Health Care
Commentary
Need A Roadmap For Healthcare Reform? Look At Medicare Part D
Paul Ryan and his House Republican colleagues just released their much-anticipated plan to reform America’s healthcare system. Their 37-page proposal would, among other things, transform Medicare into a “premium support” program. Seniors would be able to use federal subsidies to buy their choice of health plans from private insurers, instead ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 1, 2016
Commentary
High-risk pools: the life jacket U.S. health care needs
Obamacare guarantees all Americans health insurance. But it doesn’t guarantee that coverage will be affordable. That’s becoming a bit of a problem. This year, premiums were up an average of 8 percent. In many states, double-digit premium hikes were the norm. Next year, they’re likely to be even bigger, according ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 30, 2016
California
The high price of “cheap” drugs
California is losing the battle against opioid addiction. Every 45 minutes, someone in the Golden State overdoses. Fifty percent more people overdose today than in 2006. Fortunately, the Food and Drug Administration just approved the anti-addiction treatment Probuphine. It’s an implant placed in a person’s upper arm, where it releases ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 27, 2016
Commentary
The GOP’s Obamacare Replacement: Better Than Good
Last week, the GOP kept a promise to the American people by delivering a replacement plan for Obamacare. The plan — part of the party’s “A Better Way” campaign — was unveiled by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. “What we are laying out today is a first-time-in-six-years consensus by the ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 27, 2016
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 ...
Pacific Research Institute
June 22, 2016
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 ...
Wayne Winegarden
June 22, 2016
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 ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 21, 2016
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 ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 13, 2016
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 ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 6, 2016
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 ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 31, 2016
Need A Roadmap For Healthcare Reform? Look At Medicare Part D
Paul Ryan and his House Republican colleagues just released their much-anticipated plan to reform America’s healthcare system. Their 37-page proposal would, among other things, transform Medicare into a “premium support” program. Seniors would be able to use federal subsidies to buy their choice of health plans from private insurers, instead ...
High-risk pools: the life jacket U.S. health care needs
Obamacare guarantees all Americans health insurance. But it doesn’t guarantee that coverage will be affordable. That’s becoming a bit of a problem. This year, premiums were up an average of 8 percent. In many states, double-digit premium hikes were the norm. Next year, they’re likely to be even bigger, according ...
The high price of “cheap” drugs
California is losing the battle against opioid addiction. Every 45 minutes, someone in the Golden State overdoses. Fifty percent more people overdose today than in 2006. Fortunately, the Food and Drug Administration just approved the anti-addiction treatment Probuphine. It’s an implant placed in a person’s upper arm, where it releases ...
The GOP’s Obamacare Replacement: Better Than Good
Last week, the GOP kept a promise to the American people by delivering a replacement plan for Obamacare. The plan — part of the party’s “A Better Way” campaign — was unveiled by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. “What we are laying out today is a first-time-in-six-years consensus by the ...
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 ...