Commentary
Business & Economics
Lack Of Tort Reform Costing Pennsylvania
As Washington continues debating how to curb health care costs, one area largely ignored is medical malpractice reform. However, ample evidence from states indicates tort reform is central to overhauling the healthcare system. The Pacific Research Institute’s (PRI) 2008 Tort Liability Index ranks states’ tort laws, giving Pennsylvania a lowly ...
Commentary
L.A. Loosens Reins on School Administration
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has decided to allow outside groups, including for-profit charter school organizations, to run one-third of the district’s schools and possibly open 50 new ones of their own creation. As a result, more than 60,000 Los Angeles students could be getting more opportunities for ...
Climate Change
Oregon Governor Vetoes Bipartisan Subsidy Cut
The Oregon state legislature passed a bill reducing runaway renewable energy subsidies in an effort to help balance the state budget, but Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) killed the bill with a veto. Now Oregon, which already faced a budget shortfall, may have to find an additional $50 million in its ...
Commentary
North Carolina Group Sues for Equal Funding for Charters
School choice advocates have brought a lawsuit in North Carolina seeking funding equity in public education. The North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law filed a complaint on September 21 on behalf of seven charter schools challenging the state’s funding formula, seeking the ability to request money from the state in ...
Commentary
The Nanny State and the Cost of Unfunded Government Liabilities
The Market Oracle, November 1, 2009 “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among ...
Commentary
Medicare Reimbursement Cap Called Unlikely to Stop Fraud
Responding to serious Medicare fraud and corruption in Florida’s Miami-Dade County, where five doctors from one clinic were found guilty of racketeering over the past three years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is proposing a nationwide cap on Medicare reimbursements for treating in-home patients with chronic ailments. The ...
Commentary
California Assembly Expunges Santa Barbara Drilling Vote
The California State Assembly is refusing to provide the names of assemblymen who voted to ban oil recovery off the coast of Santa Barbara. Twenty-eight members supported the ban, but their votes cannot be found in the official state database. Assembly leaders expunged the votes in order to spare lawmakers ...
Commentary
Annual Medicare Fraud: $60 Billion; Annual Profits of Top Ten Insurance Companies: $8 billion
Well, let’s see…. Last year, the profits of the ten largest insurance companies in America were just over $8 billion — combined. No single insurance company made even five percent of what Medicare reportedly loses in fraud. While we’re making comparisons, in its real first ten years (2014-23), the Senate ...
Business & Economics
More of a Web world for print journalists
Think-tank Pacific Research Institute has announced it will launch a Sacramento-based investigative reporting Web site in January. The San Francisco-based institute has retained veteran journalist Steven Greenhut, who most recently served as deputy editor and columnist for The Orange County Register, to establish and lead the site, called “CalWatchdog.” Greenhut ...
Commentary
ObamaCare Has Already Driven Up Private Health Insurance Premiums
The Obama Administration has been attacking perfectly credible studies commissioned by AHIP, BCBSA, and WellPoint explaining why the proposed “reform” will drive up premiums for privately insured Americans. Yet, let’s not lose track of the fact that the Administration and the Congress have already taken steps to drive up the ...
Lack Of Tort Reform Costing Pennsylvania
As Washington continues debating how to curb health care costs, one area largely ignored is medical malpractice reform. However, ample evidence from states indicates tort reform is central to overhauling the healthcare system. The Pacific Research Institute’s (PRI) 2008 Tort Liability Index ranks states’ tort laws, giving Pennsylvania a lowly ...
L.A. Loosens Reins on School Administration
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has decided to allow outside groups, including for-profit charter school organizations, to run one-third of the district’s schools and possibly open 50 new ones of their own creation. As a result, more than 60,000 Los Angeles students could be getting more opportunities for ...
Oregon Governor Vetoes Bipartisan Subsidy Cut
The Oregon state legislature passed a bill reducing runaway renewable energy subsidies in an effort to help balance the state budget, but Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) killed the bill with a veto. Now Oregon, which already faced a budget shortfall, may have to find an additional $50 million in its ...
North Carolina Group Sues for Equal Funding for Charters
School choice advocates have brought a lawsuit in North Carolina seeking funding equity in public education. The North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law filed a complaint on September 21 on behalf of seven charter schools challenging the state’s funding formula, seeking the ability to request money from the state in ...
The Nanny State and the Cost of Unfunded Government Liabilities
The Market Oracle, November 1, 2009 “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among ...
Medicare Reimbursement Cap Called Unlikely to Stop Fraud
Responding to serious Medicare fraud and corruption in Florida’s Miami-Dade County, where five doctors from one clinic were found guilty of racketeering over the past three years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is proposing a nationwide cap on Medicare reimbursements for treating in-home patients with chronic ailments. The ...
California Assembly Expunges Santa Barbara Drilling Vote
The California State Assembly is refusing to provide the names of assemblymen who voted to ban oil recovery off the coast of Santa Barbara. Twenty-eight members supported the ban, but their votes cannot be found in the official state database. Assembly leaders expunged the votes in order to spare lawmakers ...
Annual Medicare Fraud: $60 Billion; Annual Profits of Top Ten Insurance Companies: $8 billion
Well, let’s see…. Last year, the profits of the ten largest insurance companies in America were just over $8 billion — combined. No single insurance company made even five percent of what Medicare reportedly loses in fraud. While we’re making comparisons, in its real first ten years (2014-23), the Senate ...
More of a Web world for print journalists
Think-tank Pacific Research Institute has announced it will launch a Sacramento-based investigative reporting Web site in January. The San Francisco-based institute has retained veteran journalist Steven Greenhut, who most recently served as deputy editor and columnist for The Orange County Register, to establish and lead the site, called “CalWatchdog.” Greenhut ...
ObamaCare Has Already Driven Up Private Health Insurance Premiums
The Obama Administration has been attacking perfectly credible studies commissioned by AHIP, BCBSA, and WellPoint explaining why the proposed “reform” will drive up premiums for privately insured Americans. Yet, let’s not lose track of the fact that the Administration and the Congress have already taken steps to drive up the ...
