Commentary
Commentary
Medicare for All or Medicare for None?
The primary cause of the Mayo Clinic’s dropping Medicare is its fees, which are too low for physicians to pay the rent. Some have argued that the physicians have been “crying wolf” on this for years. Well, the wolf is at the door, as I wrote in a recent study ...
Commentary
Copenhagen’s failure an ironic victory for entrepreneurs and the environment
Tom Tanton [Senior Fellow, Energy Studies, Pacific Research Institute]: “The Copenhagen Climate Conference has concluded. The fanfare is over and world leaders have little to show for it. President Obama left the conference with hope that the compromise he came to with five other world leaders would be supported by ...
Business & Economics
Tort system deficiencies raise health costs for all
Wayne Willoughby argued that tort reform amounts to “stripping away the rights of injured patients” (“‘Tort reform’ won’t fix health care,” Commentary, Dec. 18). But America’s current tort system is hardly adept at protecting patients’ interests. Very little of each tort-cost dollar goes to compensate the injured. Not only do ...
Business & Economics
Guest view: Consider value-added tax, tort reform
Editors note: Several weeks ago, we asked readers to share their thoughts on what our state and region can do in the year ahead to help the economy specifically, how to grow the good-paying jobs we so desperately need. We also asked business leaders to tell us what theyve ...
Commentary
Cadillac Health Plans; And Taxation Thereof
And I don’t just mean the HuffingtonPost/DailyKos/MoveOn.org crowd. There’s even a sense at the New York Times that the President’s faction has failed to grab history by the tail. Witness this column by Bob Herbert, who protests the tax on so-called “Cadillac health plans,” those which cost more than $23,000 ...
Commentary
Sen. Bill Nelson’s Florida Flim Flam
Medicare Advantage allows seniors to use private insurers to give Medicare benefits. While far from perfect, Medicare Advantage has significant advantages over the traditional, government-monopoly model of Medicare, as I have recently examined. Heres an interesting notion: If Medicare Advantage provides superior benefits to traditional Medicare benefits, then the Florida ...
California
Health Reform: Would You Like A California Cash Cow or New York Pork With Your Cornhusker Kickback, Louisiana Purchase, and Florida Flim-Flam?
Californias recent budget deficits will look bush league relative to the fiscal hurricane that federal health reform will unleash on California and many other states. I made that prediction in this space on December 2, but as we approach 2010 Californians should know that things are actually worse than I ...
Commentary
The Federal Regulatory Burden on American Health Care Soared Under Republican Rule
This dramatic different in length motivated me to attempt a similar measurement of the federal regulatory burden on U.S. health care by counting the pages dedicated to regulating health care in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) over the past decade. (I focused only on Medicare and Medicaid, regulation ...
Commentary
State Sovereignty Resolutions: The NY Times Weighs In
According to the New York Times, legislators sponsoring these resolutions are merely carrying water for various corporate interests in the health sector. Conspiratorially, the NY Times asserts that the idea of state sovereignty over health care popped up at the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, and was then picked up as ...
Commentary
It’s not about health care reform
The current legislation being presented in Congress is not about health care reform or health insurance reform. The only purpose is to increase the federal government’s power and control over American citizens. Many of the people supporting the legislation are doing so simply because they support the president and believe ...
Medicare for All or Medicare for None?
The primary cause of the Mayo Clinic’s dropping Medicare is its fees, which are too low for physicians to pay the rent. Some have argued that the physicians have been “crying wolf” on this for years. Well, the wolf is at the door, as I wrote in a recent study ...
Copenhagen’s failure an ironic victory for entrepreneurs and the environment
Tom Tanton [Senior Fellow, Energy Studies, Pacific Research Institute]: “The Copenhagen Climate Conference has concluded. The fanfare is over and world leaders have little to show for it. President Obama left the conference with hope that the compromise he came to with five other world leaders would be supported by ...
Tort system deficiencies raise health costs for all
Wayne Willoughby argued that tort reform amounts to “stripping away the rights of injured patients” (“‘Tort reform’ won’t fix health care,” Commentary, Dec. 18). But America’s current tort system is hardly adept at protecting patients’ interests. Very little of each tort-cost dollar goes to compensate the injured. Not only do ...
Guest view: Consider value-added tax, tort reform
Editors note: Several weeks ago, we asked readers to share their thoughts on what our state and region can do in the year ahead to help the economy specifically, how to grow the good-paying jobs we so desperately need. We also asked business leaders to tell us what theyve ...
Cadillac Health Plans; And Taxation Thereof
And I don’t just mean the HuffingtonPost/DailyKos/MoveOn.org crowd. There’s even a sense at the New York Times that the President’s faction has failed to grab history by the tail. Witness this column by Bob Herbert, who protests the tax on so-called “Cadillac health plans,” those which cost more than $23,000 ...
Sen. Bill Nelson’s Florida Flim Flam
Medicare Advantage allows seniors to use private insurers to give Medicare benefits. While far from perfect, Medicare Advantage has significant advantages over the traditional, government-monopoly model of Medicare, as I have recently examined. Heres an interesting notion: If Medicare Advantage provides superior benefits to traditional Medicare benefits, then the Florida ...
Health Reform: Would You Like A California Cash Cow or New York Pork With Your Cornhusker Kickback, Louisiana Purchase, and Florida Flim-Flam?
Californias recent budget deficits will look bush league relative to the fiscal hurricane that federal health reform will unleash on California and many other states. I made that prediction in this space on December 2, but as we approach 2010 Californians should know that things are actually worse than I ...
The Federal Regulatory Burden on American Health Care Soared Under Republican Rule
This dramatic different in length motivated me to attempt a similar measurement of the federal regulatory burden on U.S. health care by counting the pages dedicated to regulating health care in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) over the past decade. (I focused only on Medicare and Medicaid, regulation ...
State Sovereignty Resolutions: The NY Times Weighs In
According to the New York Times, legislators sponsoring these resolutions are merely carrying water for various corporate interests in the health sector. Conspiratorially, the NY Times asserts that the idea of state sovereignty over health care popped up at the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, and was then picked up as ...
It’s not about health care reform
The current legislation being presented in Congress is not about health care reform or health insurance reform. The only purpose is to increase the federal government’s power and control over American citizens. Many of the people supporting the legislation are doing so simply because they support the president and believe ...
