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ObamaCare Has Already Driven Up Private Health Insurance Premiums
John Goodman Health Policy Blog
By: John R. Graham
10.30.2009
The Obama Administration has been attacking perfectly credible studies commissioned by AHIP, BCBSA, and WellPoint explaining why the proposed “reform” will drive up premiums for privately insured Americans. Yet, let’s not lose track of the fact that the Administration and the Congress have already taken steps to drive up the costs of private health care. The media have started to note that rate increases for 2010 will be higher than they need be, because of government intervention earlier this year.
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How to Solve the Net Neutrality Issue
Tech News World
10.28.2009
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently voted to move forward on a rule-making process that could lead to new government regulations for the Internet. That is what the FCC and some activist groups want, although they claim to be supporting only "neutrality." Even key players seem confused.
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Net Neutrality Fears: Big Telecom or the FCC?
PCWorld.com
By: David Coursey
10.28.2009
Net netutrality is a case of who you fear most: Evil telecom companies or the evil FCC? Companies are unlikely to behave without the threat of FCC action, but if the FCC acts we may wish that it hadn't.
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The Health Care Bill and Bringing Down Health-Care Costs
National Ledger
By: U.S. Senator Jon Kyl
10.26.2009
A goal shared by everyone in Congress is making healthcare more affordable for Americans. So why hasn’t there been more support for medical liability reform, which is a popular, cost-free measure that would unquestionably yield significant savings for patients and doctors
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Is the recession really ending?
San Diego Union-Tribune (CA)
10.25.2009
The recession is finally ending, government economics experts and the media say, hailing the rescue efforts of government agencies. Those tempted to celebrate should first examine the actual data, beginning with the $787 billion stimulus package.
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Understanding all the facts about the uninsured
Washington D.C. Examiner
By: Sally C. Pipes
10.25.2009
President Obama is going for broke on health care. He and his Democratic allies call for controls on insurance companies, mandates and penalties on individuals and employers, new excise taxes on insurance, drug, and medical device companies, and the creation of a new government-run insurance plan.
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CBO Underestimates Benefits of Malpractice Reform
The Wall Street Journal
By: Lawrence J. McQuillan, Ph.D
10.23.2009
Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said medical-liability reforms could save about $11 billion annually. This assessment is a gross underestimate of the potential benefits of reform and was intended to give cover to congressional Democrats who say malpractice-liability costs are trifling. But a full accounting shows the benefits would be a hefty $242 billion a year, more than 10 percent of America's health expenditures.
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No Free Lunch: The True Cost of ObamaCare
The National Center for Policy Analysis
By: Matt Patterson
10.23.2009
Far from providing "affordable" care for everyone, as President Obama has promised,1 the main health care proposals working their way through Congress would in fact come at a painful price - higher insurance premiums, more and higher taxes, fewer jobs, lower wages, a reduced standard of living and an erosion of privacy and individual liberty.
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Fight for soul of GOP in OC
Orange County Register
By: Steven Greenhut
10.23.2009
If you want to know what's wrong with Sacramento, you need look no further than Orange County. That's where Republican Party insiders have cast aside one of the GOP's most principled members in its drive to fill the 72nd Assembly District seat vacated by disgraced Assemblyman Mike Duvall, who resigned after being caught on tape bragging in lurid detail to another assemblyman about his sexual exploits with lobbyists.
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The Middle-Class Health Tax Heist Of 2009
Investor's Business Daily
By: Sally C. Pipes
10.23.2009
Pouring over the details of the 1,501-page health care bill that came out of Sen. Max Baucus' Finance Committee, it's clear that the financing is so full of smoke and mirrors that one has to wear a respirator and hard hat to get through it.
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How 'reform' leads to more uninsured
New York Post
By: Michael O. Leavitt, Jeffrey H. Anderson
10.22.2009
Imagine you're driving in a city, trying to find a place to park your car for the whole day. A parking garage costs $30. Right next to the parking garage entrance, you eye a parking spot on the street. Next to the curb is a sign that says, "No parking. Fine $5. No-tow zone."
