Health Care
Health Care
Overdosing on Obama Healthcare
George Stephanopoulos informed ABC television watchers on May 11 that this is “probably the best chance we’ve had in 15 or 16 years to actually get a comprehensive health care plan through.” The major difference between now and 1994, when the Clinton administration failed to push through its healthcare overhaul, ...
Commentary
Unmanageable healthcare in the making
The Hill (Washington, D.C.), June 9, 2009 News Blaze (Folsom, CA), June 12, 2009 American Conservative Daily, June 13, 2009 Candidate Barack Obama showed bold leadership on healthcare. He promised Americans $2,500 in annual healthcare savings and a path to universal coverage. He attacked his Democratic opponent for insisting on ...
Commentary
Health-Care Bill Is the Ball Game
You might suppose that President Obama has his hands full running two wars, administering General Motors, “rescuing” the banking system, attempting to empower unions over management, hushing up whispers about hypocrisy regarding Guantanamo detainees, managing the mortgage crisis, imposing “clean energy” on the nation, handling nuclear North Korea and nearly ...
Health Care
Medicare Costs Have Risen Far More than the Costs of Private Health Care
As Americans contemplate a significant expansion of government’s role in health care, in the form of the Medicare-like “public option” proposed by President Obama, we must consider how successful Medicare has been at controlling costs in relation to privately purchased health care. This analysis takes all health spending in the ...
Commentary
New Entry for Worst Study of the Year Award
As with previous studies of medical bankruptcy, this study puts forward a number of definitions of “medical bankruptcy” and defines any bankruptcy with any one of these conditions as suffering medical bankruptcy. The one that immediately stands out is “medical bills over $5,000 or 10 percent of household income on ...
Commentary
Government is not your nanny—reject the federal soda tax.
In order to cover the exorbitant cost of President Obama’s universal health care program, the Senate Finance Committee has proposed, among other things, that the government levy additional taxes on alcohol, soda, and other sugar-sweetened beverage. The committee members and their supporters in the health community like the idea because ...
Commentary
Soda tax proposal should fizzle out
President Obama has promised the American people that full-scale healthcare reform will be enacted by the end of this year. The decidedly less-inspiring task of determining how to pay for his $1.2-trillion reform package has fallen to congressional lawmakers. The Senate Finance Committee is considering dozens of options for generating ...
Business & Economics
Curing the Healthcare Maladies in the Stimulus Package
As a psychiatrist, I’ve observed that people generally make bad decisions when they’re rushed and in crisis. Politicians, unfortunately, often fail to recognize this aspect of human nature. Clearly, we are in an economic crisis, which makes me immediately fearful of politicians’ proposed cures. In rushing to stimulate the economy—a ...
Commentary
Canadian patients face long waits for low-tech healthcare
Washington Examiner (Washington, DC), June 5, 2009 San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA), June 5, 2009 KEY DATA: The average patient waiting period between referral and actual treatment for the 12 most frequently needed specialties was nearly 4½ months in 2008, double the average from 15 years ago. KEY DATA: ...
Business & Economics
Why No Health Tax Reform? A Conservative’s Inside View
Mr. Wulsin has done a great job of explaining the pernicious effects of the current exclusion of employer-sponsored benefits from taxable income (which I also addressed in an earlier contribution). Mr. Wulsin and I are hardly the only ones who have noted this. Last June, MIT economist Jonathan Gruber told ...
Overdosing on Obama Healthcare
George Stephanopoulos informed ABC television watchers on May 11 that this is “probably the best chance we’ve had in 15 or 16 years to actually get a comprehensive health care plan through.” The major difference between now and 1994, when the Clinton administration failed to push through its healthcare overhaul, ...
Unmanageable healthcare in the making
The Hill (Washington, D.C.), June 9, 2009 News Blaze (Folsom, CA), June 12, 2009 American Conservative Daily, June 13, 2009 Candidate Barack Obama showed bold leadership on healthcare. He promised Americans $2,500 in annual healthcare savings and a path to universal coverage. He attacked his Democratic opponent for insisting on ...
Health-Care Bill Is the Ball Game
You might suppose that President Obama has his hands full running two wars, administering General Motors, “rescuing” the banking system, attempting to empower unions over management, hushing up whispers about hypocrisy regarding Guantanamo detainees, managing the mortgage crisis, imposing “clean energy” on the nation, handling nuclear North Korea and nearly ...
Medicare Costs Have Risen Far More than the Costs of Private Health Care
As Americans contemplate a significant expansion of government’s role in health care, in the form of the Medicare-like “public option” proposed by President Obama, we must consider how successful Medicare has been at controlling costs in relation to privately purchased health care. This analysis takes all health spending in the ...
New Entry for Worst Study of the Year Award
As with previous studies of medical bankruptcy, this study puts forward a number of definitions of “medical bankruptcy” and defines any bankruptcy with any one of these conditions as suffering medical bankruptcy. The one that immediately stands out is “medical bills over $5,000 or 10 percent of household income on ...
Government is not your nanny—reject the federal soda tax.
In order to cover the exorbitant cost of President Obama’s universal health care program, the Senate Finance Committee has proposed, among other things, that the government levy additional taxes on alcohol, soda, and other sugar-sweetened beverage. The committee members and their supporters in the health community like the idea because ...
Soda tax proposal should fizzle out
President Obama has promised the American people that full-scale healthcare reform will be enacted by the end of this year. The decidedly less-inspiring task of determining how to pay for his $1.2-trillion reform package has fallen to congressional lawmakers. The Senate Finance Committee is considering dozens of options for generating ...
Curing the Healthcare Maladies in the Stimulus Package
As a psychiatrist, I’ve observed that people generally make bad decisions when they’re rushed and in crisis. Politicians, unfortunately, often fail to recognize this aspect of human nature. Clearly, we are in an economic crisis, which makes me immediately fearful of politicians’ proposed cures. In rushing to stimulate the economy—a ...
Canadian patients face long waits for low-tech healthcare
Washington Examiner (Washington, DC), June 5, 2009 San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA), June 5, 2009 KEY DATA: The average patient waiting period between referral and actual treatment for the 12 most frequently needed specialties was nearly 4½ months in 2008, double the average from 15 years ago. KEY DATA: ...
Why No Health Tax Reform? A Conservative’s Inside View
Mr. Wulsin has done a great job of explaining the pernicious effects of the current exclusion of employer-sponsored benefits from taxable income (which I also addressed in an earlier contribution). Mr. Wulsin and I are hardly the only ones who have noted this. Last June, MIT economist Jonathan Gruber told ...
