California

Business & Economics

Housing Bill Amendment Requires Reporting of Consumer Purchases to the Federal Government

Housing Bill Amendment Requires Reporting of Consumer Purchases to the Federal Government San Francisco, June 27, 2008 – In an open letter to Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, Pacific Research Institute technology policy fellow Daniel R. Ballon, Ph.D., called to their attention an amendment to the housing bill that ...
Business & Economics

Letter to Senators Feinstein and Boxer regarding (S. Amdt. 4983) amendment to H.R. 3221

The Honorable Diane Feinstein United States Senate 331 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 The Honorable Barbara Boxer United States Senate 112 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Senators Feinstein and Boxer: As the Senate prepares to vote on the current housing legislation, I would like to ...
Commentary

Today’s Commentary on the News – CA SB 1313

Today’s Commentary on the News As if things aren’t expensive enough… Let’s regulate cooking utensils, food packaging and more… Good grief! Trying to write about particularly stupid legislation that is moving forward in the State Legislature is a sport akin to shooting fish in a barrel (see the video). That ...
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

Housing Bill Amendment Requires Reporting of Consumer Purchases to the Federal Government

Housing Bill Amendment Requires Reporting of Consumer Purchases to the Federal Government San Francisco, June 27, 2008 – In an open letter to Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, Pacific Research Institute technology policy fellow Daniel R. Ballon, Ph.D., called to their attention an amendment to the housing bill that ...
Business & Economics

Letter to Senators Feinstein and Boxer regarding (S. Amdt. 4983) amendment to H.R. 3221

The Honorable Diane Feinstein United States Senate 331 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 The Honorable Barbara Boxer United States Senate 112 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Senators Feinstein and Boxer: As the Senate prepares to vote on the current housing legislation, I would like to ...
Commentary

Today’s Commentary on the News – CA SB 1313

Today’s Commentary on the News As if things aren’t expensive enough… Let’s regulate cooking utensils, food packaging and more… Good grief! Trying to write about particularly stupid legislation that is moving forward in the State Legislature is a sport akin to shooting fish in a barrel (see the video). That ...
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 ...
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