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Office Visit: Real reform, real access
The Journal Record (Oklahoma City, OK)
By: David Holden
10.21.2009
With Americans preoccupied with the health care reform debate, the issue of physician shortages will hopefully not fall through the cracks. The issue may prove to be more important than any reform being debated in Congress.
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Earlier, Litigation Against Dole was Proved a Fraud
ShopFloor.com
By: Carter Wood
10.21.2009
Things were looking up for Dole legally even before a federal judge rejected a Nicaraguan court’s award against the company as coming from a fundamentally unfair legal system. The latest edition of California Lawyer magazine covers the corrupt class-action case against Dole based on invented claims of chemical exposure in Nicaragua banana plantations.
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Doctors on other side of ‘ObamaCare’
MPNnow (Canandaigua, NY)
By: Cheryl Miller
10.21.2009
MPNnow.com — On Oct. 5, President Obama made a speech in the White House Rose Garden to an audience of 50 white-coated doctors, one from each state. The doctors also represented a number of friendly medical organizations, including the American Medical Association (to which between 15 and 20 percent of medical professionals belong), the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Pediatrics and the National Medical Association.
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Time for Inaction on Global Warming
The Wall Street Journal
By: Pete Du Pont
10.19.2009
"Global" and "warming" are perhaps the two most important words used to justify the approaching governmental control of our economy. In reality, global warming is barely occurring: In the 30 years starting in 1977, warming amounted to 0.32 degree Fahrenheit per decade, and in the next hundred years it is estimated to be about half a degree per decade.
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The Power of the Plaintiffs’ Bar
National Review
By: Edwin Meese III, Hans A. von Spakovsky
10.19.2009
The health-care bill the Senate Finance Committee approved makes a lot of promises. It will cost American taxpayers $829 billion, on top of an already out-of-control federal budget, as well as guarantee an increase in their individual medical expenditures.
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$1T reform for 5%
New York Post
By: Jeffrey H. Anderson, Ph.D
10.19.2009
THE health-care-reform debate is plagued by different numbers on how many Americans lack health insurance, but we actually have excellent data on the question: Ninety percent of Americans are insured, according to the Census -- and even the president more or less concurs.
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Govt Health Care: Attempting to Spread the Misery
Dakota Voice (Rapid City, SD)
By: Bob Ellis
10.19.2009
We frequently hear proponents of government health care cite a figure of 46 million-ish Americans who don’t have health insurance. That would be roughly 16% of Americans who don’t have health care insurance.
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Democrats find the insurance pool too shallow
Washington D.C. Examiner
By: Susan Ferrechio
10.19.2009
Democrats have been trashing insurance industry analyses of their health care proposals. But in the hallways of the Capitol, lawmakers concede the truth of the report's main criticism: The cost of insurance could skyrocket because the framework of the plan would bring more sick people into the system but not force enough healthy people to buy insurance.
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Budget fixes, no; blueberries, yes
Orange County Register
By: Steven Greenhut
10.16.2009
Elected officials would have us believe that the world would not go around if they weren't busy addressing the "big" issues in city councils and state legislatures. But, in reality, most of what elected officials do ranges from the nonsensical to the malevolent. How many readers believe that their lives are greatly diminished when the California Legislature is not in session?
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Ten Things to Look for in Health Care Reform
Gwinnette Gazette (GA)
By: Kelly McCutchen
10.16.2009
Disguised as "reform," numerous health care proposals are finding support. The result is a mishmash of plans that do little to improve access, quality or cost. There are at least 10 criteria that provide a foundation for reform.
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Obama Hasn't Closed the Health-Care Sale
The Wall Street Journal
By: Karl Rove
10.15.2009
Now that the Senate Finance Committee has voted for the health-care bill drafted by Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, negotiations over the real bill can begin in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's cozy Capitol hideaway. It won't be easy.
