Wayne Winegarden
Business & Economics
Enriching Lawyers Is Not the Solution to the Opioid Crisis
Effective health care reforms must reduce the excessive costs imposed by frivolous lawsuits. Studies have shown that medical tort reform could reduce total health care premiums between 1 and 3 percent. As estimated by the American Action Forum, this could mean “roughly $15 billion” in savings from effective (but partial) ...
Wayne Winegarden
September 13, 2017
California
Reforms Should Improve the Efficiency of the Pharmaceutical Market
The refrain that pharmaceuticals are driving the health care affordability problem has been repeated so often that it is becoming an illusory truth – people believe it to be true simply because they have heard it repeated so often. Obviously, repeating the same incorrect statement over and over again does ...
Wayne Winegarden
September 11, 2017
Blog
Price Transparency Occurs in Markets, Not Government Offices
The wrong model, no matter how hard it is worked, always provides the wrong answer. And, so it is with a bill being considered in Sacramento (SB 17). SB 17 is supposed to address the problem of skyrocketing health care costs by requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to give 60-day notice for ...
Wayne Winegarden
September 11, 2017
Blog
U.S. Pharmaceutical Spending Is Below Average?
For the 30 nations that comprise the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which promotes policies to improve the well-being of people around the world, pharmaceutical spending comprised, on average, 16.9 percent of total health care spending as of 2015. The OECD defines pharmaceutical spending as the expenditures on ...
Wayne Winegarden
August 30, 2017
Blog
Beware of Tax Reform’s “Unintended Consequences”
There is little doubt that the U.S. needs comprehensive tax reform. The corporate income tax system is globally uncompetitive; the personal income tax system is so complicated that even the IRS can’t answer taxpayers’ questions. The right reform implements a simple flat tax system with globally competitive rates. What should ...
Wayne Winegarden
August 24, 2017
Business & Economics
Market Reforms To Improve Pharmaceutical Outcomes
The drama of “repeal and replace” resembled an unfunny version of a Monty Python skit, continuously claiming that it was “not dead yet”, and even that it was “getting better” only to be put out of its misery in the end. The end of repeal and replace will not end ...
Wayne Winegarden
July 31, 2017
California
Congress Should Beware of ‘Unintended Consequences’ Of Tax Reform
If the U.S. economy is ever going to regain its past economic mojo, then Congress must pass comprehensive tax reform. Consider how much has changed since the last major tax reform in 1986. Back then, Bill Clinton was the governor of Arkansas, Mike Tyson had just become the youngest heavyweight ...
Wayne Winegarden
July 28, 2017
Business & Economics
Federal Tax Proposal Could Raise Insurance Costs In Earthquake Country
California is called earthquake country for good reason. There are nearly 2,000 known fault lines crisscrossing the state, and scientists continue to discover new fault lines all the time. Nearly every Californian lives within 30 miles of an active fault line. The U.S. Geological Survey recently released a study identifying ...
Wayne Winegarden
July 28, 2017
Business & Economics
Obstacles To Cutting Edge Cancer Treatments
Disincentives plague the U.S. health care system, driving costs higher and the quality of care lower. Improving health outcomes requires reforms that remove these disincentives. With respect to health insurers, this means returning payers to their proper role of providing effective risk management services to patients. In contrast to other ...
Wayne Winegarden
July 26, 2017
Business & Economics
Separating Budgetary Wheat From The Chaff: The CDC Example
For Samsung, it was the Galaxy Note 7; for Microsoft, it was the Zune; and for Coke, it was New Coke. These famous flops exemplify that failures are a part of life – even for multi-billion-dollar companies. In the private sector, successful companies own up to their failures and, if ...
Wayne Winegarden
July 19, 2017
Enriching Lawyers Is Not the Solution to the Opioid Crisis
Effective health care reforms must reduce the excessive costs imposed by frivolous lawsuits. Studies have shown that medical tort reform could reduce total health care premiums between 1 and 3 percent. As estimated by the American Action Forum, this could mean “roughly $15 billion” in savings from effective (but partial) ...
Reforms Should Improve the Efficiency of the Pharmaceutical Market
The refrain that pharmaceuticals are driving the health care affordability problem has been repeated so often that it is becoming an illusory truth – people believe it to be true simply because they have heard it repeated so often. Obviously, repeating the same incorrect statement over and over again does ...
Price Transparency Occurs in Markets, Not Government Offices
The wrong model, no matter how hard it is worked, always provides the wrong answer. And, so it is with a bill being considered in Sacramento (SB 17). SB 17 is supposed to address the problem of skyrocketing health care costs by requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to give 60-day notice for ...
U.S. Pharmaceutical Spending Is Below Average?
For the 30 nations that comprise the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which promotes policies to improve the well-being of people around the world, pharmaceutical spending comprised, on average, 16.9 percent of total health care spending as of 2015. The OECD defines pharmaceutical spending as the expenditures on ...
Beware of Tax Reform’s “Unintended Consequences”
There is little doubt that the U.S. needs comprehensive tax reform. The corporate income tax system is globally uncompetitive; the personal income tax system is so complicated that even the IRS can’t answer taxpayers’ questions. The right reform implements a simple flat tax system with globally competitive rates. What should ...
Market Reforms To Improve Pharmaceutical Outcomes
The drama of “repeal and replace” resembled an unfunny version of a Monty Python skit, continuously claiming that it was “not dead yet”, and even that it was “getting better” only to be put out of its misery in the end. The end of repeal and replace will not end ...
Congress Should Beware of ‘Unintended Consequences’ Of Tax Reform
If the U.S. economy is ever going to regain its past economic mojo, then Congress must pass comprehensive tax reform. Consider how much has changed since the last major tax reform in 1986. Back then, Bill Clinton was the governor of Arkansas, Mike Tyson had just become the youngest heavyweight ...
Federal Tax Proposal Could Raise Insurance Costs In Earthquake Country
California is called earthquake country for good reason. There are nearly 2,000 known fault lines crisscrossing the state, and scientists continue to discover new fault lines all the time. Nearly every Californian lives within 30 miles of an active fault line. The U.S. Geological Survey recently released a study identifying ...
Obstacles To Cutting Edge Cancer Treatments
Disincentives plague the U.S. health care system, driving costs higher and the quality of care lower. Improving health outcomes requires reforms that remove these disincentives. With respect to health insurers, this means returning payers to their proper role of providing effective risk management services to patients. In contrast to other ...
Separating Budgetary Wheat From The Chaff: The CDC Example
For Samsung, it was the Galaxy Note 7; for Microsoft, it was the Zune; and for Coke, it was New Coke. These famous flops exemplify that failures are a part of life – even for multi-billion-dollar companies. In the private sector, successful companies own up to their failures and, if ...