Sally C. Pipes
Commentary
Wasteful Medicaid spending prevents government from fulfilling core responsibilities
Few states can waste public healthcare dollars like California. According to a recent state audit, Medi-Cal — the Golden State’s Medicaid program, which covers about 13 million people — improperly spent more than $4 billion on thousands of ineligible enrollees from 2014 to 2017. At least one of those ineligible enrollees had been dead ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 23, 2019
Commentary
Health spending in US is finally slowing: Here’s why
America’s health bill appears to be moderating, and market forces deserve the credit for this good news. National health expenditures grew more slowly in 2017 than in 2016, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The CMS statistics break down cost increases by category. Private health insurance spending grew ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 23, 2019
Commentary
The NHS’s Winter Crisis Is a Red Flag for Americans Enticed by Single-Payer
The winter flu season has plunged Britain’s government-run National Health Service into a full-blown crisis. Medical professionals are struggling to cope with an influx of patients. One doctor described his workplace as “an absolute war zone” and the “worst hospital conditions in my memory.” This is hardly the first time that flu ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 22, 2019
Commentary
Partial Medicaid expansion isn’t the solution
Some Trump administration officials, and even President Trump himself, reportedly favor allowing states to partially expand Medicaid, the program for low-income Americans jointly funded by the federal and state governments. Any expansion is a bad idea, for both fiscal and moral reasons. Obamacare enabled states to enroll able-bodied, childless adults ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 18, 2019
Commentary
Why Britons are sick of single-payer health care
The British National Health Service (NHS) is unraveling. This month, authorities said they’d consider relaxing official targets for waits in the country’s emergency rooms. At present, the system aims to see and admit, discharge or transfer 95 percent of patients within four hours. The NHS hasn’t been able to hit that target in years. ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 16, 2019
Commentary
Electronic records are driving doctor burnout
Doctors are being driven daffy by electronic health records, or EHRs. That’s the takeaway from a recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Seven in 10 Rhode Island doctors surveyed who used electronic health records said that the technology stressed them out. Those who reported health ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 16, 2019
Commentary
While Democrats push government healthcare, Canadians wait nearly 5 months for treatment
Last year, Canadians waited a median of almost 20 weeks to receive specialist treatment after being referred by a general practitioner, according to a new report from The Fraser Institute. In practical terms, that’s the equivalent of getting a referral this week and waiting until May for treatment. Such waits are endemic ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 10, 2019
Commentary
The Rising Support for Single-Payer Health Care
Public support for single-payer health care is soaring. Seven in 10 Americans want to adopt a “Medicare for All” system, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. This shift in public opinion has been good news for Democrats. The party took back the House in part by promising to make voters’ ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 10, 2019
Commentary
No Matter What the Courts Say, Obamacare Is Ineffective and Unconstitutional
Last month, Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a ruling declaring Obamacare unconstitutional. The case was brought by 20 Republican state attorneys general. Seventeen Democratic state attorneys general responded January 3 by appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. Judge O’Connor ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 7, 2019
Commentary
Checking In On New York’s (Health Care) State Of Mind
Empire State progressives are giddy about the prospect of passing a single-payer health care bill in 2019. Every year for the past four years, the liberal State Assembly has approved the New York Health Act, which would establish a statewide single-payer plan. But the bill always died in the State Senate, ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 4, 2019
Wasteful Medicaid spending prevents government from fulfilling core responsibilities
Few states can waste public healthcare dollars like California. According to a recent state audit, Medi-Cal — the Golden State’s Medicaid program, which covers about 13 million people — improperly spent more than $4 billion on thousands of ineligible enrollees from 2014 to 2017. At least one of those ineligible enrollees had been dead ...
Health spending in US is finally slowing: Here’s why
America’s health bill appears to be moderating, and market forces deserve the credit for this good news. National health expenditures grew more slowly in 2017 than in 2016, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The CMS statistics break down cost increases by category. Private health insurance spending grew ...
The NHS’s Winter Crisis Is a Red Flag for Americans Enticed by Single-Payer
The winter flu season has plunged Britain’s government-run National Health Service into a full-blown crisis. Medical professionals are struggling to cope with an influx of patients. One doctor described his workplace as “an absolute war zone” and the “worst hospital conditions in my memory.” This is hardly the first time that flu ...
Partial Medicaid expansion isn’t the solution
Some Trump administration officials, and even President Trump himself, reportedly favor allowing states to partially expand Medicaid, the program for low-income Americans jointly funded by the federal and state governments. Any expansion is a bad idea, for both fiscal and moral reasons. Obamacare enabled states to enroll able-bodied, childless adults ...
Why Britons are sick of single-payer health care
The British National Health Service (NHS) is unraveling. This month, authorities said they’d consider relaxing official targets for waits in the country’s emergency rooms. At present, the system aims to see and admit, discharge or transfer 95 percent of patients within four hours. The NHS hasn’t been able to hit that target in years. ...
Electronic records are driving doctor burnout
Doctors are being driven daffy by electronic health records, or EHRs. That’s the takeaway from a recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Seven in 10 Rhode Island doctors surveyed who used electronic health records said that the technology stressed them out. Those who reported health ...
While Democrats push government healthcare, Canadians wait nearly 5 months for treatment
Last year, Canadians waited a median of almost 20 weeks to receive specialist treatment after being referred by a general practitioner, according to a new report from The Fraser Institute. In practical terms, that’s the equivalent of getting a referral this week and waiting until May for treatment. Such waits are endemic ...
The Rising Support for Single-Payer Health Care
Public support for single-payer health care is soaring. Seven in 10 Americans want to adopt a “Medicare for All” system, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. This shift in public opinion has been good news for Democrats. The party took back the House in part by promising to make voters’ ...
No Matter What the Courts Say, Obamacare Is Ineffective and Unconstitutional
Last month, Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a ruling declaring Obamacare unconstitutional. The case was brought by 20 Republican state attorneys general. Seventeen Democratic state attorneys general responded January 3 by appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. Judge O’Connor ...
Checking In On New York’s (Health Care) State Of Mind
Empire State progressives are giddy about the prospect of passing a single-payer health care bill in 2019. Every year for the past four years, the liberal State Assembly has approved the New York Health Act, which would establish a statewide single-payer plan. But the bill always died in the State Senate, ...