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How to Improve National Math Scores
The New York Times - Room for Debate Blog
10.15.2009
Only 39 percent of fourth graders and 34 percent of eighth graders scored at or above the proficient level on the nationwide math test given this spring. With little improvement over the past six years, it’s seems unlikely that all children will reach grade-level proficiency by 2014, a central goal of the No Child Left Behind law, which imposed federal testing rules on schools nationwide.
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The Senate reform fraud
The New York Post
By: Jeffrey H. Anderson, Ph.D
10.14.2009
THE Senate Finance Committee yesterday voted on a fraud: Sen. Max Baucus' "responsible" health-reform bill is actually a recipe for fiscal disaster -- and the Congressional Budget Office report that supposedly bolstered the bill actually exposes it.
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Healthcare Conference Call With Representatives Shadegg and Rodgers
The Reality Check
By: Warner Todd Huston
10.14.2009
Today at 4:30PM eastern a blogger conference call was held by Representatives John Shadegg (R, AZ) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R, WA). The subject we spoke about was that of House Republican’s ideas and problems on healthcare reform issues in both the Senate and the House. The following are my notes of the call, any direct quotes are in quote marks but the rest is my summation of what was said.
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Obama flip-flops on insurance mandate
San Francisco
By: Sally C. Pipes
10.13.2009
President Obama has promised that his health reform plan will lower costs and expand coverage. He and his Democratic allies are counting on an "individual mandate," or a requirement that everyone purchase health insurance, to achieve these goals.
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Health care and tort reform
CNN - The Lou Dobbs Show
10.12.2009
Congressional Budget Office research shows that tort reform could lower health care costs. PRI's Sally Pipes is a featured guest on CNN's Lou Dobbs Show in this video segment.
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Against the odds
Victorville Daily Press (CA)
By: Natasha Lindstrom
10.11.2009
When Linda Mikels took the helm as principal of Sixth Street Prep eight years ago, the elementary school near Old Town had seen its test scores sink three straight years.
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Baucus' Hefty Bill
The New York Post
By: Sally C. Pipes
10.9.2009
So the Congressional Budget Office has produced the product that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and President Obama needed: a contorted acknowledgement that -- if taxes are hiked, Medicaid expanded and Medicare reimbursements slashed permanently by 25 percent—Baucus' $829 billion bill will insure 29 million more people and produce a slight surplus over 10 years.
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New numbers don’t help look of health care bill
The Oklahoman
By: The Oklahoman Editorial
10.9.2009
Senate Democrats got the numbers they needed from the Congressional Budget Office on health care reform legislation: $829 billion over 10 years and $81 billion shaved off the federal deficit. The favorable-looking analysis should let their bill reach the full Senate in the next few weeks.
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Democrats' Strategy: Fake Center, Go Left
Investor's Business Daily
By: Sally C. Pipes
10.8.2009
During his recent media blitz to tout the Democratic health care plan, President Obama tried to frame the debate by asking: "What's the right role of government? How do we balance freedom with our need to look after one another?"
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Pacific Research Institute Releases New Study on California’s E-Waste Waste
PRI Press Release
10.7.2009
The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, found that California’s Electronic Waste Recycling Act (EWRA) is a waste of taxpayer dollars. In Fiscal Year 2007-2008, less than half of the facilities audited were in complete compliance with program rules, and the state has identified the program as “a high risk for fraudulent activities.”
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Duncan Wrong Again on School Choice
Freedom Politics
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
10.6.2009
As grassroots momentum builds to save the Washington, DC school-choice voucher program from the congressional chopping block, U.S. education secretary Arne Duncan continues to dig in his heels in opposition. His comments betray a fundamental misunderstanding of how the education market works and what parents want for their children.
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Maryland and Virginia Real Estate Markets Show Promise
Real Estate Dispatch
By: Brendan O'Brien
10.5.2009
Last week, I started looking into the Washington, DC Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which consists of the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia and parts of Maryland. Given the growth in the federal budget over the last few years, I wasn’t surprised to see that the DC MSA was “the most educated and affluent metropolitan area in the United States,” according to Wikipedia.
