California
California
California Health Plans’ Success
Like other bloggers here, I’m no fan of employer-sponsored health care. I wish those who benefit from it would embrace real, consumer-driven reform. Nevertheless, I am always amazed at how the mainstream media covers stories of health insurers’ “denial of care”. It’s kind of like watching Michael Moore’s grotesquely misleading ...
Commentary
New York’s Discount Prescription Drug Plan: Medicaid Hammer With A Twist?
A bill to provide discounts on prescription drugs to low-income New Yorkers recently passed the Assembly and has moved over to the Senate. A03848 seeks to give the state the power to “negotiate” discounts for prescription drugs for Empire Staters who earn up to 350% of the Federal Poverty Line, ...
California
Let Go of Your Hats: A Good Health Bill Will Not Pass In California
Has it been only a few days since I advised readers to “hold on to your hats: a good health bill might actually pass in California”? Although it got through the Senate at the end of May, the Assembly Health Committee killed it unanimously. My previous post responded to a ...
California
Single-Payer Health Care in California: Legislative Analyst Weighs In
The last decisive action we saw on SB-840, a bill to impose government-monopoly health care in California, was a gubernatorial veto in September 2006. Nevertheless, its sponsor, state senator Sheila Kuehl pitched the same bill into the Legislature again in 2007. Senator Kuehl’s analytical support for SB-840 is a positively ...
Business & Economics
Why Rent Control Is Bad for California
Proposition 98, the eminent domain measure that also would have phased out rent control, failed to pass on the June 3 ballot. That means rent control will continue to hurt both landlords and tenants in California because rent control laws restrict what owners can do with their property. Suppose the ...
California
Hold on to Your Hats: A Good Health Bill Might Actually Pass in California
New bills in the New York legislature are designed to prevent inducements to switch prescriptions. But what about a bill to improve patients’ likelihood of sticking with the therapy they were first prescribed? According to a recent literature review in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 20% to 50% of chronically ...
Commentary
Commonwealth Fund’s Count of “Underinsured”: Lifting the Carpet
Once again, the scholars at the Commonwealth Fund have scared the bejayzus out of the mainstream media with their latest reckoning that over 25 million Americans are “underinsured”. While the 2007 numbers look worse than the previous ones from 2003 (when the estimate was only 15.6 million), the problems with ...
Business & Economics
Proposition 13 turns 30
Thirty years last ago Friday, on June 6, 1978, Californians passed Proposition 13, the “People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation.” It helped California homeowners, but is now blamed for many of the state’s woes. Owning a home has always been part of the American dream. During the latter part of ...
Business & Economics
California lawmakers must help economy with tort reform
The United States saw 324,000 jobs disappear in the first five months of the year – more evidence of a shaky economy. The news will surely prompt legislation intended to bolster jobs with “temporary” government programs. But the best jobs program for California is not more spending we can’t afford. ...
California
Cultural Revolution in San Francisco’s Health Access Plan!
Being Friday, I thought I’d lay off the heavy analysis and have some fun with my old bugaboo, San Francisco’s pointless and expensive Health Access Plan. As discussed before, I am at a loss to understand what this program achieves, other than levying a “pay or play” tax on employers ...
California Health Plans’ Success
Like other bloggers here, I’m no fan of employer-sponsored health care. I wish those who benefit from it would embrace real, consumer-driven reform. Nevertheless, I am always amazed at how the mainstream media covers stories of health insurers’ “denial of care”. It’s kind of like watching Michael Moore’s grotesquely misleading ...
New York’s Discount Prescription Drug Plan: Medicaid Hammer With A Twist?
A bill to provide discounts on prescription drugs to low-income New Yorkers recently passed the Assembly and has moved over to the Senate. A03848 seeks to give the state the power to “negotiate” discounts for prescription drugs for Empire Staters who earn up to 350% of the Federal Poverty Line, ...
Let Go of Your Hats: A Good Health Bill Will Not Pass In California
Has it been only a few days since I advised readers to “hold on to your hats: a good health bill might actually pass in California”? Although it got through the Senate at the end of May, the Assembly Health Committee killed it unanimously. My previous post responded to a ...
Single-Payer Health Care in California: Legislative Analyst Weighs In
The last decisive action we saw on SB-840, a bill to impose government-monopoly health care in California, was a gubernatorial veto in September 2006. Nevertheless, its sponsor, state senator Sheila Kuehl pitched the same bill into the Legislature again in 2007. Senator Kuehl’s analytical support for SB-840 is a positively ...
Why Rent Control Is Bad for California
Proposition 98, the eminent domain measure that also would have phased out rent control, failed to pass on the June 3 ballot. That means rent control will continue to hurt both landlords and tenants in California because rent control laws restrict what owners can do with their property. Suppose the ...
Hold on to Your Hats: A Good Health Bill Might Actually Pass in California
New bills in the New York legislature are designed to prevent inducements to switch prescriptions. But what about a bill to improve patients’ likelihood of sticking with the therapy they were first prescribed? According to a recent literature review in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 20% to 50% of chronically ...
Commonwealth Fund’s Count of “Underinsured”: Lifting the Carpet
Once again, the scholars at the Commonwealth Fund have scared the bejayzus out of the mainstream media with their latest reckoning that over 25 million Americans are “underinsured”. While the 2007 numbers look worse than the previous ones from 2003 (when the estimate was only 15.6 million), the problems with ...
Proposition 13 turns 30
Thirty years last ago Friday, on June 6, 1978, Californians passed Proposition 13, the “People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation.” It helped California homeowners, but is now blamed for many of the state’s woes. Owning a home has always been part of the American dream. During the latter part of ...
California lawmakers must help economy with tort reform
The United States saw 324,000 jobs disappear in the first five months of the year – more evidence of a shaky economy. The news will surely prompt legislation intended to bolster jobs with “temporary” government programs. But the best jobs program for California is not more spending we can’t afford. ...
Cultural Revolution in San Francisco’s Health Access Plan!
Being Friday, I thought I’d lay off the heavy analysis and have some fun with my old bugaboo, San Francisco’s pointless and expensive Health Access Plan. As discussed before, I am at a loss to understand what this program achieves, other than levying a “pay or play” tax on employers ...
