Commentary

Commentary

Government-Monopoly Health Care in California: Legislative Analyst Concludes That Taxes Must Be Hiked One-Third More Than Anticipated

California’s non-partisan Legislative Analyst has weighed in on the costs of government-monopoly health care. Backers of such systems are rushing to the barricades, but the revelations serve as welcome enlightenment for all Californians. Last year, Governor Schwarzenegger, former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, and an unlikely alliance of business and union ...
Business & Economics

Network Neutrality – Michael Dresser Show

PRI’s Technology Studies Policy Fellow, Daniel Ballon, PhD., discussed the issue of net neutrality and why it is so important to avoid excessive regulation of the internet. Service providers need to be free to implement new technology and that is what net neutrality regulations would take away from them. The ...
Commentary

Today’s Commentary on the News – CA SB 1313

Today’s Commentary on the News As if things aren’t expensive enough… Let’s regulate cooking utensils, food packaging and more… Good grief! Trying to write about particularly stupid legislation that is moving forward in the State Legislature is a sport akin to shooting fish in a barrel (see the video). That ...
Commentary

Has the Autism Mandate Avalanche Hit A Roadblock?

Last August, I wrote an op-ed in the Philadelphia Business Journal decrying the Commonwealth’s rush to impose a mandate for autism treatment costing $36,000 per patient. (Note: this is a specific, new, treatment, not autism treatment that health plans already cover.) I figured the annual cost of the treatment would ...
Business & Economics

Group Says Illinois Has Worst Litigation Climate

Among the 50 states, Illinois has the worst litigation climate for business and the highest risk for lawsuits, according to a non-profit business coalition. The rankings for best and worst states were produced by the American Justice Partnership Foundation (AJP), in collaboration with the Directorship publication. According to the group’s ...
California

California Health Plans’ Success

Like other bloggers here, I’m no fan of employer-sponsored health care. I wish those who benefit from it would embrace real, consumer-driven reform. Nevertheless, I am always amazed at how the mainstream media covers stories of health insurers’ “denial of care”. It’s kind of like watching Michael Moore’s grotesquely misleading ...
Business & Economics

Rising Demand, Weak Dollar Cause Pain at the Pump

The price of oil just soared above $130 per barrel. Consumers want to know why oil prices are so high and what they can do about it. Politicians claim that greedy oil companies are hiking prices to fatten profits. But weren’t oil companies greedy in 2002, when the price was ...
Business & Economics

Tort reform would spark lagging local economy

The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen more than 1,500 points since last year. Bear Stearns has gone belly up. Every week talking heads point to a different blue-chip company supposedly teetering on the brink of financial ruin. It seems as if things couldn’t get worse for Wall Street and ...
Commentary

Opinion column ignored real concerns about GMOs

The Eureka Reporter, June 21, 2008 Dear Editor, The opinion column by Amy Kaleita of the Pacific Research Institute reads as if it was written by and for the benefit of Monsanto Corp. Many consumers are concerned about the effects of GMOs on food security and believe that GMOs are ...
Commentary

New York’s Discount Prescription Drug Plan: Medicaid Hammer With A Twist?

A bill to provide discounts on prescription drugs to low-income New Yorkers recently passed the Assembly and has moved over to the Senate. A03848 seeks to give the state the power to “negotiate” discounts for prescription drugs for Empire Staters who earn up to 350% of the Federal Poverty Line, ...
Commentary

Government-Monopoly Health Care in California: Legislative Analyst Concludes That Taxes Must Be Hiked One-Third More Than Anticipated

California’s non-partisan Legislative Analyst has weighed in on the costs of government-monopoly health care. Backers of such systems are rushing to the barricades, but the revelations serve as welcome enlightenment for all Californians. Last year, Governor Schwarzenegger, former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, and an unlikely alliance of business and union ...
Business & Economics

Network Neutrality – Michael Dresser Show

PRI’s Technology Studies Policy Fellow, Daniel Ballon, PhD., discussed the issue of net neutrality and why it is so important to avoid excessive regulation of the internet. Service providers need to be free to implement new technology and that is what net neutrality regulations would take away from them. The ...
Commentary

Today’s Commentary on the News – CA SB 1313

Today’s Commentary on the News As if things aren’t expensive enough… Let’s regulate cooking utensils, food packaging and more… Good grief! Trying to write about particularly stupid legislation that is moving forward in the State Legislature is a sport akin to shooting fish in a barrel (see the video). That ...
Commentary

Has the Autism Mandate Avalanche Hit A Roadblock?

Last August, I wrote an op-ed in the Philadelphia Business Journal decrying the Commonwealth’s rush to impose a mandate for autism treatment costing $36,000 per patient. (Note: this is a specific, new, treatment, not autism treatment that health plans already cover.) I figured the annual cost of the treatment would ...
Business & Economics

Group Says Illinois Has Worst Litigation Climate

Among the 50 states, Illinois has the worst litigation climate for business and the highest risk for lawsuits, according to a non-profit business coalition. The rankings for best and worst states were produced by the American Justice Partnership Foundation (AJP), in collaboration with the Directorship publication. According to the group’s ...
California

California Health Plans’ Success

Like other bloggers here, I’m no fan of employer-sponsored health care. I wish those who benefit from it would embrace real, consumer-driven reform. Nevertheless, I am always amazed at how the mainstream media covers stories of health insurers’ “denial of care”. It’s kind of like watching Michael Moore’s grotesquely misleading ...
Business & Economics

Rising Demand, Weak Dollar Cause Pain at the Pump

The price of oil just soared above $130 per barrel. Consumers want to know why oil prices are so high and what they can do about it. Politicians claim that greedy oil companies are hiking prices to fatten profits. But weren’t oil companies greedy in 2002, when the price was ...
Business & Economics

Tort reform would spark lagging local economy

The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen more than 1,500 points since last year. Bear Stearns has gone belly up. Every week talking heads point to a different blue-chip company supposedly teetering on the brink of financial ruin. It seems as if things couldn’t get worse for Wall Street and ...
Commentary

Opinion column ignored real concerns about GMOs

The Eureka Reporter, June 21, 2008 Dear Editor, The opinion column by Amy Kaleita of the Pacific Research Institute reads as if it was written by and for the benefit of Monsanto Corp. Many consumers are concerned about the effects of GMOs on food security and believe that GMOs are ...
Commentary

New York’s Discount Prescription Drug Plan: Medicaid Hammer With A Twist?

A bill to provide discounts on prescription drugs to low-income New Yorkers recently passed the Assembly and has moved over to the Senate. A03848 seeks to give the state the power to “negotiate” discounts for prescription drugs for Empire Staters who earn up to 350% of the Federal Poverty Line, ...
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