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President fudges facts on health care proposal
San Diego Union-Tribune
By: Sally C. Pipes
10.4.2009
President Barack Obama's much-anticipated speech to Congress was intended to alleviate growing public concerns about his plan to overhaul American health care. Instead, the president sidestepped legitimate questions about his reform effort and offered up a litany of dubious “facts” to support his proposals.
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Making the most of education dollars
Morgan Hill Times (CA)
By: Vicki E. Murray, Ph.D
10.3.2009
California's fiscal outlook continues to worsen. Concern is now mounting over the impact the state's budget deficit will have on education funding. The California Teachers Association along with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell claims California's per-pupil funding now ranks 47th nationally. In reality, most experts agree California is around the middle of the pack when it comes to school funding, including the CTA's own parent organization, the National Education Association
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Krugman on Waxman-Markey’s Cost: We Hope His Readers Can’t Multiply
MasterResource Blog
10.2.2009
Paul Krugman has been on the warpath lately regarding climate change economics. He has devoted his last two NYT columns to the subject, as well as back-to-back blog posts. True to form, Krugman accuses those who disagree with him of abject stupidity and evil intent; for Krugman it is impossible that any decent economist who cares about human beings could actually think the costs of cap-and-trade legislation will be high. But as we’ll see, Krugman’s own figures don’t jibe with the narrative he’s pushing.
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Anna Nicole Smith Was No Jimmy Stewart
Los Angeles Daily Journal
By: Lawrence J. McQuillan, Ph.D
10.1.2009
In Frank Capra’s classic 1946 movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, the straight-arrow president of a struggling small-town building and loan company played by Jimmy Stewart realizes his bumbling Uncle Billy has lost $8,000 of the company’s cash on Christmas Eve afternoon, just as a bank examiner is arriving for an audit. “Do you realize what this means?” shouts a panicked Stewart. “It means bankruptcy and scandal and prison.”
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U.S. Air Quality Continues to Improve
Environment & Climate News (The Heartland Institute)
By: Drew Thornley
10.1.2009
Sulfur dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants have fallen sharply this year, according to a recent report by energy research firm Genscape. Emissions of other pollutants have dropped as well.
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Cooling Down the Cassandras
The Washington Post
By: George Will
10.1.2009
In this headline on a New York Times story about difficulties confronting people alarmed about global warming, note the word "plateau." It dismisses the unpleasant -- to some people -- fact that global warming is maddeningly (to the same people) slow to vindicate their apocalyptic warnings about it.
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Taxing consumption, not income
Orange County Register
By: Jason Clemens
10.1.2009
The report by the state Commission on the 21st Century Economy, delivered Tuesday after a number of delays, contains a fairly substantial package of tax reforms that deserves both praise and caution.
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Not all med students want Obamacare
The Baltimore Sun (MD)
By: Nicholas J. Rohrhoff
10.1.2009
As a third year medical student at the Unviersity of Miami Miller School of Medicine with parents strongly considering a move from the Sunshine State to the Old Line State, your piece on the hidden loss for primary care ("Primary care's hidden loss," Sept. 29) was well received -- that is, until the end. The physician workforce issue is one that I have been passionate about since entering medical school. It clearly must be dealt with in order to successfully achieve health care reform.
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Senator Proposes Vouchers for Military Kids
School Reform News (Heartland Institute)
By: Evelyn B. Stacey
10.1.2009
This summer the Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 included an amendment mandating a study of the effectiveness of a school voucher program for children of military personnel and veterans living in or near the nation’s capital.
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Nebraska Embroiled in Teacher Salary Debate
School Reform News (Heartland Institute)
By: Evelyn B. Stacey
10.1.2009
Over the next two years, Nebraska will receive $234 million in federal stimulus money to bolster state aid to schools. That represents a one-time funding source, but Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (R) wants to use it to boost teacher salaries, a recurring expense.
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