Health Care
Commentary
Obamacare threatens solvency of Colorado health plans
Obamacare encourages state politicians to increase their interference with health-insurance premiums. In 2008 Colorado passed a law giving the Division of Insurance the power to deny premium hikes. To enhance this power, known as “prior approval,” Obamacare gave Colorado a $1 million grant last year to hire more insurance analysts ...
John R. Graham
July 31, 2011
Health Care
Why the Utah Health Exchange is No Model for Health Reform
The Utah Health Exchange is the model some conservatives believe can be used to push back against Obamacare. Witness the Wall Street Journal (July 16) soundly rejecting regulatory guidance on what the Administration is now calling Affordable Insurance Exchanges, but encouraging governors to get on the exchange bandwagon, in the ...
John R. Graham
July 27, 2011
Commentary
80% of Employers Concerned About Health Reform’s Administrative Obligations; 30% Think Exchanges Will Offer Worse Coverage
A new survey by Lockton, Inc.s Health Reform Advisory Practice reports that 80 percent of respondents are concerned about federal health reforms additional administrative obligations (figure 2). The respondents cover a wide portfolio of industries. On the surface, it looks like fewer employers than anticipated by previous surveys (especially McKinsey ...
John R. Graham
July 27, 2011
Commentary
ObamaCare’s Imposition Will Lead To An Unhealthy State Of Wellbeing
The federal government has produced yet another study stating the obvious about health care that having insurance coverage is better than not having it. Yet some wonks are hailing this report from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) as the most important health-care policy experiment since the 1970s. ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 25, 2011
Health Care
Health Insurance Exchanges: What If They Issued 347 Pages of Regulations and Nobody Cared?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued regulations governing Health Benefits Exchanges and Small-Business Health Options Exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). These regulations are poorly defined, confirming that the exchanges will empower state functionaries to reduce choice and competition in health ...
John R. Graham
July 19, 2011
Commentary
Government Mandates Make Health Savings More Elusive
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently released some data that show that the digital revolution continues to evade health care. Through mid-May, just 1,026 registered hospitals and physicians out of a possible 56,599 have demonstrated that they are using electronic medical records and other health information technology in ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 18, 2011
Business & Economics
Old Boss or New Boss, state stem cell agency still a bust
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has chosen financier Jonathan Thomas as its new boss — but it matters little who runs the state stem-cell agency. The focus should be on results, and by that standard, Californians do not get what they paid for. Thomas, an investment banker schooled ...
K. Lloyd Billingsley
July 17, 2011
Health Care
Comparative Effectiveness Reviews: Quantitative Analysis of Research and Development Investment Effects
A based free-market think tank, examines an expanded quasi-federal comparative effectiveness review (CER) process and the negative effects on private-sector investment in research and development of new and improved medical technologies. Download the PDF San Francisco (July 15, 2011) — A new research study released by the Pacific Research Institute ...
Benjamin Zycher
July 15, 2011
Business & Economics
Big Government and Health-Care Stocks: A Happy Marriage?
Please read the entire column at Forbes.com: The Apothecary.
John R. Graham
July 13, 2011
Commentary
Follow the State’s Lead to Better Medicaid
By any objective measure, Medicaid is a failure. It provides substandard care at an ever increasing cost to taxpayers. When a Republican Congress and a Democrat president worked together to end another failing program welfare as we knew it we achieved something rare in public policy: success. We ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 11, 2011
Obamacare threatens solvency of Colorado health plans
Obamacare encourages state politicians to increase their interference with health-insurance premiums. In 2008 Colorado passed a law giving the Division of Insurance the power to deny premium hikes. To enhance this power, known as “prior approval,” Obamacare gave Colorado a $1 million grant last year to hire more insurance analysts ...
Why the Utah Health Exchange is No Model for Health Reform
The Utah Health Exchange is the model some conservatives believe can be used to push back against Obamacare. Witness the Wall Street Journal (July 16) soundly rejecting regulatory guidance on what the Administration is now calling Affordable Insurance Exchanges, but encouraging governors to get on the exchange bandwagon, in the ...
80% of Employers Concerned About Health Reform’s Administrative Obligations; 30% Think Exchanges Will Offer Worse Coverage
A new survey by Lockton, Inc.s Health Reform Advisory Practice reports that 80 percent of respondents are concerned about federal health reforms additional administrative obligations (figure 2). The respondents cover a wide portfolio of industries. On the surface, it looks like fewer employers than anticipated by previous surveys (especially McKinsey ...
ObamaCare’s Imposition Will Lead To An Unhealthy State Of Wellbeing
The federal government has produced yet another study stating the obvious about health care that having insurance coverage is better than not having it. Yet some wonks are hailing this report from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) as the most important health-care policy experiment since the 1970s. ...
Health Insurance Exchanges: What If They Issued 347 Pages of Regulations and Nobody Cared?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued regulations governing Health Benefits Exchanges and Small-Business Health Options Exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). These regulations are poorly defined, confirming that the exchanges will empower state functionaries to reduce choice and competition in health ...
Government Mandates Make Health Savings More Elusive
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently released some data that show that the digital revolution continues to evade health care. Through mid-May, just 1,026 registered hospitals and physicians out of a possible 56,599 have demonstrated that they are using electronic medical records and other health information technology in ...
Old Boss or New Boss, state stem cell agency still a bust
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has chosen financier Jonathan Thomas as its new boss — but it matters little who runs the state stem-cell agency. The focus should be on results, and by that standard, Californians do not get what they paid for. Thomas, an investment banker schooled ...
Comparative Effectiveness Reviews: Quantitative Analysis of Research and Development Investment Effects
A based free-market think tank, examines an expanded quasi-federal comparative effectiveness review (CER) process and the negative effects on private-sector investment in research and development of new and improved medical technologies. Download the PDF San Francisco (July 15, 2011) — A new research study released by the Pacific Research Institute ...
Big Government and Health-Care Stocks: A Happy Marriage?
Please read the entire column at Forbes.com: The Apothecary.
Follow the State’s Lead to Better Medicaid
By any objective measure, Medicaid is a failure. It provides substandard care at an ever increasing cost to taxpayers. When a Republican Congress and a Democrat president worked together to end another failing program welfare as we knew it we achieved something rare in public policy: success. We ...