Uncategorized
Medicaid
If Health Spending is Increasing Slower, Why Are Premiums Rising Faster?
Key Points: The rate of increase in private health spending has dropped significantly since the financial crisis hit in 2008, although government programs like Medicare and Medicaid have continued along their unsustainable path. However, administrative costs and private premiums began to increase immediately upon President Obama’s enacting the Patient Protection ...
Commentary
The education victimizers in chief
When masses of unionized school teachers recently stormed into the state Capitol to protest in favor of higher taxes, they painted themselves as victims of Sacramento politics. Behind this scripted and bombastic street theater, the reality is that powerful and wealthy teachers unions are the victimizers in chief in the ...
Commentary
Little Pain, Real Gains
The Republican budget plan proposed on Thursday in the California Assembly wouldn’t fix the fundamental problems with the state’s budget or make long-term reforms to right this long-mismanaged state. But the plan, which Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway called “a no-tax budget blueprint,” does give the lie to Democrats’ insistence ...
Commentary
Mission Impossible: Medicare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board
Key Points The Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is a new bureaucracy established by Obamacare that will limit Medicare beneficiaries access to certain medical goods and servicesespecially new prescription drugs. IPAB puts Medicare beneficiaries access to prescription drugs and certain other medical goods and services under control of ...
Commentary
Jerry’s Kids: In 2011 California will still be ruled by government employee unions
On Monday, January 3, Jerry Brown starts his second run at governing the Golden State. He inherits a host of problems, some dating back to his first run as governor. Collective bargaining for government employees has not existed in California from times immemorial. It started during Jerry Brown’s first administration ...
Commentary
CARB Fakes Out California
Vol. 16 No. 32, September 1, 2010 CARB Fakes Out California By K. Lloyd Billingsley, editorial director The University of California at Los Angeles is attempting to dump James Enstrom, a researcher with the UCLA School of Public Health. This action is part of a larger story with consequences for ...
Commentary
Environmentalist turns to e-bullying
In the wake of “Climategate,” in which a series of leaked e-mails among prominent climate scientists showed concerted efforts to silence competing researchers and manipulate the peer-review process, one would think scientists as a group would be increasingly cognizant of the tone and content of their communications. But at least ...
Commentary
Student DNA tests could go wild
SACRAMENTO – The University of California, Berkeley, has inadvertently stepped into a brewing ethical debate over genetic testing and medical privacy after it asked the incoming freshman class to submit to the campus cotton swabs with DNA samples from their saliva. The unusual experiment is part of Berkeley’s annual “On ...
Commentary
Obama’s promises, promises
“How do you know when a politician is lying?”, asks the hoary joke. His lips are moving. Some politicians are skilled manipulators of words. Recall President Bill Clinton’s definition of what “is” is. Our current president prefers the head-down, right-up-the-center approach. He campaigned on a promise to decrease health care ...
Commentary
Will Business-Toxic Environment Poison Silicon Valley Innovation?
The world is full of pseudo-Silicon Valleys — private and public attempts to re-create California’s high-tech mecca. But they have achieved only pale copies of an original that remains the undisputed cradle of innovation. Historic leaders like Hewlett-Packard and Intel have stayed there, and more recent giants like Google, Facebook ...
If Health Spending is Increasing Slower, Why Are Premiums Rising Faster?
Key Points: The rate of increase in private health spending has dropped significantly since the financial crisis hit in 2008, although government programs like Medicare and Medicaid have continued along their unsustainable path. However, administrative costs and private premiums began to increase immediately upon President Obama’s enacting the Patient Protection ...
The education victimizers in chief
When masses of unionized school teachers recently stormed into the state Capitol to protest in favor of higher taxes, they painted themselves as victims of Sacramento politics. Behind this scripted and bombastic street theater, the reality is that powerful and wealthy teachers unions are the victimizers in chief in the ...
Little Pain, Real Gains
The Republican budget plan proposed on Thursday in the California Assembly wouldn’t fix the fundamental problems with the state’s budget or make long-term reforms to right this long-mismanaged state. But the plan, which Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway called “a no-tax budget blueprint,” does give the lie to Democrats’ insistence ...
Mission Impossible: Medicare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board
Key Points The Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is a new bureaucracy established by Obamacare that will limit Medicare beneficiaries access to certain medical goods and servicesespecially new prescription drugs. IPAB puts Medicare beneficiaries access to prescription drugs and certain other medical goods and services under control of ...
Jerry’s Kids: In 2011 California will still be ruled by government employee unions
On Monday, January 3, Jerry Brown starts his second run at governing the Golden State. He inherits a host of problems, some dating back to his first run as governor. Collective bargaining for government employees has not existed in California from times immemorial. It started during Jerry Brown’s first administration ...
CARB Fakes Out California
Vol. 16 No. 32, September 1, 2010 CARB Fakes Out California By K. Lloyd Billingsley, editorial director The University of California at Los Angeles is attempting to dump James Enstrom, a researcher with the UCLA School of Public Health. This action is part of a larger story with consequences for ...
Environmentalist turns to e-bullying
In the wake of “Climategate,” in which a series of leaked e-mails among prominent climate scientists showed concerted efforts to silence competing researchers and manipulate the peer-review process, one would think scientists as a group would be increasingly cognizant of the tone and content of their communications. But at least ...
Student DNA tests could go wild
SACRAMENTO – The University of California, Berkeley, has inadvertently stepped into a brewing ethical debate over genetic testing and medical privacy after it asked the incoming freshman class to submit to the campus cotton swabs with DNA samples from their saliva. The unusual experiment is part of Berkeley’s annual “On ...
Obama’s promises, promises
“How do you know when a politician is lying?”, asks the hoary joke. His lips are moving. Some politicians are skilled manipulators of words. Recall President Bill Clinton’s definition of what “is” is. Our current president prefers the head-down, right-up-the-center approach. He campaigned on a promise to decrease health care ...
Will Business-Toxic Environment Poison Silicon Valley Innovation?
The world is full of pseudo-Silicon Valleys — private and public attempts to re-create California’s high-tech mecca. But they have achieved only pale copies of an original that remains the undisputed cradle of innovation. Historic leaders like Hewlett-Packard and Intel have stayed there, and more recent giants like Google, Facebook ...
