Sally C. Pipes
Commentary
Charging the unvaccinated more for health care is a slippery slope
This month, Delta Airlines began levying a $200 monthly surcharge on unvaccinated employees enrolled in the company’s health plan for the financial “risk” they are supposedly imposing on the company. The airliner is not alone. A major health-care system in Louisiana plans to do the same for unvaccinated spouses on ...
Commentary
Swallowing the FDA red pill
Earlier this month, the Biden administration bought 10 million courses of Pfizer’s new COVID-19 pill, Paxlovid. Thanks to the Food and Drug Administration, however, it may be months before anyone can take it, as the agency hasn’t yet offered up a timetable for approving it. Its inaction will almost certainly result in ...
Commentary
Democrats’ Creative Accounting Can’t Hide Build Back Better’s True Cost
For weeks, President Joe Biden has insisted that the Democrats’ ‘Build Back Better’ spending bill would be “fully paid for.” The Congressional Budget Office begs to differ. In its newly released analysis of the bill, the CBO projects that ‘Build Back Better’ will increase the deficit by $367 billion over ...
Commentary
The FDA’s Dysfunction Is A Public Health Crisis Of Its Own
Earlier this month, President Biden tapped Dr. Robert Califf to lead the Food and Drug Administration. The agency had been operating without a Senate-approved commissioner for almost a year. In my last column, I detailed how the FDA’s failures reviewing and approving tests for COVID-19 have prolonged the pandemic. This week, we have a ...
Commentary
Misguided Govt Policies Mean Employer-Based Coverage Costs Soar
The cost of employer-based health insurance continues to reach new heights. According to a report out this month from the Kaiser Family Foundation, premiums for a family health plan have risen 47% since 2011, and during that same period, employee earnings rose by 31%, while overall inflation ticked up just 19%. What’s ...
Commentary
Federal government misses opportunity with unlawful private sector vaccine mandates
Earlier this month, the Biden administration mandated that employees at businesses with more than 100 workers be vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing starting at the beginning of next year. Just two days later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit halted the order in response to a ...
Commentary
U.S. Bureaucrats Are An Impediment To Pandemic Recovery
Late last month, the Biden administration announced a new initiative to lower the cost of at-home Covid-19 tests and make them more widely available. It’s long past time. Throughout the pandemic, bureaucratic sclerosis has proven the American regulatory apparatus to be an impediment to fighting Covid-19—not to mention future public health threats. ...
Commentary
Democrats Abandon US Patients to Rescue Drug-Pricing Reform
Just a few days ago, it appeared that Democrats had given up on including prescription drug pricing reforms in their massive spending bill. But not anymore. In an eleventh-hour turn of events, congressional Democrats this week resurrected their long-standing desire to levy government price controls on prescription drugs. If lawmakers successfully deploy their latest ...
Commentary
Biden’s new plan isn’t any better for your health
Last week, President Joe Biden unveiled a new social spending framework that omitted many of the healthcare provisions Democrats have been calling for. One provision that has survived is a massive and wasteful expansion of Obamacare . In March, Congress made federal tax credits available to those shopping for coverage on the exchanges with ...
Commentary
Single-Payer Will Worsen Healthcare Workers’ Plight
Healthcare workers are exchanging scrubs and gloves for signs and megaphones. In what’s been called “Striketober,” frontline staff are walking out of hospitals, emergency rooms, and doctor’s offices to insist on better pay, benefits, and hours. Earlier this month, Kaiser Permanente workers in California voted to authorize a strike over ...
Charging the unvaccinated more for health care is a slippery slope
This month, Delta Airlines began levying a $200 monthly surcharge on unvaccinated employees enrolled in the company’s health plan for the financial “risk” they are supposedly imposing on the company. The airliner is not alone. A major health-care system in Louisiana plans to do the same for unvaccinated spouses on ...
Swallowing the FDA red pill
Earlier this month, the Biden administration bought 10 million courses of Pfizer’s new COVID-19 pill, Paxlovid. Thanks to the Food and Drug Administration, however, it may be months before anyone can take it, as the agency hasn’t yet offered up a timetable for approving it. Its inaction will almost certainly result in ...
Democrats’ Creative Accounting Can’t Hide Build Back Better’s True Cost
For weeks, President Joe Biden has insisted that the Democrats’ ‘Build Back Better’ spending bill would be “fully paid for.” The Congressional Budget Office begs to differ. In its newly released analysis of the bill, the CBO projects that ‘Build Back Better’ will increase the deficit by $367 billion over ...
The FDA’s Dysfunction Is A Public Health Crisis Of Its Own
Earlier this month, President Biden tapped Dr. Robert Califf to lead the Food and Drug Administration. The agency had been operating without a Senate-approved commissioner for almost a year. In my last column, I detailed how the FDA’s failures reviewing and approving tests for COVID-19 have prolonged the pandemic. This week, we have a ...
Misguided Govt Policies Mean Employer-Based Coverage Costs Soar
The cost of employer-based health insurance continues to reach new heights. According to a report out this month from the Kaiser Family Foundation, premiums for a family health plan have risen 47% since 2011, and during that same period, employee earnings rose by 31%, while overall inflation ticked up just 19%. What’s ...
Federal government misses opportunity with unlawful private sector vaccine mandates
Earlier this month, the Biden administration mandated that employees at businesses with more than 100 workers be vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing starting at the beginning of next year. Just two days later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit halted the order in response to a ...
U.S. Bureaucrats Are An Impediment To Pandemic Recovery
Late last month, the Biden administration announced a new initiative to lower the cost of at-home Covid-19 tests and make them more widely available. It’s long past time. Throughout the pandemic, bureaucratic sclerosis has proven the American regulatory apparatus to be an impediment to fighting Covid-19—not to mention future public health threats. ...
Democrats Abandon US Patients to Rescue Drug-Pricing Reform
Just a few days ago, it appeared that Democrats had given up on including prescription drug pricing reforms in their massive spending bill. But not anymore. In an eleventh-hour turn of events, congressional Democrats this week resurrected their long-standing desire to levy government price controls on prescription drugs. If lawmakers successfully deploy their latest ...
Biden’s new plan isn’t any better for your health
Last week, President Joe Biden unveiled a new social spending framework that omitted many of the healthcare provisions Democrats have been calling for. One provision that has survived is a massive and wasteful expansion of Obamacare . In March, Congress made federal tax credits available to those shopping for coverage on the exchanges with ...
Single-Payer Will Worsen Healthcare Workers’ Plight
Healthcare workers are exchanging scrubs and gloves for signs and megaphones. In what’s been called “Striketober,” frontline staff are walking out of hospitals, emergency rooms, and doctor’s offices to insist on better pay, benefits, and hours. Earlier this month, Kaiser Permanente workers in California voted to authorize a strike over ...
