Health Care

Commentary

Forget The Doctor Fix, We Need A Medicare Fix

Just before they jetted off for the holidays, Congress and the president brokered a $33-billion deal that extends the payroll tax cut, provides additional unemployment benefits, and spares physicians from steep cuts in Medicare reimbursements. Unfortunately, the compromise simply postpones the day of reckoning for all three issues until March. ...
Commentary

Rejecting health-care exchanges

The Internal Revenue Service recently held a hearing that could have major ramifications for Obamacare’s much-ballyhooed insurance exchanges. The agency is trying to change the way the federal government hands out subsidies through the exchanges. There’s one problem, though — the IRS doesn’t have the power to rewrite the law. ...
Commentary

Doctors Say Obamacare Is No Remedy for U.S. Health Woes

America’s doctors have conducted a full examination of the president’s health reform law — and their diagnosis of its effects on our healthcare system isn’t good. Nearly two-thirds of doctors expect the quality of care in this country to decline, according to a new survey from consulting giant Deloitte. Just ...
Commentary

Coal In Our Stockings: The Destruction of Medical Innovation

The holidays are fast approaching, and the “elves” are busy at the North Pole. No, not the presidential candidates. No, not the Capitol Hill pols. And no, not those unrelenting pursuers of objectivity and truth: the journalists. I refer instead to the bureaucrats, in particular those implementing the new “comparative ...
Health Care

Over Regulation Reduces Choice in Health Insurance: An Update Health Policy Prescription

Key Points: Obamacare, signed in March 2010, has not reduced the rate of growth of health-insurance premiums, which increased by 20 percent in the small group market between 2008 and 2010. Obamacare subsidizes states to increase political control of health-insurance premiums, although there continues to be no evidence that such ...
Commentary

The Ugly Realities Of Socialized Medicine Are Not Going Away

The worldwide recession has forced countries around the world to curb public spending — or risk defaulting on their debt. The United Kingdom is the latest to tighten its belt. The National Health Service (NHS) — the centralized public agency that runs Britain’s government healthcare system — is being forced ...
Health Care

The Federal Government’s Deeply Flawed System For Controlling Medicare Costs

Medicare’s hospital trust fund is set to be exhausted by 2024, according to the latest report from the program’s trustees. Federal officials are understandably looking for easy ways to cut spending in the entitlement program in hopes of shoring up its finances. They believe they’ve hit on one with a ...
Commentary

Shopping for Health Coverage Versus Shopping for Health Care

As I read the spirited debate over whether Obamacare will drive health insurers out of business (here and here), I wonder if we need to bring the discussion back to fundamentals: The key problem with U.S health insurance is that there is too much of it – whether provided by ...
Health Care

Medicare Is Increasingly A Benefit Enjoyed By The “One Percenters”

The Congressional Budget Office just released a major new investigation into household income trends over the last three decades. Researchers found that while the total amount of benefits paid out by government social safety-net programs rose between 1979 and 2007, the share going to the poor actually shrank. In other ...
Commentary

Wal-Mart’s Entrance Into Health Care Is Great News for American Consumers

Earlier this month, Wal-Mart dropped a bombshell on the health care industry. A memo from the retail giant obtained by National Public Radio revealed that the company would seek partners to help it “dramatically . . . lower the cost of health care . . . by becoming the largest ...
Commentary

Forget The Doctor Fix, We Need A Medicare Fix

Just before they jetted off for the holidays, Congress and the president brokered a $33-billion deal that extends the payroll tax cut, provides additional unemployment benefits, and spares physicians from steep cuts in Medicare reimbursements. Unfortunately, the compromise simply postpones the day of reckoning for all three issues until March. ...
Commentary

Rejecting health-care exchanges

The Internal Revenue Service recently held a hearing that could have major ramifications for Obamacare’s much-ballyhooed insurance exchanges. The agency is trying to change the way the federal government hands out subsidies through the exchanges. There’s one problem, though — the IRS doesn’t have the power to rewrite the law. ...
Commentary

Doctors Say Obamacare Is No Remedy for U.S. Health Woes

America’s doctors have conducted a full examination of the president’s health reform law — and their diagnosis of its effects on our healthcare system isn’t good. Nearly two-thirds of doctors expect the quality of care in this country to decline, according to a new survey from consulting giant Deloitte. Just ...
Commentary

Coal In Our Stockings: The Destruction of Medical Innovation

The holidays are fast approaching, and the “elves” are busy at the North Pole. No, not the presidential candidates. No, not the Capitol Hill pols. And no, not those unrelenting pursuers of objectivity and truth: the journalists. I refer instead to the bureaucrats, in particular those implementing the new “comparative ...
Health Care

Over Regulation Reduces Choice in Health Insurance: An Update Health Policy Prescription

Key Points: Obamacare, signed in March 2010, has not reduced the rate of growth of health-insurance premiums, which increased by 20 percent in the small group market between 2008 and 2010. Obamacare subsidizes states to increase political control of health-insurance premiums, although there continues to be no evidence that such ...
Commentary

The Ugly Realities Of Socialized Medicine Are Not Going Away

The worldwide recession has forced countries around the world to curb public spending — or risk defaulting on their debt. The United Kingdom is the latest to tighten its belt. The National Health Service (NHS) — the centralized public agency that runs Britain’s government healthcare system — is being forced ...
Health Care

The Federal Government’s Deeply Flawed System For Controlling Medicare Costs

Medicare’s hospital trust fund is set to be exhausted by 2024, according to the latest report from the program’s trustees. Federal officials are understandably looking for easy ways to cut spending in the entitlement program in hopes of shoring up its finances. They believe they’ve hit on one with a ...
Commentary

Shopping for Health Coverage Versus Shopping for Health Care

As I read the spirited debate over whether Obamacare will drive health insurers out of business (here and here), I wonder if we need to bring the discussion back to fundamentals: The key problem with U.S health insurance is that there is too much of it – whether provided by ...
Health Care

Medicare Is Increasingly A Benefit Enjoyed By The “One Percenters”

The Congressional Budget Office just released a major new investigation into household income trends over the last three decades. Researchers found that while the total amount of benefits paid out by government social safety-net programs rose between 1979 and 2007, the share going to the poor actually shrank. In other ...
Commentary

Wal-Mart’s Entrance Into Health Care Is Great News for American Consumers

Earlier this month, Wal-Mart dropped a bombshell on the health care industry. A memo from the retail giant obtained by National Public Radio revealed that the company would seek partners to help it “dramatically . . . lower the cost of health care . . . by becoming the largest ...
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