Medicaid
Health Care
U.S. should avoid Britain’s example
A British court just ruled that the U.K. government unfairly denied anti-dementia drugs to Alzheimer’s patients. The government’s reason for refusing to cover the drugs? Money. Government scrooges didn’t want to foot the bill. This kind of penny-pinching happens all too often in Britain, thanks to the National Institute for ...
Health Care
Medicare Means Testing: Test the Deductible, Not the Premium
The looming insolvency of Medicare is disappointingly absent from the list of policy issues on the carte du jour for the November general election. Fortunately, the current Administration recognizes the clear and present danger of Medicare insolvency. “Time is running out. Medicare is drifting toward disaster,”1 said U.S. Secretary of ...
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
Families USA’s “Failing Grades” Gets A Failing Grade
Families USA has found itself a great line of business: make up a quick and easy number to demonstrate how awful private health care is, and then replicate the made-up number for each state. We’ve already learned that 3,100 Californians supposedly die every year because of uninsurance; and that Medicaid ...
Commentary
Will the University of California take over “Killer King”?
Finally, California’s mainstream media has run a story that allows me to address two of my favorite bugbears: Los Angeles’ Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital, and San Francisco’s Health Access Plan! Apparently, Gov. Schwarzenegger and other politicians are quarterbacking an effort for the University of California medical system to take ...
Commentary
In a Time of Economic Trouble, Which Presidential Health Reform is Good Medicine?
With the specter of a serious recession looming, many Americans fear unemployment and loss of health coverage. Economists anticipate that the unemployment rate will jump from 6 percent up to 8 or 9 percent. Because most working people are entirely dependent upon their employer for health benefits, thousands will likely ...
Commentary
Commonwealth Fund’s Count of “Underinsured”: Lifting the Carpet
Once again, the scholars at the Commonwealth Fund have scared the bejayzus out of the mainstream media with their latest reckoning that over 25 million Americans are “underinsured”. While the 2007 numbers look worse than the previous ones from 2003 (when the estimate was only 15.6 million), the problems with ...
Commentary
Waiting Lists? Hospital Closures? Too Few Doctors? …Canada? No: Los Angeles
An appalling job of reporting in today’s New York Times, about the consequences to Los Angeles’ poorest residents of closing the county-run Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital almost a year ago. As I’ve written before, the county had plenty of opportunity over the last few months to let private operators ...
Commentary
Bogus Figures
The Eagle (Reading, PA), June 1, 2008 Letters from readers Bogus figures Editor: It has been stated by many politicians that 47 million Americans do not have health insurance. This number is bogus. According to Sally C. Pipes, president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Research Institute, the number ...
Commentary
Will Romneycare Hurt Mitt’s VP Bid?
As I was glassing over the news that I have missed over the last week, I came across this item from May 21 edition of the Wall Street Journal: The New Big DigMay 21, 2008; Page A18 Mitt Romney’s presidential run is history, but it looks as if the taxpayers ...
U.S. should avoid Britain’s example
A British court just ruled that the U.K. government unfairly denied anti-dementia drugs to Alzheimer’s patients. The government’s reason for refusing to cover the drugs? Money. Government scrooges didn’t want to foot the bill. This kind of penny-pinching happens all too often in Britain, thanks to the National Institute for ...
Medicare Means Testing: Test the Deductible, Not the Premium
The looming insolvency of Medicare is disappointingly absent from the list of policy issues on the carte du jour for the November general election. Fortunately, the current Administration recognizes the clear and present danger of Medicare insolvency. “Time is running out. Medicare is drifting toward disaster,”1 said U.S. Secretary of ...
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, ...
Families USA’s “Failing Grades” Gets A Failing Grade
Families USA has found itself a great line of business: make up a quick and easy number to demonstrate how awful private health care is, and then replicate the made-up number for each state. We’ve already learned that 3,100 Californians supposedly die every year because of uninsurance; and that Medicaid ...
Will the University of California take over “Killer King”?
Finally, California’s mainstream media has run a story that allows me to address two of my favorite bugbears: Los Angeles’ Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital, and San Francisco’s Health Access Plan! Apparently, Gov. Schwarzenegger and other politicians are quarterbacking an effort for the University of California medical system to take ...
In a Time of Economic Trouble, Which Presidential Health Reform is Good Medicine?
With the specter of a serious recession looming, many Americans fear unemployment and loss of health coverage. Economists anticipate that the unemployment rate will jump from 6 percent up to 8 or 9 percent. Because most working people are entirely dependent upon their employer for health benefits, thousands will likely ...
Commonwealth Fund’s Count of “Underinsured”: Lifting the Carpet
Once again, the scholars at the Commonwealth Fund have scared the bejayzus out of the mainstream media with their latest reckoning that over 25 million Americans are “underinsured”. While the 2007 numbers look worse than the previous ones from 2003 (when the estimate was only 15.6 million), the problems with ...
Waiting Lists? Hospital Closures? Too Few Doctors? …Canada? No: Los Angeles
An appalling job of reporting in today’s New York Times, about the consequences to Los Angeles’ poorest residents of closing the county-run Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital almost a year ago. As I’ve written before, the county had plenty of opportunity over the last few months to let private operators ...
Bogus Figures
The Eagle (Reading, PA), June 1, 2008 Letters from readers Bogus figures Editor: It has been stated by many politicians that 47 million Americans do not have health insurance. This number is bogus. According to Sally C. Pipes, president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Research Institute, the number ...
Will Romneycare Hurt Mitt’s VP Bid?
As I was glassing over the news that I have missed over the last week, I came across this item from May 21 edition of the Wall Street Journal: The New Big DigMay 21, 2008; Page A18 Mitt Romney’s presidential run is history, but it looks as if the taxpayers ...
