Health Care
Commentary
Put Patients in Charge to Keep Healthcare Spending in Check
New research suggests health insurers could take some negotiating tips from people who pay for health care out of pocket. According to an analysis from HealthCareInsider, hospital costs for patients with insurance are higher than for those who self-pay. That flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Insurers are in the business ...
Blog
The True Cost of Restrictive Healthcare Licensing Laws: Mother’s Lives
Becoming a mother in the United States is risky. Among developed nations, the US has the highest rate of maternal mortality, carrying double the risk than that of France, and 10 times the risk than that of Norway. Our maternal mortality rates are even increasing. Recently released data from the ...
Commentary
Biden’s Half-Baked Covid Treatment Plan
‘Test to Treat’ ignores the significant risk of drug interactions with the Pfizer pill. President Biden touted a new anti-Covid initiative in his State of the Union address Tuesday. “We’re also ready with antiviral treatments. If you get Covid-19, the Pfizer pill reduces your chances of ending up in the hospital by ...
Agriculture
Embrace Genetically Engineered Crops to Mitigate Climate Change
By Henry I. Miller and Kathleen Hefferon Popular wisdom is often wrong. Consider, for example, how it views organic agriculture, which has grown to a $48 billion a year industry in the U.S. Organic products are sold at outlets ranging from local farmers’ markets to large supermarket chains, and many ...
Commentary
COVID-19’s ‘Unknown Unknowns’ Are What Should Worry Us
By Henry Miller and Melissa Hart We’re learning more every day about the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but it will likely present surprises. The best strategy is still to prevent new infections. Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time secretary of defense (Gerald Ford and George W. Bush administrations), is perhaps best remembered for a ...
Health Care
The Flawed Third-Party Payer System Drives the Drug Affordability Problem
CLICK TO READ THE REPORT The problem of drug affordability is caused by the perverse incentives created by the third-party payer system that have disempowered patients in favor of insurers and other supply-chain intermediaries. The insurance flaws have created pricing systems that inequitably transfer a disproportionate share of drug costs ...
Commentary
Violating Manufacturer’s Property Rights Does Not Promote Healthy Competition
Too often, regulations undermine the competitive process in the name of promoting competition. The ill-conceived Right to Repair legislation exemplify the problems and risks. Under the pretense of promoting competition, states as diverse as Texas and California, Arkansas and Hawaii have all considered bills that would violate medical device companies’ intellectual property rights. While many have been defeated, ...
Commentary
Don’t Dam the Telehealth Flood
To say that Americans are anxiously awaiting the end of the COVID-19 pandemic would be an understatement. But for patients who have enjoyed the ease of attending doctor’s appointments virtually, a return to the way things were pre-pandemic might be bittersweet. That’s because onerous restrictions on telemedicine, which lawmakers relaxed ...
Commentary
High Healthcare Spending Doesn’t Bolster Case for Single-Payer
Does the United States spend too much on healthcare? A look at the lower levels of healthcare spending in peer countries like Canada and the United Kingdom would seem to indicate as much. But a closer look at those numbers reveals a far more complex story. Take the matter of ...
Commentary
Plan to Expand Medi-Cal is a Costly Step Towards Single-Payer
It’s budget season in Sacramento. Governor Gavin Newsom’s spending proposal is the largest in the Golden State’s history. There’s no shortage of expensive and misguided policies in his budget. Chief among them is his push to expand Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, to cover all undocumented immigrants. Doing so would ...
Put Patients in Charge to Keep Healthcare Spending in Check
New research suggests health insurers could take some negotiating tips from people who pay for health care out of pocket. According to an analysis from HealthCareInsider, hospital costs for patients with insurance are higher than for those who self-pay. That flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Insurers are in the business ...
The True Cost of Restrictive Healthcare Licensing Laws: Mother’s Lives
Becoming a mother in the United States is risky. Among developed nations, the US has the highest rate of maternal mortality, carrying double the risk than that of France, and 10 times the risk than that of Norway. Our maternal mortality rates are even increasing. Recently released data from the ...
Biden’s Half-Baked Covid Treatment Plan
‘Test to Treat’ ignores the significant risk of drug interactions with the Pfizer pill. President Biden touted a new anti-Covid initiative in his State of the Union address Tuesday. “We’re also ready with antiviral treatments. If you get Covid-19, the Pfizer pill reduces your chances of ending up in the hospital by ...
Embrace Genetically Engineered Crops to Mitigate Climate Change
By Henry I. Miller and Kathleen Hefferon Popular wisdom is often wrong. Consider, for example, how it views organic agriculture, which has grown to a $48 billion a year industry in the U.S. Organic products are sold at outlets ranging from local farmers’ markets to large supermarket chains, and many ...
COVID-19’s ‘Unknown Unknowns’ Are What Should Worry Us
By Henry Miller and Melissa Hart We’re learning more every day about the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but it will likely present surprises. The best strategy is still to prevent new infections. Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time secretary of defense (Gerald Ford and George W. Bush administrations), is perhaps best remembered for a ...
The Flawed Third-Party Payer System Drives the Drug Affordability Problem
CLICK TO READ THE REPORT The problem of drug affordability is caused by the perverse incentives created by the third-party payer system that have disempowered patients in favor of insurers and other supply-chain intermediaries. The insurance flaws have created pricing systems that inequitably transfer a disproportionate share of drug costs ...
Violating Manufacturer’s Property Rights Does Not Promote Healthy Competition
Too often, regulations undermine the competitive process in the name of promoting competition. The ill-conceived Right to Repair legislation exemplify the problems and risks. Under the pretense of promoting competition, states as diverse as Texas and California, Arkansas and Hawaii have all considered bills that would violate medical device companies’ intellectual property rights. While many have been defeated, ...
Don’t Dam the Telehealth Flood
To say that Americans are anxiously awaiting the end of the COVID-19 pandemic would be an understatement. But for patients who have enjoyed the ease of attending doctor’s appointments virtually, a return to the way things were pre-pandemic might be bittersweet. That’s because onerous restrictions on telemedicine, which lawmakers relaxed ...
High Healthcare Spending Doesn’t Bolster Case for Single-Payer
Does the United States spend too much on healthcare? A look at the lower levels of healthcare spending in peer countries like Canada and the United Kingdom would seem to indicate as much. But a closer look at those numbers reveals a far more complex story. Take the matter of ...
Plan to Expand Medi-Cal is a Costly Step Towards Single-Payer
It’s budget season in Sacramento. Governor Gavin Newsom’s spending proposal is the largest in the Golden State’s history. There’s no shortage of expensive and misguided policies in his budget. Chief among them is his push to expand Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, to cover all undocumented immigrants. Doing so would ...
