Commentary
Commentary
It’s time for hospitals to be transparent about their prices
More than a year after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services enacted a rule requiring hospitals to disclose prices for routine procedures, most still aren’t complying. That’s according to a new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. As of last month, CMS had issued 335 warnings ...
Commentary
Don’t Fall for the ‘Certificate of Need’ Laws Con Game
Last week, the South Carolina state Senate voted overwhelmingly to end the state’s certificate of need program, which requires healthcare providers to seek government approval before building or expanding a hospital or purchasing pricey medical equipment. Such policies have long been justified as tools for avoiding duplicative or wasteful healthcare expenditures. Their only real ...
Commentary
Bureaucratic red tape is deadly
As omicron rips across the United States, the Biden administration has started handing out 1 billion rapid COVID-19 tests to Americans. But households are limited to just four tests. And they’ll have to wait nearly two weeks for their tests to arrive in the mail. In some states, the omicron ...
Climate Change
The Wrong Solutions: Climate Change Policies Increasingly Embrace Unreality
Advocates and public officials blame a growing number of seemingly unrelated phenomena, from tornadoes to medical problems, on climate change. As the list grows, they call for policies to tackle the putative crisis, while overlooking the flaws in their preferred solutions. Consider, for example, the rush into electrification to leverage renewable energy as ...
Commentary
Drug discount program padding hospital profits
Improving vulnerable populations’ access to medicines is clearly important. But something is amiss when a program that is supposed to improve access to healthcare has turned into a cash cow for hospitals. Yet, that is what has happened to the obscure 340B drug discount program. Too many hospitals across Massachusetts ...
Commentary
Medicare Advantage Gives Seniors An Advantage
More than 28.5 million patients are now enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, according to new federal data. That’s up nearly 9% compared with the same time last year. More than 40% of the more than 63 million people enrolled in Medicare are now in an MA plan. Enrollment in MA has been surging for some ...
California
Railroad cargo theft boom result of politicians not doing their jobs
Walking with a trash bag, a ball cap fixed on his head, and a T-shirt more likely to be from Neiman Marcus than T.J. Maxx, Gov. Gavin Newsom made the most of a photo op intended to show his seriousness in stopping the great train raids of Los Angeles. While ...
Agriculture
Canada poised to join expanding number of countries endorsing crop gene editing. That’s encouraging – but global reform remains elusive
Gene editing, which allows precise edits to the genome, has been widely used for a variety of applications in laboratories worldwide since its discovery a decade ago. It has tremendous potential: Researchers hope to use it to alter human genes to eliminate diseases; improve the characteristics of plants; resist pathogens; ...
Commentary
Oregon wants to ration health care in new proposal
One of the most important health care protections for low-income Americans is the requirement that state Medicaid programs cover nearly all medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This directive prevents states from balancing their books on the backs of the poor by excluding expensive drugs from Medicaid. Last ...
Commentary
Democrats Eye Canada’s Failed Healthcare System – Why?
Democrats in Congress are working to resurrect the Build Back Better Act, their massive social spending proposal that stalled in the Senate last month. To be certain, there’s plenty of disagreement across the party’s moderate and progressive wings. Yet, they’re largely aligned on healthcare. Indeed, Democrats are determined to increase the number ...
It’s time for hospitals to be transparent about their prices
More than a year after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services enacted a rule requiring hospitals to disclose prices for routine procedures, most still aren’t complying. That’s according to a new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. As of last month, CMS had issued 335 warnings ...
Don’t Fall for the ‘Certificate of Need’ Laws Con Game
Last week, the South Carolina state Senate voted overwhelmingly to end the state’s certificate of need program, which requires healthcare providers to seek government approval before building or expanding a hospital or purchasing pricey medical equipment. Such policies have long been justified as tools for avoiding duplicative or wasteful healthcare expenditures. Their only real ...
Bureaucratic red tape is deadly
As omicron rips across the United States, the Biden administration has started handing out 1 billion rapid COVID-19 tests to Americans. But households are limited to just four tests. And they’ll have to wait nearly two weeks for their tests to arrive in the mail. In some states, the omicron ...
The Wrong Solutions: Climate Change Policies Increasingly Embrace Unreality
Advocates and public officials blame a growing number of seemingly unrelated phenomena, from tornadoes to medical problems, on climate change. As the list grows, they call for policies to tackle the putative crisis, while overlooking the flaws in their preferred solutions. Consider, for example, the rush into electrification to leverage renewable energy as ...
Drug discount program padding hospital profits
Improving vulnerable populations’ access to medicines is clearly important. But something is amiss when a program that is supposed to improve access to healthcare has turned into a cash cow for hospitals. Yet, that is what has happened to the obscure 340B drug discount program. Too many hospitals across Massachusetts ...
Medicare Advantage Gives Seniors An Advantage
More than 28.5 million patients are now enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, according to new federal data. That’s up nearly 9% compared with the same time last year. More than 40% of the more than 63 million people enrolled in Medicare are now in an MA plan. Enrollment in MA has been surging for some ...
Railroad cargo theft boom result of politicians not doing their jobs
Walking with a trash bag, a ball cap fixed on his head, and a T-shirt more likely to be from Neiman Marcus than T.J. Maxx, Gov. Gavin Newsom made the most of a photo op intended to show his seriousness in stopping the great train raids of Los Angeles. While ...
Canada poised to join expanding number of countries endorsing crop gene editing. That’s encouraging – but global reform remains elusive
Gene editing, which allows precise edits to the genome, has been widely used for a variety of applications in laboratories worldwide since its discovery a decade ago. It has tremendous potential: Researchers hope to use it to alter human genes to eliminate diseases; improve the characteristics of plants; resist pathogens; ...
Oregon wants to ration health care in new proposal
One of the most important health care protections for low-income Americans is the requirement that state Medicaid programs cover nearly all medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This directive prevents states from balancing their books on the backs of the poor by excluding expensive drugs from Medicaid. Last ...
Democrats Eye Canada’s Failed Healthcare System – Why?
Democrats in Congress are working to resurrect the Build Back Better Act, their massive social spending proposal that stalled in the Senate last month. To be certain, there’s plenty of disagreement across the party’s moderate and progressive wings. Yet, they’re largely aligned on healthcare. Indeed, Democrats are determined to increase the number ...
