Health Care
Blog
California’s Scandal-Plagued Unemployment Agency
The number of Californians certified for unemployment insurance is now at 1.6 million compared to October last year before the pandemic, when just 260,000 Californians received unemployment checks. Going into the holidays, a heart-breaking one in 10 Californians are unemployed. Even more anguishing, the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD), the ...
Blog
Memo to Newsom and Garcetti: Try Leveling with Californians for a Change
Last week, local and state officials announced new, severe restrictions as officials grapple with rising cases of Covid-19 and rapidly-filling hospital emergency rooms nearing capacity. Especially during a public health crisis like this one, it is very important for government officials to be very clear in the information they are ...
Drug Pricing
NEW BRIEF: Tearing Down Drug ‘Rebate Walls’ Would Save Patients, Improve Health Care Outcomes
Tearing down drug “rebate walls” that increase patient costs and block access to cheaper and often more effective medications would increase competition, lower out-of-pocket costs, and improve health outcomes, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute. Click ...
Blog
Heroes Act Gave Millions to California’s Poshest Cities
Coronavirus relief funds are back on the negotiation table, but the three sides have a huge chasm to close. Speaker Nancy Pelosi originally proposed a $3.4 trillion package, then $2.2 trillion, and has now settled on $900 billion. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin bargained down further to $1.9 trillion, followed by ...
Commentary
For HHS post Biden taps ObamaCare’s lead defender – don’t expect him to be a moderate
President-elect Joe Biden announced Monday that he plans to nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services. It’s a conventional, if unexpected, pick. The Washington rumor mill had New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo as the front-runners to lead HHS until ...
Commentary
A Tale Of Two Healthcare Systems
The United States just reached an all-time high of over 100,000 coronavirus hospitalizations. Over 1,000 hospitals are critically short-staffed; about three-quarters of all hospital beds are full. Some hospitals have stopped accepting new patients. In Idaho, St. Luke’s Magic Valley Hospital turned away patients seeking emergency care last month. Just a few weeks later, ...
Commentary
An overly cautious FDA costs lives by not hastening vaccine authorization
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory panel is set to meet on Thursday to consider an emergency use authorization, or EUA, for the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and German company BioNTech. Despite newly reported deaths nationwide topping a thousand per day, the FDA doesn’t seem to have been in ...
Blog
Will Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ‘Do Something’ About Lockdown Rules Made Absent Evidence?
Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and others using the pandemic to restrict Californians’ movements should not be surprised that there’s been a pushback. While it’s due in part to the habit of officials failing to follow the rules they set, much of the frustration and defiance we’re ...
Commentary
Don’t Lower the Medicare Eligibility Age
President-elect Joe Biden wants Congress to lower the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60. That’s long been a goal of Democrats. But even 7 in 10 Republicans have expressed support for expanding Medicare in the direction Biden has suggested, according to polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Opening up ...
Commentary
Officials ignore their own stay-at-home COVID-19 restrictions — it’s infuriating
Many elected officials have told Americans for months to stay home and forego everything from religious gatherings and team sports to holiday dinners and even funerals to stem the spread of the coronavirus. And yet we keep seeing news reports about officials flouting their own rules with a nice dinner ...
California’s Scandal-Plagued Unemployment Agency
The number of Californians certified for unemployment insurance is now at 1.6 million compared to October last year before the pandemic, when just 260,000 Californians received unemployment checks. Going into the holidays, a heart-breaking one in 10 Californians are unemployed. Even more anguishing, the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD), the ...
Memo to Newsom and Garcetti: Try Leveling with Californians for a Change
Last week, local and state officials announced new, severe restrictions as officials grapple with rising cases of Covid-19 and rapidly-filling hospital emergency rooms nearing capacity. Especially during a public health crisis like this one, it is very important for government officials to be very clear in the information they are ...
NEW BRIEF: Tearing Down Drug ‘Rebate Walls’ Would Save Patients, Improve Health Care Outcomes
Tearing down drug “rebate walls” that increase patient costs and block access to cheaper and often more effective medications would increase competition, lower out-of-pocket costs, and improve health outcomes, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute. Click ...
Heroes Act Gave Millions to California’s Poshest Cities
Coronavirus relief funds are back on the negotiation table, but the three sides have a huge chasm to close. Speaker Nancy Pelosi originally proposed a $3.4 trillion package, then $2.2 trillion, and has now settled on $900 billion. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin bargained down further to $1.9 trillion, followed by ...
For HHS post Biden taps ObamaCare’s lead defender – don’t expect him to be a moderate
President-elect Joe Biden announced Monday that he plans to nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services. It’s a conventional, if unexpected, pick. The Washington rumor mill had New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo as the front-runners to lead HHS until ...
A Tale Of Two Healthcare Systems
The United States just reached an all-time high of over 100,000 coronavirus hospitalizations. Over 1,000 hospitals are critically short-staffed; about three-quarters of all hospital beds are full. Some hospitals have stopped accepting new patients. In Idaho, St. Luke’s Magic Valley Hospital turned away patients seeking emergency care last month. Just a few weeks later, ...
An overly cautious FDA costs lives by not hastening vaccine authorization
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory panel is set to meet on Thursday to consider an emergency use authorization, or EUA, for the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and German company BioNTech. Despite newly reported deaths nationwide topping a thousand per day, the FDA doesn’t seem to have been in ...
Will Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ‘Do Something’ About Lockdown Rules Made Absent Evidence?
Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and others using the pandemic to restrict Californians’ movements should not be surprised that there’s been a pushback. While it’s due in part to the habit of officials failing to follow the rules they set, much of the frustration and defiance we’re ...
Don’t Lower the Medicare Eligibility Age
President-elect Joe Biden wants Congress to lower the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60. That’s long been a goal of Democrats. But even 7 in 10 Republicans have expressed support for expanding Medicare in the direction Biden has suggested, according to polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Opening up ...
Officials ignore their own stay-at-home COVID-19 restrictions — it’s infuriating
Many elected officials have told Americans for months to stay home and forego everything from religious gatherings and team sports to holiday dinners and even funerals to stem the spread of the coronavirus. And yet we keep seeing news reports about officials flouting their own rules with a nice dinner ...
