Health Care
Business & Economics
Lewis Carroll and the Pricing of Pharmaceuticals
Imagine a pharmaceutical market designed by Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter. In contrast to almost every other market, he might begin by charging wholesale prices that are higher than retail prices. He would then make sure that the higher wholesale price goes, the lower retail prices can become. And finally, he ...
Commentary
The New Obamacare Repeal Bill Could Lead to Single Payer Health Care
This week, a group of Republican senators is scrambling to pick up enough votes for a last-ditch effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare. The senators have until Sept. 30 to act. But the Graham-Cassidy plan—named for its two leading proponents, Sen. Lindsey ...
Commentary
Kasich-Hickenlooper Plan Rescues Obamacare, Abandons Patients
Two of the nation’s highest-profile governors, frustrated by congressional inaction on health care, have offered up a proposal of their own. Democrat John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., and Republican John Kasich, R-Ohio, hope that their plan will get a serious look, in part because they hail from different parties — and so ...
Commentary
Just Say No to Pay-fors
The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was established in 1997—a program that gives states federal matching funds to provide health insurance to children from families that are too wealthy to qualify for Medicaid, but too poor to afford private insurance. However, current federal funding for CHIP expires on September 30th. ...
Health Care
Statement from Sally C. Pipes on Sen. Bernie Sanders’s New “Medicare-for-All” Bill
Pacific Research Institute President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy Sally C. Pipes today issued the following statement in response to Senator Bernie Sanders’ announcement of his new “Medicare-for-All” bill: “Sen. Bernie Sanders’s new ‘Medicare-for-All 2017 Act’ released today would be disastrous for taxpayers, doctors, and ...
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) ...
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 ...
Commentary
Bipartisan Healthcare Fix Can Keep Obamacare On Life Support
Republicans in Congress spent seven years explaining why Obamacare is fundamentally flawed and unfixable, and they promised to repeal and replace the law. Now, they’re trying to save the law. This past week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a series of hearings to stabilize the state ...
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 ...
Lewis Carroll and the Pricing of Pharmaceuticals
Imagine a pharmaceutical market designed by Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter. In contrast to almost every other market, he might begin by charging wholesale prices that are higher than retail prices. He would then make sure that the higher wholesale price goes, the lower retail prices can become. And finally, he ...
The New Obamacare Repeal Bill Could Lead to Single Payer Health Care
This week, a group of Republican senators is scrambling to pick up enough votes for a last-ditch effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare. The senators have until Sept. 30 to act. But the Graham-Cassidy plan—named for its two leading proponents, Sen. Lindsey ...
Kasich-Hickenlooper Plan Rescues Obamacare, Abandons Patients
Two of the nation’s highest-profile governors, frustrated by congressional inaction on health care, have offered up a proposal of their own. Democrat John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., and Republican John Kasich, R-Ohio, hope that their plan will get a serious look, in part because they hail from different parties — and so ...
Just Say No to Pay-fors
The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was established in 1997—a program that gives states federal matching funds to provide health insurance to children from families that are too wealthy to qualify for Medicaid, but too poor to afford private insurance. However, current federal funding for CHIP expires on September 30th. ...
Statement from Sally C. Pipes on Sen. Bernie Sanders’s New “Medicare-for-All” Bill
Pacific Research Institute President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy Sally C. Pipes today issued the following statement in response to Senator Bernie Sanders’ announcement of his new “Medicare-for-All” bill: “Sen. Bernie Sanders’s new ‘Medicare-for-All 2017 Act’ released today would be disastrous for taxpayers, doctors, and ...
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 ...
Bipartisan Healthcare Fix Can Keep Obamacare On Life Support
Republicans in Congress spent seven years explaining why Obamacare is fundamentally flawed and unfixable, and they promised to repeal and replace the law. Now, they’re trying to save the law. This past week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a series of hearings to stabilize the state ...
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 ...
