Health Care
Business & Economics
Improving the Incentive to Innovate
PRI Releases New Brief on the Benefits of Improving Incentives for Health Care Innovations San Francisco, June 22, 2015 – The Pacific Research Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit think tank based in San Francisco, today announced the release of a new brief: “Improving the Incentive to Innovate: An Important Benefit of ...
Commentary
Empowering Frivolous Healthcare Litigation Does Not Help Patients
Of all the problems troubling the U.S. healthcare system, too little litigation is not one of them. And yet, the “Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples Act of 2016” (CREATES Act), which is currently being rushed through Congress, takes just such an approach. If implemented, the CREATES Act ...
Commentary
Latest Obamacare Casualty? The Constitution
A federal judge recently ruled that the Obama administration violated the Constitution by spending $7 billion on subsidies for insurance companies without Congress’s permission. Worse still, the administration knew all along that it was flouting the law. If the ruling is upheld, Americans will face higher premiums and fewer choices ...
Commentary
Hello, HillaryCare?
Hillary Clinton is within striking distance of the White House. Last week, she secured enough delegates to ensure that she’ll be the Democrats’ presidential nominee, barring any hiccups. According to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls, Clinton would beat Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, if the election were ...
Commentary
Medicare Drug Reimbursement Cuts Are Backdoor Rationing
Imagine being denied treatment for cancer because Washington bureaucrats decided that a cutting-edge new therapy that could cure you just wasn’t “cost effective.” That’s already happening in Britain under its government-run health care system, the National Health Service. And Medicare officials are poised to bring similar policies here. The NHS’s ...
Commentary
Obamacare is Failing–On Purpose?
Obamacare’s exchanges could soon be out of health insurers. This month, UnitedHealth – the largest U.S. insurer — announced that it would no longer sell exchange plans in New Jersey in 2017. It has now withdrawn from 27 states. Last year, UnitedHealth lost about $475 million on the exchanges; this ...
Commentary
Obama administration should stop the attack on HSAs
Health insurance is about to bear a higher price tag. Experts at the Kaiser Family Foundation just warned that premiums are likely to jump in 2017 — after increasing an average of more than 12 percent this year. High-deductible health plans paired with tax-advantaged Health Savings Accounts (HSA) have emerged ...
Commentary
Putting Cost Ahead of Medical Outcomes
Unlike most markets, prices do not convey value in health care. In light of this problem, the Boston-based Institute for Clinical and Economic Review has been attempting to calculate the value of new medical technologies in order to assign a reasonable price to the latest innovations. The Blue Shield of ...
Commentary
Bundled payments bad medicine for Medicare seniors
Medicare is changing the way it pays for seniors’ knee and hip replacements. That change could be awfully painful for patients. The new payment scheme pits doctors and patients against one another by punishing providers for excess costs — and rewarding them for denying access to more expensive, potentially better ...
California
No end in sight for higher Obamacare premiums
Weren’t health insurance premiums supposed to go down under Obamacare and its California exchange, Covered California? During his 2008 campaign for president, Barack Obama predicted that, in his administration, “we’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year.” Covered California premium increases the past two years ...
Improving the Incentive to Innovate
PRI Releases New Brief on the Benefits of Improving Incentives for Health Care Innovations San Francisco, June 22, 2015 – The Pacific Research Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit think tank based in San Francisco, today announced the release of a new brief: “Improving the Incentive to Innovate: An Important Benefit of ...
Empowering Frivolous Healthcare Litigation Does Not Help Patients
Of all the problems troubling the U.S. healthcare system, too little litigation is not one of them. And yet, the “Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples Act of 2016” (CREATES Act), which is currently being rushed through Congress, takes just such an approach. If implemented, the CREATES Act ...
Latest Obamacare Casualty? The Constitution
A federal judge recently ruled that the Obama administration violated the Constitution by spending $7 billion on subsidies for insurance companies without Congress’s permission. Worse still, the administration knew all along that it was flouting the law. If the ruling is upheld, Americans will face higher premiums and fewer choices ...
Hello, HillaryCare?
Hillary Clinton is within striking distance of the White House. Last week, she secured enough delegates to ensure that she’ll be the Democrats’ presidential nominee, barring any hiccups. According to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls, Clinton would beat Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, if the election were ...
Medicare Drug Reimbursement Cuts Are Backdoor Rationing
Imagine being denied treatment for cancer because Washington bureaucrats decided that a cutting-edge new therapy that could cure you just wasn’t “cost effective.” That’s already happening in Britain under its government-run health care system, the National Health Service. And Medicare officials are poised to bring similar policies here. The NHS’s ...
Obamacare is Failing–On Purpose?
Obamacare’s exchanges could soon be out of health insurers. This month, UnitedHealth – the largest U.S. insurer — announced that it would no longer sell exchange plans in New Jersey in 2017. It has now withdrawn from 27 states. Last year, UnitedHealth lost about $475 million on the exchanges; this ...
Obama administration should stop the attack on HSAs
Health insurance is about to bear a higher price tag. Experts at the Kaiser Family Foundation just warned that premiums are likely to jump in 2017 — after increasing an average of more than 12 percent this year. High-deductible health plans paired with tax-advantaged Health Savings Accounts (HSA) have emerged ...
Putting Cost Ahead of Medical Outcomes
Unlike most markets, prices do not convey value in health care. In light of this problem, the Boston-based Institute for Clinical and Economic Review has been attempting to calculate the value of new medical technologies in order to assign a reasonable price to the latest innovations. The Blue Shield of ...
Bundled payments bad medicine for Medicare seniors
Medicare is changing the way it pays for seniors’ knee and hip replacements. That change could be awfully painful for patients. The new payment scheme pits doctors and patients against one another by punishing providers for excess costs — and rewarding them for denying access to more expensive, potentially better ...
No end in sight for higher Obamacare premiums
Weren’t health insurance premiums supposed to go down under Obamacare and its California exchange, Covered California? During his 2008 campaign for president, Barack Obama predicted that, in his administration, “we’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year.” Covered California premium increases the past two years ...
