Commentary
California
California Legislature About to Jack Up Rates on Individual Health Insurance
The California Assembly health committee has just voted thumbs-up to two bills that will increase the cost of individually purchased health insurance in the Golden State. Probably the least harmful is AB 2459, which prevents a health plan from rescinding an individual health policy six months after enrolling an individual, ...
Climate Change
Earth Day doomsayers need to get their facts right
Kansas City Hispanic News (Kansas City, MO), April 30, 2008* Holmen Courier (West Salem, WI), April 24, 2008 Mundo L.A. (Van Nuys, CA), April 24, 2008 With all the reminders to recycle, shrink our carbon footprint, and reduce our consumption of goods, just about everyone feels guilty on Earth Day. ...
Commentary
The Uninsured Are Not Causing the ER “Crisis”
When it comes to arguments for “universal” health care in America, the hardest myth to kill seems to be the one that goes like this: “Uninsured people do not have access to primary care physicians. Therefore, they wait until their symptoms are severe, then go to the ER, and don’t ...
Commentary
2008 Environmental Index Debunks Myth that U.S. Lags Europe in Environmental Performance
San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI) and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) today released the 2008 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators, an annual report highlighting the significant environmental developments and milestones in the United States and worldwide. The 2008 edition debunks the widely held perception that the U.S. ...
Commentary
Is Dr. Robert Jarvik Public Health Enemy Number 1?
There was quite an uproar when the politicians who decide what information Americans may or may not see attacked Pfizer for using a certain physician in its ad campaign for Lipitor, the popular anti-cholesterol pill. Remarkably, the spokesperson, Dr. Robert Jarvik, was the inventor of the first artificial heart. Apparently, ...
Business & Economics
Forbes: Starr County Among ‘Worst Places in America to Get Sued’
A Monday report in Forbes magazine listed Starr County as one of the “Worst Places to Get Sued in America”. The magazine tracked the top 50 most outrageous verdicts and “bizarre” run-away juries and emerged with a map that revealed a pattern of certain types of lawsuits being concentrated in ...
Commentary
Cost-Plus Medi-Cal Pricing in California’s Nursing Homes: What Were They Thinking?
Or, it might be more accurate to say, a deterioration in care, but I think there are other variables at work here that the research might not have analysed. The research in question is a 100-page study of the consequences of AB-1629, a 2004 California law that changed how Medi-Cal ...
Business & Economics
The Worst Places To Get Sued In America
By the time most law students have finished the first year of law school, they’ve had the responses “yes” and “no” surgically excised from their thoughts and replaced by the signature American legalism–“it depends.” And it does. Any attorney worth his salt knows a client’s fate frequently depends on the ...
Commentary
Re-opening a Community Hospital: Why Are Activists Still Blocking It?
Only one, small, for-profit hospital has stepped forward to take the risk of re-opening a Los Angeles County community hospital that had such an atrocious record that the County closed it last August. Recognizing its own incompetence, the County Board of Supervisors decided that the hospital should not re-open under ...
Business & Economics
Oil Prices
prices surpassed the inflation-adjusted record set back in 1980 during the Iranian hostage crisis. Since then, they have set all-time highs—over $111 per barrel as of this writing. These sky-high prices, as well as the “unconscionable” profits earned by the oil companies, have led to predictable calls for government to ...
California Legislature About to Jack Up Rates on Individual Health Insurance
The California Assembly health committee has just voted thumbs-up to two bills that will increase the cost of individually purchased health insurance in the Golden State. Probably the least harmful is AB 2459, which prevents a health plan from rescinding an individual health policy six months after enrolling an individual, ...
Earth Day doomsayers need to get their facts right
Kansas City Hispanic News (Kansas City, MO), April 30, 2008* Holmen Courier (West Salem, WI), April 24, 2008 Mundo L.A. (Van Nuys, CA), April 24, 2008 With all the reminders to recycle, shrink our carbon footprint, and reduce our consumption of goods, just about everyone feels guilty on Earth Day. ...
The Uninsured Are Not Causing the ER “Crisis”
When it comes to arguments for “universal” health care in America, the hardest myth to kill seems to be the one that goes like this: “Uninsured people do not have access to primary care physicians. Therefore, they wait until their symptoms are severe, then go to the ER, and don’t ...
2008 Environmental Index Debunks Myth that U.S. Lags Europe in Environmental Performance
San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI) and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) today released the 2008 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators, an annual report highlighting the significant environmental developments and milestones in the United States and worldwide. The 2008 edition debunks the widely held perception that the U.S. ...
Is Dr. Robert Jarvik Public Health Enemy Number 1?
There was quite an uproar when the politicians who decide what information Americans may or may not see attacked Pfizer for using a certain physician in its ad campaign for Lipitor, the popular anti-cholesterol pill. Remarkably, the spokesperson, Dr. Robert Jarvik, was the inventor of the first artificial heart. Apparently, ...
Forbes: Starr County Among ‘Worst Places in America to Get Sued’
A Monday report in Forbes magazine listed Starr County as one of the “Worst Places to Get Sued in America”. The magazine tracked the top 50 most outrageous verdicts and “bizarre” run-away juries and emerged with a map that revealed a pattern of certain types of lawsuits being concentrated in ...
Cost-Plus Medi-Cal Pricing in California’s Nursing Homes: What Were They Thinking?
Or, it might be more accurate to say, a deterioration in care, but I think there are other variables at work here that the research might not have analysed. The research in question is a 100-page study of the consequences of AB-1629, a 2004 California law that changed how Medi-Cal ...
The Worst Places To Get Sued In America
By the time most law students have finished the first year of law school, they’ve had the responses “yes” and “no” surgically excised from their thoughts and replaced by the signature American legalism–“it depends.” And it does. Any attorney worth his salt knows a client’s fate frequently depends on the ...
Re-opening a Community Hospital: Why Are Activists Still Blocking It?
Only one, small, for-profit hospital has stepped forward to take the risk of re-opening a Los Angeles County community hospital that had such an atrocious record that the County closed it last August. Recognizing its own incompetence, the County Board of Supervisors decided that the hospital should not re-open under ...
Oil Prices
prices surpassed the inflation-adjusted record set back in 1980 during the Iranian hostage crisis. Since then, they have set all-time highs—over $111 per barrel as of this writing. These sky-high prices, as well as the “unconscionable” profits earned by the oil companies, have led to predictable calls for government to ...
