Medicaid
Commentary
Los Angeles Times Health Care Whiplash!
Reading the Los Angeles Times, you might think there are two different Los Angeles, in two parallel universes. On the one hand, Karl Mannheim and Jamie Court criticize Hillary Clinton’s and Barrack Obama’s proposals for mandatory, private, health insurance by correctly asserting that that the Constitution does not give lawmakers ...
John R. Graham
March 26, 2008
California
California’s Convenient Clinics: Some Win, Some Lose, All Change
The Sacramento Business Journal (subscribers only) has surveyed the “drop-in” clinics that have sprouted up around the state’s capital city in the last three years or so. It’s amazing what a diverse group they are! Sutter Express Care, owned by a large non-profit, hospital chain, has been hoping to use ...
John R. Graham
March 11, 2008
Commentary
Colorado Commission Proposes More Government Intervention
The Colorado Legislature’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform has approved a package of recommendations for comprehensive reform of the state’s health care system. Health policy analysts criticized the commission’s recommendations, saying they would damage the market and decrease consumer choice. Calling for Government Action The Blue Ribbon Commission ...
Dr. Sanjit Bagchi
March 1, 2008
California
Senator Kuehl’s Health Care Agenda
Democratic Sen. Sheila Kuehl, who chairs the Senate health committee, made sure that a recent attempt at health care overhaul in California went down in flames last month. Her committee rejected ABX1 1, the Schwarzenegger-Nunez health care reform legislation. That measure aimed for “universal” health care through compulsory purchase of ...
Diana M. Ernst
February 22, 2008
Commentary
Do Our Candidates Need Their Vision Corrected?
The campaign trail is awash with promises to make universal health care a reality in the next presidential term. Candidates from both parties claim they can lower costs — and insure everyone — through legislative mandates and increased government intervention in the healthcare market. But they’re wrong. Only with a ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 22, 2008
Commentary
Massachusetts Hospital Association’s New Recipe for Fudge
An amazing story in the usually reliable Boston Globe by Steve LeBlanc made me gulp: might I have to recant my position on the ineffective and expensive Massachusetts health reform? Luckily, no: a report by the Massachusetts Hospital Association on the reform’s “success” manages to fudge the numbers just enough ...
John R. Graham
February 21, 2008
California
What Now for California Health Care?
Last month the Senate health committee dumped the Schwarzenegger/Núñez Model ABX1 1, California’s trend-setting gadget for health-care repair. Senator Sheila Kuehl, who chairs that committee, tossed it for more personal reasons, other than the obvious $14-billion price tag and state budget deficit of similar size. Senator Kuehl wants to bring ...
Diana M. Ernst
February 13, 2008
Commentary
1 bad health plan dies; another looms
A real alternative to government control would be a system driven by consumer choice The state Senate Health Committee voted overwhelmingly last month to trash the universal health care plan promoted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez. Supporters of the plan, known as ABX1 1, murmured about ...
Diana M. Ernst
February 8, 2008
Commentary
Thrills, Chills and Hospital Bills: Maybe They’re Not So Crazy After All
The other day, I examined the pointlessness of a class-action lawsuit ordering Scripps Health hospitals in San Diego to give post facto discounts to uninsured patients who had been charged “too much”, even though most of them had not paid their bills anyway! Today, we learn the overall payment to ...
John R. Graham
February 5, 2008
Commentary
Losing by ‘Saving’
To help close New York’s $4.4 billion budget deficit, Gov. Spitzer has put prescription drugs on the chopping block. His budget proposal for the next fiscal year would axe drug spending by $172 million from the $1.9 billion otherwise expected. The governor describes this as a way “to control the ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 5, 2008
Los Angeles Times Health Care Whiplash!
Reading the Los Angeles Times, you might think there are two different Los Angeles, in two parallel universes. On the one hand, Karl Mannheim and Jamie Court criticize Hillary Clinton’s and Barrack Obama’s proposals for mandatory, private, health insurance by correctly asserting that that the Constitution does not give lawmakers ...
California’s Convenient Clinics: Some Win, Some Lose, All Change
The Sacramento Business Journal (subscribers only) has surveyed the “drop-in” clinics that have sprouted up around the state’s capital city in the last three years or so. It’s amazing what a diverse group they are! Sutter Express Care, owned by a large non-profit, hospital chain, has been hoping to use ...
Colorado Commission Proposes More Government Intervention
The Colorado Legislature’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform has approved a package of recommendations for comprehensive reform of the state’s health care system. Health policy analysts criticized the commission’s recommendations, saying they would damage the market and decrease consumer choice. Calling for Government Action The Blue Ribbon Commission ...
Senator Kuehl’s Health Care Agenda
Democratic Sen. Sheila Kuehl, who chairs the Senate health committee, made sure that a recent attempt at health care overhaul in California went down in flames last month. Her committee rejected ABX1 1, the Schwarzenegger-Nunez health care reform legislation. That measure aimed for “universal” health care through compulsory purchase of ...
Do Our Candidates Need Their Vision Corrected?
The campaign trail is awash with promises to make universal health care a reality in the next presidential term. Candidates from both parties claim they can lower costs — and insure everyone — through legislative mandates and increased government intervention in the healthcare market. But they’re wrong. Only with a ...
Massachusetts Hospital Association’s New Recipe for Fudge
An amazing story in the usually reliable Boston Globe by Steve LeBlanc made me gulp: might I have to recant my position on the ineffective and expensive Massachusetts health reform? Luckily, no: a report by the Massachusetts Hospital Association on the reform’s “success” manages to fudge the numbers just enough ...
What Now for California Health Care?
Last month the Senate health committee dumped the Schwarzenegger/Núñez Model ABX1 1, California’s trend-setting gadget for health-care repair. Senator Sheila Kuehl, who chairs that committee, tossed it for more personal reasons, other than the obvious $14-billion price tag and state budget deficit of similar size. Senator Kuehl wants to bring ...
1 bad health plan dies; another looms
A real alternative to government control would be a system driven by consumer choice The state Senate Health Committee voted overwhelmingly last month to trash the universal health care plan promoted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez. Supporters of the plan, known as ABX1 1, murmured about ...
Thrills, Chills and Hospital Bills: Maybe They’re Not So Crazy After All
The other day, I examined the pointlessness of a class-action lawsuit ordering Scripps Health hospitals in San Diego to give post facto discounts to uninsured patients who had been charged “too much”, even though most of them had not paid their bills anyway! Today, we learn the overall payment to ...
Losing by ‘Saving’
To help close New York’s $4.4 billion budget deficit, Gov. Spitzer has put prescription drugs on the chopping block. His budget proposal for the next fiscal year would axe drug spending by $172 million from the $1.9 billion otherwise expected. The governor describes this as a way “to control the ...