Medicaid
Business & Economics
Curing the Healthcare Maladies in the Stimulus Package
As a psychiatrist, I’ve observed that people generally make bad decisions when they’re rushed and in crisis. Politicians, unfortunately, often fail to recognize this aspect of human nature. Clearly, we are in an economic crisis, which makes me immediately fearful of politicians’ proposed cures. In rushing to stimulate the economy—a ...
Commentary
The End of Medical Miracles?
Scientific discoveries are neither inevitable nor predictable Americans have, at best, a love-hate relationship with the life-sciences industry—the term for the sector of the economy that produces pharmaceuticals, biologics (like vaccines), and medical devices. These days, the mere mention of a pharmaceutical manufacturer seems to elicit gut-level hostility. Journalists, operating ...
Commentary
Fewer Alaska Doctors Take New Medicare Patients
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), June 1, 2009 Fewer than 20 percent of physicians surveyed in Alaska’s largest city are accepting new patients covered by Medicare, according to a study by the University of Alaska-Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research. Only 38 percent of that total are in private ...
Commentary
Minnesota Lawmakers Propose More Control over Health Care
Minnesota legislators have announced several health care reform proposals they say will reduce health care spending by the state government to help lower the state’s looming budget deficit. The proposals include requiring patients to enroll in medical homes; ending state payment for medical errors; implementing a licensing and preferential treatment ...
Commentary
Obama’s health reforms: Freddie Doc and Fannie Med
IN the battle over health reform, one issue has emerged as particularly divisive – the president’s proposed government health plan that would compete with private insurers. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer recently promised that such a program would be immune to perpetual taxpayer bailouts because he would ensure that it would ...
Commentary
Yes, I Do Have a Nerve
Well, I’m in the same boat. So, I’ll be happy to enter into a “compact” with Mr. Wright (and everybody else): if he’ll ask the government to return the share of my paycheck that it has taken for Medicare, which his parents use, then I’ll ask the government to return ...
Health Care
Testimony of John R. Graham, Director of Health Care Studies, Pacific Research Institute to Arizona House Health & Human Services
Thank you for inviting me here today to speak about the importance of the Arizona Health Care Freedom Act, HCR 2014. I believe that this bill is critical to Arizonans’ individual choice in health care, and a bulwark against undue government control of their access to health services. I am ...
Commentary
Today’s “Public Options” Are Already Bankrupt
Mr. Wulsin reports the Congressional Budget Office’s conclusion that private insurers pay providers 20 percent to 30 percent above their costs; Medicare’s payments lay somewhere above or below the line; and Medicaid pays about 20 percent below costs. We call this the cost-shift, which increases private health insurance premiums by ...
Business & Economics
Health Care Hold Up: Why Obama Won’t Give California Its Medi-Cal Bailout
Senator Barbara Boxer promised that California would get $11 billion in federal “stimulus” cash, which the embattled Golden State could use for a Medi-Cal bailout. But now President Obama is holding back almost $7 billion at the urging of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The union was upset at ...
Commentary
Dangerous Health-Care Myths
Sally C. Pipes’s latest title, The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care, is a useful handbook for the health-care policy battle ahead. Pipes, the president of the Pacific Research Institute, shatters much of the conventional wisdom about American health care and offers conservatives bountiful ammunition for the coming showdown. ...
Curing the Healthcare Maladies in the Stimulus Package
As a psychiatrist, I’ve observed that people generally make bad decisions when they’re rushed and in crisis. Politicians, unfortunately, often fail to recognize this aspect of human nature. Clearly, we are in an economic crisis, which makes me immediately fearful of politicians’ proposed cures. In rushing to stimulate the economy—a ...
The End of Medical Miracles?
Scientific discoveries are neither inevitable nor predictable Americans have, at best, a love-hate relationship with the life-sciences industry—the term for the sector of the economy that produces pharmaceuticals, biologics (like vaccines), and medical devices. These days, the mere mention of a pharmaceutical manufacturer seems to elicit gut-level hostility. Journalists, operating ...
Fewer Alaska Doctors Take New Medicare Patients
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), June 1, 2009 Fewer than 20 percent of physicians surveyed in Alaska’s largest city are accepting new patients covered by Medicare, according to a study by the University of Alaska-Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research. Only 38 percent of that total are in private ...
Minnesota Lawmakers Propose More Control over Health Care
Minnesota legislators have announced several health care reform proposals they say will reduce health care spending by the state government to help lower the state’s looming budget deficit. The proposals include requiring patients to enroll in medical homes; ending state payment for medical errors; implementing a licensing and preferential treatment ...
Obama’s health reforms: Freddie Doc and Fannie Med
IN the battle over health reform, one issue has emerged as particularly divisive – the president’s proposed government health plan that would compete with private insurers. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer recently promised that such a program would be immune to perpetual taxpayer bailouts because he would ensure that it would ...
Yes, I Do Have a Nerve
Well, I’m in the same boat. So, I’ll be happy to enter into a “compact” with Mr. Wright (and everybody else): if he’ll ask the government to return the share of my paycheck that it has taken for Medicare, which his parents use, then I’ll ask the government to return ...
Testimony of John R. Graham, Director of Health Care Studies, Pacific Research Institute to Arizona House Health & Human Services
Thank you for inviting me here today to speak about the importance of the Arizona Health Care Freedom Act, HCR 2014. I believe that this bill is critical to Arizonans’ individual choice in health care, and a bulwark against undue government control of their access to health services. I am ...
Today’s “Public Options” Are Already Bankrupt
Mr. Wulsin reports the Congressional Budget Office’s conclusion that private insurers pay providers 20 percent to 30 percent above their costs; Medicare’s payments lay somewhere above or below the line; and Medicaid pays about 20 percent below costs. We call this the cost-shift, which increases private health insurance premiums by ...
Health Care Hold Up: Why Obama Won’t Give California Its Medi-Cal Bailout
Senator Barbara Boxer promised that California would get $11 billion in federal “stimulus” cash, which the embattled Golden State could use for a Medi-Cal bailout. But now President Obama is holding back almost $7 billion at the urging of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The union was upset at ...
Dangerous Health-Care Myths
Sally C. Pipes’s latest title, The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care, is a useful handbook for the health-care policy battle ahead. Pipes, the president of the Pacific Research Institute, shatters much of the conventional wisdom about American health care and offers conservatives bountiful ammunition for the coming showdown. ...
