Public Option
Health Care
Medicaid’s Costs, Like Medicare’s, Have Risen Far More Than the Costs of Private Health Care
As the congressional debate heats up over President Obama’s proposed “public option” and his proposed expansion of Medicaid, the debate largely centers on the question of controlling costs. The president claims that more government control would make health care more affordable. The empirical evidence, however, confirms that more government control ...
Commentary
Patients, not lawmakers, should control health care reform
Congressional Republicans — as well as some Democrats — are butting heads with President Barack Obama and his congressional allies over the latter group’s desire for a “public option” in health care. This new government-run insurance program would theoretically compete against the 1,300 private insurance companies already in existence as ...
Health Care
In ObamaCare, Middle Class Gets The Shaft
The Obama administration might like to “spread the wealth around,” but its proposed “health care reform” wouldn’t spread consumer choice around. Rather, it would constrict consumer choice substantially — except for the very rich. That’s the great irony of President Obama’s ambitious health care agenda: His administration, which seems to ...
Commentary
Coming Soon: The Nightmare From Up There
In his recent speech to the American Medical Association, President Obama counseled Americans to beware “dire warnings about socialized medicine and government takeovers; long lines, and rationed care; decisions made by bureaucrats and not doctors.” Unfortunately for the president, there are a few Cassandras whose warnings are worth heeding. Chief ...
Commentary
Spinning the Polls
Perhaps humbled by its shellacking for hosting and broadcasting the Obama-infomercial on Wednesday, ABC and its collaborators at the Washington Post put a very different spin on a health-reform poll that has essentially the same results as the New York Times‘ one a few days ago. While the Gray Lady ...
California
The Albany-Trenton-Sacramento Disease
How three liberal states got into deep trouble with ‘progressive’ ideas. President Obama has bet the economy on his program to grow the government and finance it with a more progressive tax system. It’s hard to miss the irony that he’s pitching this change in Washington even as the same ...
Commentary
Medicare: The Problem and the Solution?
What has the most potential to mire the United States in long-term debt? According to White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag, the answer is Medicare and Medicaid. Orszag writes that every other federal program’s effect on future deficits and debt is “swamped” by the effects of ...
Commentary
Robert Reich on Public Option
Robert Reich, Bill Clinton’s Labor Secretary, has the answer in today’s Wall Street Journal. According to Mr. Reich, a “public option” (actually a swamp of new government bureaucracies, ready from “day one” for perpetual taxpayer bailouts), would “squeeze” the profits of private health providers. It is dead easy for government ...
Commentary
Massachusetts’ Health Care Reform: Be Careful What You Wish For
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed a first in the nation “universal” health care bill in 2006. Massachusetts’ health care plan includes an “individual mandate” and generous subsidies through a quasi-government health insurance plan known as “Commonwealth Care.” So how well are the Democrats in Massachusetts doing at controlling health care ...
Commentary
The president’s Trojan horse
During his recent speech to the American Medical Association, President Obama addressed what he called the “illegitimate concern” that “a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system.” Referring to such concerns, he added that “when you hear the naysayers claim that I’m trying to bring about ...
Medicaid’s Costs, Like Medicare’s, Have Risen Far More Than the Costs of Private Health Care
As the congressional debate heats up over President Obama’s proposed “public option” and his proposed expansion of Medicaid, the debate largely centers on the question of controlling costs. The president claims that more government control would make health care more affordable. The empirical evidence, however, confirms that more government control ...
Patients, not lawmakers, should control health care reform
Congressional Republicans — as well as some Democrats — are butting heads with President Barack Obama and his congressional allies over the latter group’s desire for a “public option” in health care. This new government-run insurance program would theoretically compete against the 1,300 private insurance companies already in existence as ...
In ObamaCare, Middle Class Gets The Shaft
The Obama administration might like to “spread the wealth around,” but its proposed “health care reform” wouldn’t spread consumer choice around. Rather, it would constrict consumer choice substantially — except for the very rich. That’s the great irony of President Obama’s ambitious health care agenda: His administration, which seems to ...
Coming Soon: The Nightmare From Up There
In his recent speech to the American Medical Association, President Obama counseled Americans to beware “dire warnings about socialized medicine and government takeovers; long lines, and rationed care; decisions made by bureaucrats and not doctors.” Unfortunately for the president, there are a few Cassandras whose warnings are worth heeding. Chief ...
Spinning the Polls
Perhaps humbled by its shellacking for hosting and broadcasting the Obama-infomercial on Wednesday, ABC and its collaborators at the Washington Post put a very different spin on a health-reform poll that has essentially the same results as the New York Times‘ one a few days ago. While the Gray Lady ...
The Albany-Trenton-Sacramento Disease
How three liberal states got into deep trouble with ‘progressive’ ideas. President Obama has bet the economy on his program to grow the government and finance it with a more progressive tax system. It’s hard to miss the irony that he’s pitching this change in Washington even as the same ...
Medicare: The Problem and the Solution?
What has the most potential to mire the United States in long-term debt? According to White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag, the answer is Medicare and Medicaid. Orszag writes that every other federal program’s effect on future deficits and debt is “swamped” by the effects of ...
Robert Reich on Public Option
Robert Reich, Bill Clinton’s Labor Secretary, has the answer in today’s Wall Street Journal. According to Mr. Reich, a “public option” (actually a swamp of new government bureaucracies, ready from “day one” for perpetual taxpayer bailouts), would “squeeze” the profits of private health providers. It is dead easy for government ...
Massachusetts’ Health Care Reform: Be Careful What You Wish For
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed a first in the nation “universal” health care bill in 2006. Massachusetts’ health care plan includes an “individual mandate” and generous subsidies through a quasi-government health insurance plan known as “Commonwealth Care.” So how well are the Democrats in Massachusetts doing at controlling health care ...
The president’s Trojan horse
During his recent speech to the American Medical Association, President Obama addressed what he called the “illegitimate concern” that “a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system.” Referring to such concerns, he added that “when you hear the naysayers claim that I’m trying to bring about ...
