Commentary
Blackouts
California’s Energy Policy Risks Tilting at Windmills as Electric Car Sales Grow
A cosmic policy convergence is brewing a nasty storm that will hit California hard in a few years. With deadlines for an all-renewable electricity grid as well as the end of sales of new gasoline-powered cars bearing down on the state, we’re facing a future of commonplace blackouts and energy ...
Kerry Jackson
April 14, 2021
Commentary
Sanders Proposal Brings Medicare Closer To The Brink Of Collapse
President Joe Biden wants to lower Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 60. Now Sen. Bernie Sanders is intent on doing him one better. The Vermont socialist, the country’s leading promoter of single-payer health care, is pushing Democrats to open up Medicare to Americans as young as 55. “There are many millions of seniors ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 12, 2021
Climate Change
Fund coronavirus research, not a climate change musical
I’ve been a science nerd almost all my life. In graduate school, I was the co-discoverer of a bacterial enzyme essential to DNA replication and of a key enzyme in the influenza virus. I have written more than a thousand articles concerned with science and science policy. I’m convinced that America’s prosperity is based on post-WWII ...
Henry Miller, M.S., M.D.
April 8, 2021
Commentary
‘Rescue’ package makes poor pay for rich’s health care
President Joe Biden recently signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law. With a stroke of his pen, he claimed to put “working people in this nation first. It’s not hyperbole; it’s a fact.” A closer look at this so-called “rescue” package suggests otherwise. Democrats tucked two provisions into the law ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 8, 2021
California
Green Jobs Demonstrate The Perils Of Government-Directed Economic Growth
Part of President Biden’s Build Back Better initiative promises to “create good-paying union jobs and train Americans for jobs of the future.” The unspoken theory behind this initiative is that green jobs will offer a pay premium to workers compared to jobs in the fossil fuel industry. It also reflects the Administration’s ...
Wayne Winegarden
April 7, 2021
Commentary
President Biden’s Weak Vaccination Incentives Hurt Americans
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently expressed a sense of “impending doom” regarding the pandemic. Her fear is that, unless Americans keep abiding by strict Covid-19 protocols like mask-wearing, social distancing, and forgoing travel, a new surge in cases and deaths could be on ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 7, 2021
Commentary
Hospitals shouldn’t be the gatekeepers of healthcare prices
It’s been more than three months since the federal government ordered hospitals to make like the rest of the economy and start publishing their prices. But nearly two-thirds of the country’s largest hospitals are refusing to do so, according to Health Affairs analysis. That’s absurd. Price transparency is fundamental to the efficient ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 1, 2021
Commentary
What the Public Gets Wrong About the Public Option
Nearly seven in 10 voters, including more than half of Republicans, support a public health insurance option, according to new polling from Morning Consult. Medicare for All is less popular. Some 55 percent of voters embrace the idea. Americans might see the public option as a moderate alternative to the explicit government takeover of ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 31, 2021
Commentary
Conservatives Have Healthcare Ideas, Too
Democrats are pushing ahead with their healthcare agenda. In the last few weeks, progressive lawmakers have introduced a new Medicare for All bill, proposed legislation that would implement a public option, and poured billions of dollars into expanding Obamacare subsidies. The press is wondering how Republicans will respond. Last month, ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 29, 2021
Commentary
Let health care workers treat patients in any state
Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., recently introduced legislation that would allow licensed medical professionals to provide treatment in any state through the remainder of the pandemic. That’s a good idea. But its existence sheds light on a bigger problem within our health care system. Even under normal ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 26, 2021
California’s Energy Policy Risks Tilting at Windmills as Electric Car Sales Grow
A cosmic policy convergence is brewing a nasty storm that will hit California hard in a few years. With deadlines for an all-renewable electricity grid as well as the end of sales of new gasoline-powered cars bearing down on the state, we’re facing a future of commonplace blackouts and energy ...
Sanders Proposal Brings Medicare Closer To The Brink Of Collapse
President Joe Biden wants to lower Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 60. Now Sen. Bernie Sanders is intent on doing him one better. The Vermont socialist, the country’s leading promoter of single-payer health care, is pushing Democrats to open up Medicare to Americans as young as 55. “There are many millions of seniors ...
Fund coronavirus research, not a climate change musical
I’ve been a science nerd almost all my life. In graduate school, I was the co-discoverer of a bacterial enzyme essential to DNA replication and of a key enzyme in the influenza virus. I have written more than a thousand articles concerned with science and science policy. I’m convinced that America’s prosperity is based on post-WWII ...
‘Rescue’ package makes poor pay for rich’s health care
President Joe Biden recently signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law. With a stroke of his pen, he claimed to put “working people in this nation first. It’s not hyperbole; it’s a fact.” A closer look at this so-called “rescue” package suggests otherwise. Democrats tucked two provisions into the law ...
Green Jobs Demonstrate The Perils Of Government-Directed Economic Growth
Part of President Biden’s Build Back Better initiative promises to “create good-paying union jobs and train Americans for jobs of the future.” The unspoken theory behind this initiative is that green jobs will offer a pay premium to workers compared to jobs in the fossil fuel industry. It also reflects the Administration’s ...
President Biden’s Weak Vaccination Incentives Hurt Americans
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently expressed a sense of “impending doom” regarding the pandemic. Her fear is that, unless Americans keep abiding by strict Covid-19 protocols like mask-wearing, social distancing, and forgoing travel, a new surge in cases and deaths could be on ...
Hospitals shouldn’t be the gatekeepers of healthcare prices
It’s been more than three months since the federal government ordered hospitals to make like the rest of the economy and start publishing their prices. But nearly two-thirds of the country’s largest hospitals are refusing to do so, according to Health Affairs analysis. That’s absurd. Price transparency is fundamental to the efficient ...
What the Public Gets Wrong About the Public Option
Nearly seven in 10 voters, including more than half of Republicans, support a public health insurance option, according to new polling from Morning Consult. Medicare for All is less popular. Some 55 percent of voters embrace the idea. Americans might see the public option as a moderate alternative to the explicit government takeover of ...
Conservatives Have Healthcare Ideas, Too
Democrats are pushing ahead with their healthcare agenda. In the last few weeks, progressive lawmakers have introduced a new Medicare for All bill, proposed legislation that would implement a public option, and poured billions of dollars into expanding Obamacare subsidies. The press is wondering how Republicans will respond. Last month, ...
Let health care workers treat patients in any state
Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., recently introduced legislation that would allow licensed medical professionals to provide treatment in any state through the remainder of the pandemic. That’s a good idea. But its existence sheds light on a bigger problem within our health care system. Even under normal ...