Health Care

California

California Can Learn Health Care Lessons From Down Under

Health care reform is still on the table in California, which should consider carefully the achievements and failings of foreign systems. Canada is the usual candidate but Australia’s health care strategies deserve a closer look. The negative effects of Australia’s government-run health system are predictable and apparent: limited distribution of ...
Commentary

Is the New Anthem Off-Key?

For reasons best known to its executives, Indianapolis’ WellPoint, owner of Blue Cross of California, has recently decided to re-name itself Anthem Blue Cross. How this will help it address the snares and traps set for it by politicians, regulators, and self-styled “patient advocates,” I have no idea, but I ...
Commentary

Field Poll Hits The Health Care Ball Into Left Field Again

I was pretty appalled last August, when the Field Poll reported that 36% of Californians approved of government-monopoly health care. Well, they’ve done it again. According to the latest poll, Californians trust the government more than they do themselves, to take responsibility for their own health care. While the share ...
Commentary

Health-care system needs more caring

YoumaToday.com (LA), April 29, 2008 Daily Comet, (Lafourche Parish, LA), April 29, 2008 Presidential candidates condemn Americans for not providing health insurance to 47 million fellow citizens but the Washington Times carried an article by Sally Pipes, of the Pacific Research Institute, and presented facts that indicate political debaters try ...
Health Care

Sally C. Pipes at Western Women’s Summit

PRI’s Sally C. Pipes was a guest speaker at the Western Women’s Summit, sponsored by the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, at the Reagan Ranch Center. She spoke about health care and health care myths in America.
Commentary

Keep health data private

Patients don’t need government taking control of their personal medical records Those who think the government’s tentacles have not strangled enough of American health care should pay heed to developments in health information technology. Health information technology evangelists complain that U.S. health care is “fragmented” and can only be “integrated” ...
Commentary

Arizona’s Addiction to Unhealthy Government Handouts

I wonder why the Wall Street Journal insists on running op-eds that are sure to infuriate its loyal readers (like myself). This morning, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano trotted out the tired old argument that President Bush is unfairly tightening the screws on states’ social programs, especially state children’s health insurance ...
Commentary

Five myths of health care

Fictions don’t become facts through repetition. Keep that in mind next time you hear a politician breathlessly decry the horrors of the American health-care system and then explain how he intends to fix it. Some of the most popular talking points in the health-care debate pass as the gospel truth ...
California

California Benefits Mandate Mania: 85,000 To Lose Health Insurance

What is the point of passing a law that requires independent analyses of the costs of mandating which benefits health plans must cover, if the lawmakers are then free to ignore the results of the independent analyses? The California Legislature is considering ten bills mandating benefits that will cost $2.7 ...
Commentary

Health Plan Oversight: Will That Be One Regulator, or Two?

California’s health plans have the pleasure of two regulators, whereas other states have to make do with one. If you are a “health service plan” (generally Health Maintenance Organizations and some other forms of health plan), you are regulated by the Department of Managed Health Care. If you write “disability ...
California

California Can Learn Health Care Lessons From Down Under

Health care reform is still on the table in California, which should consider carefully the achievements and failings of foreign systems. Canada is the usual candidate but Australia’s health care strategies deserve a closer look. The negative effects of Australia’s government-run health system are predictable and apparent: limited distribution of ...
Commentary

Is the New Anthem Off-Key?

For reasons best known to its executives, Indianapolis’ WellPoint, owner of Blue Cross of California, has recently decided to re-name itself Anthem Blue Cross. How this will help it address the snares and traps set for it by politicians, regulators, and self-styled “patient advocates,” I have no idea, but I ...
Commentary

Field Poll Hits The Health Care Ball Into Left Field Again

I was pretty appalled last August, when the Field Poll reported that 36% of Californians approved of government-monopoly health care. Well, they’ve done it again. According to the latest poll, Californians trust the government more than they do themselves, to take responsibility for their own health care. While the share ...
Commentary

Health-care system needs more caring

YoumaToday.com (LA), April 29, 2008 Daily Comet, (Lafourche Parish, LA), April 29, 2008 Presidential candidates condemn Americans for not providing health insurance to 47 million fellow citizens but the Washington Times carried an article by Sally Pipes, of the Pacific Research Institute, and presented facts that indicate political debaters try ...
Health Care

Sally C. Pipes at Western Women’s Summit

PRI’s Sally C. Pipes was a guest speaker at the Western Women’s Summit, sponsored by the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, at the Reagan Ranch Center. She spoke about health care and health care myths in America.
Commentary

Keep health data private

Patients don’t need government taking control of their personal medical records Those who think the government’s tentacles have not strangled enough of American health care should pay heed to developments in health information technology. Health information technology evangelists complain that U.S. health care is “fragmented” and can only be “integrated” ...
Commentary

Arizona’s Addiction to Unhealthy Government Handouts

I wonder why the Wall Street Journal insists on running op-eds that are sure to infuriate its loyal readers (like myself). This morning, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano trotted out the tired old argument that President Bush is unfairly tightening the screws on states’ social programs, especially state children’s health insurance ...
Commentary

Five myths of health care

Fictions don’t become facts through repetition. Keep that in mind next time you hear a politician breathlessly decry the horrors of the American health-care system and then explain how he intends to fix it. Some of the most popular talking points in the health-care debate pass as the gospel truth ...
California

California Benefits Mandate Mania: 85,000 To Lose Health Insurance

What is the point of passing a law that requires independent analyses of the costs of mandating which benefits health plans must cover, if the lawmakers are then free to ignore the results of the independent analyses? The California Legislature is considering ten bills mandating benefits that will cost $2.7 ...
Commentary

Health Plan Oversight: Will That Be One Regulator, or Two?

California’s health plans have the pleasure of two regulators, whereas other states have to make do with one. If you are a “health service plan” (generally Health Maintenance Organizations and some other forms of health plan), you are regulated by the Department of Managed Health Care. If you write “disability ...
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