Commentary
Business & Economics
Technology and the Aspiring Methuselahs
More than 200 scientists and longevity activists gathered at UCLA recently to discuss advancements in repairing humans. New technology is making it possible to imagine a world with ever greater life spans, but old world issues pervaded the discussions. The Methuselah Foundation’s Aubrey de Grey organized the event and kicked ...
Commentary
Private Hospitals Join S.F. Universal Health Access Effort
On Thursday, a number of private, not-for-profit hospitals signed on to treat uninsured people enrolled in San Francisco’s universal health care access program, expanding the effort beyond the city’s public health system, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Healthy San Francisco intends to provide care for all of the city’s 73,000 ...
California
Healthy San Francisco Plan Finally Signs Up Some Hospitals
San Francisco’s tax-hiking and opaque pay-or-play business tax to fund its public health bureaucracy claims to have finally overcome one of the major criticisms that I had made of it. Namely, that it did nothing to improve the quality or delivery of health care to (previously) uninsured San Franciscans, because ...
Business & Economics
Big Brother Online
The bipartisan housing bill currently being debated in the Senate contains an unrelated amendment that will burden innovative Internet companies and threaten the civil liberties of every American. Without any discussion, Senators added a provision to H.R. 3221 (The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008) requiring electronic ...
Business & Economics
Smaller Government is Only Solution to Budget Crisis
The debate over California’s fiscal crisis continues, with the governor seeking constitutional limits on spending and others calling for a flat tax or mechanisms such as “paygo.” Yet in order for any of these proposals to work, California citizens need to stop looking to the state to run their lives. ...
Commentary
Blueprint for Education Reform Leaves out Choice
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared 2008 “The Year of Education Reform,” and more than halfway through the year, California parents continue to wait for promised relief. If the governor’s blueprint for reform is any indication, they may be waiting for a long time. Governor Schwarzenegger unveiled Students First: Renewing Hope for ...
Business & Economics
The North Carolina Business Court Is A “Model For the Nation”
North Carolina’s Business Court is a “model for the nation,” according to Directorship Magazine’s Annual Guide to State Litigation. In addition to complimenting the Business Court, the Annual Guide gave North Carolina’s litigation climate a green light, indicating that the “state’s liability climate encourages growth and job creation.” It gave ...
Commentary
The Doubt of the Benefit: Why State Benefit Mandates are a Poor Prescription for Health Insurance
A benefit mandate is a state law that commands a health plan to pay for, or at least offer, a specified treatment or type of provider, removing the benefit from negotiation between beneficiaries and health plans. For example, a mandate may require a health plan to cover treatment of alcoholism, ...
California
California’s Health Insurance Rescissions: Hospitals Get Their Pound of Flesh
Yesterday, I asked the quasi-rhetorical question: “Why did California’s campaign against Anthem Blue Cross collapse?”, addressing state regulators’ failure to collect a $1 million fine for Anthem Blue Cross’ allegedly illegal rescission of individuals’ policies. Well, it looks like it didn’t collapse: the hospitals have just wrangled over $11 million ...
California
Why Did California’s Campaign Against Anthem Blue Cross Collapse?
I have written a series of blog entries about California’s health care regulators attacking health plans for “rescission,” which the regulators have equated with “post-claims underwriting.” The former consists of revoking a policy because the beneficiary made a material misrepresentation about his health status on his application. The latter consists ...
Technology and the Aspiring Methuselahs
More than 200 scientists and longevity activists gathered at UCLA recently to discuss advancements in repairing humans. New technology is making it possible to imagine a world with ever greater life spans, but old world issues pervaded the discussions. The Methuselah Foundation’s Aubrey de Grey organized the event and kicked ...
Private Hospitals Join S.F. Universal Health Access Effort
On Thursday, a number of private, not-for-profit hospitals signed on to treat uninsured people enrolled in San Francisco’s universal health care access program, expanding the effort beyond the city’s public health system, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Healthy San Francisco intends to provide care for all of the city’s 73,000 ...
Healthy San Francisco Plan Finally Signs Up Some Hospitals
San Francisco’s tax-hiking and opaque pay-or-play business tax to fund its public health bureaucracy claims to have finally overcome one of the major criticisms that I had made of it. Namely, that it did nothing to improve the quality or delivery of health care to (previously) uninsured San Franciscans, because ...
Big Brother Online
The bipartisan housing bill currently being debated in the Senate contains an unrelated amendment that will burden innovative Internet companies and threaten the civil liberties of every American. Without any discussion, Senators added a provision to H.R. 3221 (The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008) requiring electronic ...
Smaller Government is Only Solution to Budget Crisis
The debate over California’s fiscal crisis continues, with the governor seeking constitutional limits on spending and others calling for a flat tax or mechanisms such as “paygo.” Yet in order for any of these proposals to work, California citizens need to stop looking to the state to run their lives. ...
Blueprint for Education Reform Leaves out Choice
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared 2008 “The Year of Education Reform,” and more than halfway through the year, California parents continue to wait for promised relief. If the governor’s blueprint for reform is any indication, they may be waiting for a long time. Governor Schwarzenegger unveiled Students First: Renewing Hope for ...
The North Carolina Business Court Is A “Model For the Nation”
North Carolina’s Business Court is a “model for the nation,” according to Directorship Magazine’s Annual Guide to State Litigation. In addition to complimenting the Business Court, the Annual Guide gave North Carolina’s litigation climate a green light, indicating that the “state’s liability climate encourages growth and job creation.” It gave ...
The Doubt of the Benefit: Why State Benefit Mandates are a Poor Prescription for Health Insurance
A benefit mandate is a state law that commands a health plan to pay for, or at least offer, a specified treatment or type of provider, removing the benefit from negotiation between beneficiaries and health plans. For example, a mandate may require a health plan to cover treatment of alcoholism, ...
California’s Health Insurance Rescissions: Hospitals Get Their Pound of Flesh
Yesterday, I asked the quasi-rhetorical question: “Why did California’s campaign against Anthem Blue Cross collapse?”, addressing state regulators’ failure to collect a $1 million fine for Anthem Blue Cross’ allegedly illegal rescission of individuals’ policies. Well, it looks like it didn’t collapse: the hospitals have just wrangled over $11 million ...
Why Did California’s Campaign Against Anthem Blue Cross Collapse?
I have written a series of blog entries about California’s health care regulators attacking health plans for “rescission,” which the regulators have equated with “post-claims underwriting.” The former consists of revoking a policy because the beneficiary made a material misrepresentation about his health status on his application. The latter consists ...
