Medicare
Commentary
Veteran suicides testify to a healthcare travesty
The Department of Veterans Affairs has said that preventing veteran suicides is a top priority. Unfortunately, a new inspector general report suggests the department is failing in its mission. The report found that more than 1 in 10 VA staffers hadn’t completed their mandatory suicide-prevention training. As the report put it, “Lack of training ...
Commentary
Insurance Market Requiring Gov’t Handouts Is Dysfunctional
Next week marks the beginning of open enrollment on the health insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. According to one recent analysis of 72 exchange insurers, premiums are likely to increase by an average of 10%. In some cases, rate hikes could exceed 25%. Most consumers won’t feel these price ...
Commentary
Americans Don’t Want Single-Payer Revolution
America’s private health insurance system is beyond saving, we’re often told by advocates of Medicare for All. As they see it, the only path forward is to abolish private coverage and replace it with a single government-run program. But that radical proposal is divorced from reality. New polling data show ...
Commentary
Obamacare Open Enrollment Brings Election Day “Gift” To Voters
We’re about a week away from two notable dates on America’s civic calendar. On November 1, open enrollment begins on Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges. One week later, voters head to the polls for the midterm elections. Democrats have been aware of this reality for months. It was one of the reasons they ...
Commentary
Simple Fix for Healthcare: Give Patients More Responsibility
Health costs have been rising at an astounding rate. Insurers believe that overuse of medical care and poor individual health habits are big reasons why, according to a new study from insurance advisory firm Willis Towers Watson. That conclusion runs counter to the narrative common among progressives that patients are hapless victims ...
Commentary
Market-based Principles Bring Us Quality Healthcare
A new poll from West Health and Gallup paints a grim picture of health care in the United States. Among the survey’s most striking findings is that three-quarters of the country grades the cost of care at either a D or an F. Critics of our nation’s market-based health system are sure ...
Education
Policy To-Do Lists
Policy to-do Lists for Congress “The new Congress faces unfinished business: they need to expand patient choice and competition in health care, including rolling back the new price controls on drugs that discourage innovation and competition, reverse the pandemic’s effects on student learning, and eliminate expensive and burdensome government energy ...
Commentary
The Regulatory Threat From Payment Do-Overs And Un-Economical Reimbursements
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued an update to the home health payment system on June 22nd. This proposed rule, rife with legalese and sheer complexity, should be held up as Exhibit A for why socialized healthcare schemes such as Medicare for All will never work. The proposal’s obsessions with “aggregate ...
Commentary
Pay No Attention To Biden’s Biotech Bluster
Speaking in Boston earlier this month, President Biden insisted that the United States can “end cancer as we know it and even cure cancers once and for all.” His “Cancer Moonshot” aims to do just that. Among its many lofty goals, it seeks to halve cancer deaths in the next 25 years. ...
Blog
In Political Speech, “Universal” Means Anything But
Every few months, the argument to “universalize” some sector of the economy captures national attention – be it for universal health care, universal childcare, or universal student loan forgiveness. All the arguments have an all-too-often overlooked fatal flaw: they assume goods are not scarce. In economic terms, all goods have ...
Veteran suicides testify to a healthcare travesty
The Department of Veterans Affairs has said that preventing veteran suicides is a top priority. Unfortunately, a new inspector general report suggests the department is failing in its mission. The report found that more than 1 in 10 VA staffers hadn’t completed their mandatory suicide-prevention training. As the report put it, “Lack of training ...
Insurance Market Requiring Gov’t Handouts Is Dysfunctional
Next week marks the beginning of open enrollment on the health insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. According to one recent analysis of 72 exchange insurers, premiums are likely to increase by an average of 10%. In some cases, rate hikes could exceed 25%. Most consumers won’t feel these price ...
Americans Don’t Want Single-Payer Revolution
America’s private health insurance system is beyond saving, we’re often told by advocates of Medicare for All. As they see it, the only path forward is to abolish private coverage and replace it with a single government-run program. But that radical proposal is divorced from reality. New polling data show ...
Obamacare Open Enrollment Brings Election Day “Gift” To Voters
We’re about a week away from two notable dates on America’s civic calendar. On November 1, open enrollment begins on Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges. One week later, voters head to the polls for the midterm elections. Democrats have been aware of this reality for months. It was one of the reasons they ...
Simple Fix for Healthcare: Give Patients More Responsibility
Health costs have been rising at an astounding rate. Insurers believe that overuse of medical care and poor individual health habits are big reasons why, according to a new study from insurance advisory firm Willis Towers Watson. That conclusion runs counter to the narrative common among progressives that patients are hapless victims ...
Market-based Principles Bring Us Quality Healthcare
A new poll from West Health and Gallup paints a grim picture of health care in the United States. Among the survey’s most striking findings is that three-quarters of the country grades the cost of care at either a D or an F. Critics of our nation’s market-based health system are sure ...
Policy To-Do Lists
Policy to-do Lists for Congress “The new Congress faces unfinished business: they need to expand patient choice and competition in health care, including rolling back the new price controls on drugs that discourage innovation and competition, reverse the pandemic’s effects on student learning, and eliminate expensive and burdensome government energy ...
The Regulatory Threat From Payment Do-Overs And Un-Economical Reimbursements
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued an update to the home health payment system on June 22nd. This proposed rule, rife with legalese and sheer complexity, should be held up as Exhibit A for why socialized healthcare schemes such as Medicare for All will never work. The proposal’s obsessions with “aggregate ...
Pay No Attention To Biden’s Biotech Bluster
Speaking in Boston earlier this month, President Biden insisted that the United States can “end cancer as we know it and even cure cancers once and for all.” His “Cancer Moonshot” aims to do just that. Among its many lofty goals, it seeks to halve cancer deaths in the next 25 years. ...
In Political Speech, “Universal” Means Anything But
Every few months, the argument to “universalize” some sector of the economy captures national attention – be it for universal health care, universal childcare, or universal student loan forgiveness. All the arguments have an all-too-often overlooked fatal flaw: they assume goods are not scarce. In economic terms, all goods have ...
