Health Care
California
Cultural Revolution in San Francisco’s Health Access Plan!
Being Friday, I thought I’d lay off the heavy analysis and have some fun with my old bugaboo, San Francisco’s pointless and expensive Health Access Plan. As discussed before, I am at a loss to understand what this program achieves, other than levying a “pay or play” tax on employers ...
Commentary
Waiting Lists? Hospital Closures? Too Few Doctors? …Canada? No: Los Angeles
An appalling job of reporting in today’s New York Times, about the consequences to Los Angeles’ poorest residents of closing the county-run Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital almost a year ago. As I’ve written before, the county had plenty of opportunity over the last few months to let private operators ...
Commentary
Don’t Get Ill in Illinois: State Medical Society Wants to Reduce Patients’ Choices
At the request of an Illinois state representative, the Federal Trade Commission has cast its eye over HB 5372, an appalling bill that threatens to reduce Illinois residents’ choice of where, when, and how they seek out health services. Well aware of the benefits of convenient clinics, the FTC pulls ...
California
California Health Care Deforminator ABX1 1 Rises from the Dead – In Bits & Pieces
In many horror movies, the hero kills the zombie only to find that the baddie’s hand he chopped off keeps crawling towards him, relentless in its quest to strangle the living. Some of the health care bills moving through the California Legislature remind me of that sort of scene. The ...
California
Unbalanced Billing in California: No Easy Answer
One area of health care where hospitals and doctors face off against health plans, without any satisfactory resolution, is providers’ “balance billing” patients who present at out-of-network emergency rooms. Because the hospital is not in the patient’s health plans’ network, the hospital and/or ER doctor stick the patient with a ...
Commentary
Md. Tax Records Are Scoured for SCHIP-Eligibles
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), June 1, 2008 Health officials in Maryland are working with state Comptroller Peter Franchot to identify children eligible for, but not enrolled in, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The comptroller’s office will use state income tax records to locate families whose incomes qualify ...
Commentary
Bogus Figures
The Eagle (Reading, PA), June 1, 2008 Letters from readers Bogus figures Editor: It has been stated by many politicians that 47 million Americans do not have health insurance. This number is bogus. According to Sally C. Pipes, president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Research Institute, the number ...
Commentary
AMA Lobbies for Changes to Health Care in New Hampshire
The American Medical Association (AMA) has been promoting a reform plan in the state of New Hampshire that it says would help improve the state’s health care system. Analysts are offering mixed reviews of the plan, with some calling it “a very good step” for the AMA and for New ...
Commentary
Russia’s Failed Universal Health Care Program Exposes the Perils of Single-Payer Systems
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), June 1, 2008 Despite doubling government spending, Russian system remains a model of what not to do Despite outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s doubling of state spending on health care over the past two years, complaints about crumbling infrastructure, poor quality of medical services, and ...
Commentary
Study Doubts Benefits of Insurance Regulation
Although the number of state initiatives intended to improve access to affordable health care has been rising, it is not clear what effect the proposed programs will have on the health status of the newly insured population or the population in general, says a report from the American Enterprise Institute. ...
Cultural Revolution in San Francisco’s Health Access Plan!
Being Friday, I thought I’d lay off the heavy analysis and have some fun with my old bugaboo, San Francisco’s pointless and expensive Health Access Plan. As discussed before, I am at a loss to understand what this program achieves, other than levying a “pay or play” tax on employers ...
Waiting Lists? Hospital Closures? Too Few Doctors? …Canada? No: Los Angeles
An appalling job of reporting in today’s New York Times, about the consequences to Los Angeles’ poorest residents of closing the county-run Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital almost a year ago. As I’ve written before, the county had plenty of opportunity over the last few months to let private operators ...
Don’t Get Ill in Illinois: State Medical Society Wants to Reduce Patients’ Choices
At the request of an Illinois state representative, the Federal Trade Commission has cast its eye over HB 5372, an appalling bill that threatens to reduce Illinois residents’ choice of where, when, and how they seek out health services. Well aware of the benefits of convenient clinics, the FTC pulls ...
California Health Care Deforminator ABX1 1 Rises from the Dead – In Bits & Pieces
In many horror movies, the hero kills the zombie only to find that the baddie’s hand he chopped off keeps crawling towards him, relentless in its quest to strangle the living. Some of the health care bills moving through the California Legislature remind me of that sort of scene. The ...
Unbalanced Billing in California: No Easy Answer
One area of health care where hospitals and doctors face off against health plans, without any satisfactory resolution, is providers’ “balance billing” patients who present at out-of-network emergency rooms. Because the hospital is not in the patient’s health plans’ network, the hospital and/or ER doctor stick the patient with a ...
Md. Tax Records Are Scoured for SCHIP-Eligibles
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), June 1, 2008 Health officials in Maryland are working with state Comptroller Peter Franchot to identify children eligible for, but not enrolled in, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The comptroller’s office will use state income tax records to locate families whose incomes qualify ...
Bogus Figures
The Eagle (Reading, PA), June 1, 2008 Letters from readers Bogus figures Editor: It has been stated by many politicians that 47 million Americans do not have health insurance. This number is bogus. According to Sally C. Pipes, president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Research Institute, the number ...
AMA Lobbies for Changes to Health Care in New Hampshire
The American Medical Association (AMA) has been promoting a reform plan in the state of New Hampshire that it says would help improve the state’s health care system. Analysts are offering mixed reviews of the plan, with some calling it “a very good step” for the AMA and for New ...
Russia’s Failed Universal Health Care Program Exposes the Perils of Single-Payer Systems
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), June 1, 2008 Despite doubling government spending, Russian system remains a model of what not to do Despite outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s doubling of state spending on health care over the past two years, complaints about crumbling infrastructure, poor quality of medical services, and ...
Study Doubts Benefits of Insurance Regulation
Although the number of state initiatives intended to improve access to affordable health care has been rising, it is not clear what effect the proposed programs will have on the health status of the newly insured population or the population in general, says a report from the American Enterprise Institute. ...
