Health Care
Commentary
U.S. Health Care and U.S. Productivity: A Dissent
Indeed, while all Americans complain about health costs, the argument that our health “system” reduces our competitiveness versus other countries with “universal” health care is actually quite weak. Indeed, the percentage of all firms offering health benefits actually increased from 66 percent in 1999 to 69 percent in 2010, and ...
Commentary
Myth of the Massachusetts Health-Insurance Mandate
David Leonhardt asserts that: “…the law depends to a significant degree on the mandate. Without it, some healthy people will wait to buy coverage until they get sick — which, of course, is not an insurance system at all. It’s free-riding. Just look at Massachusetts. In 1996, it barred insurers ...
Commentary
The Fatal Move From The FDA
On Dec. 17 the Food and Drug Administration is expected to take the radical step of revoking approval for an advanced drug in the treatment of one of the country’s most deadly diseases. Avastin, an advanced treatment for late-stage breast cancer, made it through the FDA approval process back in ...
Commentary
If Obamacare is Unconstitutional, Why Aren’t Medicare & Medicaid?
Legally, the difference is that the latter two programs are government operations, whereas the individual mandate would have compelled people to buy a private product. Helvering v. Davis (1937) was the famous (or infamous) case wherein the U.S. Supreme Court found that the Social Security Act was constitutional. For a ...
Commentary
Obamacare Ruled Constitutional; Americans Favor Repeal Almost 2 to 1
A federal district judge in Virginia ruled on Monday that the keystone provision in the Obama health care law is unconstitutional, becoming the first court in the country to invalidate any part of the sprawling act…. The individual mandate – the requirement that Americans buy federally approved health insurance whether ...
Commentary
On Sebelius’ & Holder’s Defense of Obamacare
The economic argument for a mandate is unfounded. As a class, the uninsured pay their way, because there are enough high-earning uninsured who pay extra taxes (by taking cash remuneration instead of health benefits) to cover the cost of uncompensated care. If Congress eliminated the employer-based monopoly on health benefits, ...
Commentary
Blue-Sky Thinking on Health Reform: An Interstate Compact for Health Insurance
Key Points Health insurance is the only line of insurance regulated by the federal government, but federal control has created and deepened the health crisis. Obamacare attempts to conscript states to do the dirty work of limiting peoples choice of health benefits. States have ensured portability and competition in other ...
Commentary
More on the Insanity of the Medicare Payment System
The first example is a Bulgarian woman living in Greece, who is about to deliver a baby from an anonymous European egg donor, whose father is Italian. The mother who raises the baby will be the Italian man’s infertile Italian wife. The man who brought it all together is a ...
Commentary
Reflections on the Insanity of the Medicare Payment System
Suppose that in 1965, the federal government observed that great advances were taking place in aircraft design and manufacturing. In order to ensure that Americans were able to take advantage of this, the government legislated “Aircare.” Flash forward to 2010: “Aircare” pays for our ariplane tickets. It pays the airlines ...
Commentary
U.S. competitive without medical monopoly
The November election made a bull’s-eye out of Obamacare, which some Republicans want to repeal. Obamacare is a worthy target because it is a significant lurch toward so-called “universal” health care. The lack of such a government monopoly system, some charge, harms American competitiveness. But that argument fails to hold ...
U.S. Health Care and U.S. Productivity: A Dissent
Indeed, while all Americans complain about health costs, the argument that our health “system” reduces our competitiveness versus other countries with “universal” health care is actually quite weak. Indeed, the percentage of all firms offering health benefits actually increased from 66 percent in 1999 to 69 percent in 2010, and ...
Myth of the Massachusetts Health-Insurance Mandate
David Leonhardt asserts that: “…the law depends to a significant degree on the mandate. Without it, some healthy people will wait to buy coverage until they get sick — which, of course, is not an insurance system at all. It’s free-riding. Just look at Massachusetts. In 1996, it barred insurers ...
The Fatal Move From The FDA
On Dec. 17 the Food and Drug Administration is expected to take the radical step of revoking approval for an advanced drug in the treatment of one of the country’s most deadly diseases. Avastin, an advanced treatment for late-stage breast cancer, made it through the FDA approval process back in ...
If Obamacare is Unconstitutional, Why Aren’t Medicare & Medicaid?
Legally, the difference is that the latter two programs are government operations, whereas the individual mandate would have compelled people to buy a private product. Helvering v. Davis (1937) was the famous (or infamous) case wherein the U.S. Supreme Court found that the Social Security Act was constitutional. For a ...
Obamacare Ruled Constitutional; Americans Favor Repeal Almost 2 to 1
A federal district judge in Virginia ruled on Monday that the keystone provision in the Obama health care law is unconstitutional, becoming the first court in the country to invalidate any part of the sprawling act…. The individual mandate – the requirement that Americans buy federally approved health insurance whether ...
On Sebelius’ & Holder’s Defense of Obamacare
The economic argument for a mandate is unfounded. As a class, the uninsured pay their way, because there are enough high-earning uninsured who pay extra taxes (by taking cash remuneration instead of health benefits) to cover the cost of uncompensated care. If Congress eliminated the employer-based monopoly on health benefits, ...
Blue-Sky Thinking on Health Reform: An Interstate Compact for Health Insurance
Key Points Health insurance is the only line of insurance regulated by the federal government, but federal control has created and deepened the health crisis. Obamacare attempts to conscript states to do the dirty work of limiting peoples choice of health benefits. States have ensured portability and competition in other ...
More on the Insanity of the Medicare Payment System
The first example is a Bulgarian woman living in Greece, who is about to deliver a baby from an anonymous European egg donor, whose father is Italian. The mother who raises the baby will be the Italian man’s infertile Italian wife. The man who brought it all together is a ...
Reflections on the Insanity of the Medicare Payment System
Suppose that in 1965, the federal government observed that great advances were taking place in aircraft design and manufacturing. In order to ensure that Americans were able to take advantage of this, the government legislated “Aircare.” Flash forward to 2010: “Aircare” pays for our ariplane tickets. It pays the airlines ...
U.S. competitive without medical monopoly
The November election made a bull’s-eye out of Obamacare, which some Republicans want to repeal. Obamacare is a worthy target because it is a significant lurch toward so-called “universal” health care. The lack of such a government monopoly system, some charge, harms American competitiveness. But that argument fails to hold ...
