Commentary
Commentary
Blocking Medicaid Work Requirements Is Unwise
Medicaid expansion in Kentucky and Arkansas could be on life support. Late last month, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the two states’ attempts to require able-bodied adults to work as a condition of receiving Medicaid coverage. Last week, the federal Department of ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 15, 2019
Commentary
Bernie Sanders took his terrible ‘Medicare for all’ idea and made it a disaster
On Wednesday, 2020 candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released his updated “Medicare for all” bill. The plan is even more disastrous than its original 2017 iteration. The new bill is not all that different from the one he introduced two years ago. It would still force virtually every person to swap ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 11, 2019
California
Private Rail is a Promising Alternative to California’s High-Speed Train Wreck
Two years ago, the Trump administration rated infrastructure improvement as one of its key goals. While not much has happened since then, the president did raise the issue again in his State of the Union address. This prompted Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to write, “to keep pace with the ...
Bartlett Cleland
April 10, 2019
Commentary
Failed federal housing policy undermines Trump’s opioid reforms
By Lance Izumi and Michele Steeb Over the past two years, President Trump has promoted bold reforms designed to address the opioid crisis. Congress, in a rare bipartisan effort, wholeheartedly supported Trump’s significant reforms, but these initiatives are being undermined by the failures of federal housing policy. In October 2018, ...
Pacific Research Institute
April 8, 2019
Commentary
Britain’s Version Of ‘Medicare For All’ Is Collapsing
Nearly a quarter of a million British patients have been waiting more than six months to receive planned medical treatment from the National Health Service, according to a recent report from the Royal College of Surgeons. More than 36,000 have been in treatment queues for nine months or more. Long waits for care are endemic ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 1, 2019
Business & Economics
Price Controls Are Never The Answer
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has just doubled down on one of the Trump Administration’s unsound ideas. His proposal is disappointing for many reasons, particularly because Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, has proposed an alternative reform that, if Congress implemented, would meaningfully improve the affordability of prescription drugs ...
Wayne Winegarden
April 1, 2019
Commentary
End partisan attacks on short-term health plans
House Democrats this week introduced legislation that would neuter short-term health plans. These policies don’t have to comply with Obamacare’s many cost-inflating mandates, so they’re less expensive than the plans available through the exchanges. Democrats despise them. Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., has called them ” junk insurance.” But by declaring their opposition ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 29, 2019
Business & Economics
Universal Income Isn’t the Utopia It’s Made Out to Be
The long-standing failures of the American welfare state have left politicians and policy wonks searching desperately for answers, including a willingness to consider radical changes to how we as a nation care for the poor. With little to show from billions in spending for traditional social programs, we do need ...
Damon Dunn
March 28, 2019
Commentary
Middlemen Are Ripping Off State Medicaid Programs
Kentucky’s Democratic attorney general just launched an investigation to determine if middlemen in the prescription drug supply chain are ripping off the state’s Medicaid program. He’s almost certainly onto something. These middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, administer drug benefit plans for Medicaid, Medicare Part D, and private insurers. In theory, ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 27, 2019
California
California doesn’t have to be like Texas – following Florida’s lead will work
Texas, it’s been said recent years, should inspire California to recapture its lost promise, to polish its fading luster. While the Golden State grapples with a host of Blue State struggles, housing is more affordable in the Lone Star state, taxes are lower, business is welcomed rather than handcuffed, and ...
Kerry Jackson
March 27, 2019
Blocking Medicaid Work Requirements Is Unwise
Medicaid expansion in Kentucky and Arkansas could be on life support. Late last month, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the two states’ attempts to require able-bodied adults to work as a condition of receiving Medicaid coverage. Last week, the federal Department of ...
Bernie Sanders took his terrible ‘Medicare for all’ idea and made it a disaster
On Wednesday, 2020 candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released his updated “Medicare for all” bill. The plan is even more disastrous than its original 2017 iteration. The new bill is not all that different from the one he introduced two years ago. It would still force virtually every person to swap ...
Private Rail is a Promising Alternative to California’s High-Speed Train Wreck
Two years ago, the Trump administration rated infrastructure improvement as one of its key goals. While not much has happened since then, the president did raise the issue again in his State of the Union address. This prompted Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to write, “to keep pace with the ...
Failed federal housing policy undermines Trump’s opioid reforms
By Lance Izumi and Michele Steeb Over the past two years, President Trump has promoted bold reforms designed to address the opioid crisis. Congress, in a rare bipartisan effort, wholeheartedly supported Trump’s significant reforms, but these initiatives are being undermined by the failures of federal housing policy. In October 2018, ...
Britain’s Version Of ‘Medicare For All’ Is Collapsing
Nearly a quarter of a million British patients have been waiting more than six months to receive planned medical treatment from the National Health Service, according to a recent report from the Royal College of Surgeons. More than 36,000 have been in treatment queues for nine months or more. Long waits for care are endemic ...
Price Controls Are Never The Answer
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has just doubled down on one of the Trump Administration’s unsound ideas. His proposal is disappointing for many reasons, particularly because Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, has proposed an alternative reform that, if Congress implemented, would meaningfully improve the affordability of prescription drugs ...
End partisan attacks on short-term health plans
House Democrats this week introduced legislation that would neuter short-term health plans. These policies don’t have to comply with Obamacare’s many cost-inflating mandates, so they’re less expensive than the plans available through the exchanges. Democrats despise them. Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., has called them ” junk insurance.” But by declaring their opposition ...
Universal Income Isn’t the Utopia It’s Made Out to Be
The long-standing failures of the American welfare state have left politicians and policy wonks searching desperately for answers, including a willingness to consider radical changes to how we as a nation care for the poor. With little to show from billions in spending for traditional social programs, we do need ...
Middlemen Are Ripping Off State Medicaid Programs
Kentucky’s Democratic attorney general just launched an investigation to determine if middlemen in the prescription drug supply chain are ripping off the state’s Medicaid program. He’s almost certainly onto something. These middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, administer drug benefit plans for Medicaid, Medicare Part D, and private insurers. In theory, ...
California doesn’t have to be like Texas – following Florida’s lead will work
Texas, it’s been said recent years, should inspire California to recapture its lost promise, to polish its fading luster. While the Golden State grapples with a host of Blue State struggles, housing is more affordable in the Lone Star state, taxes are lower, business is welcomed rather than handcuffed, and ...