dine north of the Golden Gate Bridge and for 2008 we were prepared to give up on San Francisco entirely. The reason? San Francisco’s Health Access ...
California’s Public Retiree Health Care Liabilities
Although we have no time for Governor Schwarzenegger’s California Health Deforminator Model ABX1 1, we’re sure glad he struck a commission to get a handle on the state’s public sector retiree health benefits. You know all that talk about how retiree health benefits are sinking the Big 3 Detroit automakers, ...
Emergency Room “Crisis”: An Onion With Many Layers
The California Hospital Association has come on board Governor Schwarzenegger’s and Speaker Nuñez’ Health Reform Deforminator Model ABX1 1 – provided much of the cash thrown off the whirlygig of taxing and spending lands in its members’ coffers. Those in favor of more government spending on health care have succeeded ...
Reality Check in Aisle 3: Safeway Has No Place In California’s Health Reform Debate
Perhaps the most hypocritical element of California Health Deforminator Model ABX1 1, the deal forged between Gov. Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Nuñez, is the omnipresence of Safeway CEO Steve Burd at the governor’s side whenever he talks up the so-called “reform”. Mr. Burd has become the governor’s number one corporate ...
Healthy San Francisco Access Plan: Mostly Illegal, Popularity Dwindling
At the end of last year, a federal judge ruled that the San Francisco Health Access Plan’s “pay or play” mandate (that employers provide health benefits or pay a tax of $1.17 to $1.76 per hour per worker) violated ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act) and tossed it out. ...
