John R. Graham
Commentary
Prop. 45 support dropping for a good reason
Proposition 45, a ballot initiative that would give the states Insurance Commissioner, Dave Jones, power to determine insurance rates for millions of Californians, looked like a winner last summer. A Field poll conducted in June and July showed 69 percent in favor versus only 16 percent opposed. However, in August ...
California
Covered California’s Big Budget Blowout Is Coming
Only by Obamacares standards could Covered California, Sacramentos state-run Obamacare exchange, be considered a success. Outside California, Obamacare is fading fast in the states. Some led by Oregon and Maryland intend to abandon their Obamacare health-insurance exchanges and let the federal government takeover. Covered California, however, is firing ...
California
California’s consumer hotline won’t cure Obamacare ills
Nationwide, many (including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman) seem to think that California got Obamacare right. Given the fiasco of the Obamacare launch in other states, that’s a low bar. At least, the Covered California website works. And so it should. Whereas development of the federally operated insurance exchange, ...
Inflation
User Fees for Medical Devices: Third Time Lucky?
President Obama just signed the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act. The Act includes the third authorisation of user fees, paid by the medical-device industry to the FDA, so that the FDA can improve its performance in licensing new medical devices. The FDAs process has long been unsatisfactory. ...
California
Skin in the Game: Governor Brown is Right and Secretary Sebelius Is Wrong About Medicaid Co-Pays
Key Points: Governor Jerry Brown and California legislators have attempted to get Medi-Cal’s budget under control by charging reasonable co-pays for medical and hospital services, especially emergency rooms. Secretary Sebelius has just quashed the state’s co-pay reform, relying on dubious legal interpretation. This federal overreach cost California taxpayers half a ...
Health Care
Chart Focus: Will Americans Ever Control As Many Of Our Own Health Dollars as the Swiss, the Swedes, or the Canadians?
Key Points: Americans control a smaller share of our health spending than do residents of most other developed countries. In the late 1980s, the United States allowed patients to control more health spending than any other country, except Switzerland. In the twenty years to 2008, the share of U.S. health ...
Commentary
Health spending slows but premiums still rising
A funny thing happened as a result of Obamacare, signed in March 2010: Although the cost of health care has increased at a slower rate than in previous years, premiums for health insurance and the share of premiums used for purposes other than paying claims has been increasing faster than ...
Health Care
Feed the Beast: Renewing the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA)
Key Points: There is a crisis in biopharmaceutical R&D in all segments of the industry – large, mid-market, and new ventures. Much of the responsibility for this can be laid at the door of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is slow to approve new drugs. The law that ...
Commentary
What I Learned At Haas Business School’s Health Care Conference
Theres a lot of entrepreneurial energy in the Bay Area, but Im always surprised at how much of it is directed towards health care. As Apothecary readers surely recognize, if we were to rank sectors where the government lies ready to crush the entrepreneurial spirit, health care and education must ...
Commentary
Health care gurus: Idaho needs to return the exchange money and wait on the idea
A pair of health policy experts Thursday talked about state and federal health exchanges and they have a single message for Idaho lawmakers: Give the money back and wait. John Graham, health care studies director for the Pacific Research Institute, a California-based think tank, and Christie Herrera, with the American ...
Prop. 45 support dropping for a good reason
Proposition 45, a ballot initiative that would give the states Insurance Commissioner, Dave Jones, power to determine insurance rates for millions of Californians, looked like a winner last summer. A Field poll conducted in June and July showed 69 percent in favor versus only 16 percent opposed. However, in August ...
Covered California’s Big Budget Blowout Is Coming
Only by Obamacares standards could Covered California, Sacramentos state-run Obamacare exchange, be considered a success. Outside California, Obamacare is fading fast in the states. Some led by Oregon and Maryland intend to abandon their Obamacare health-insurance exchanges and let the federal government takeover. Covered California, however, is firing ...
California’s consumer hotline won’t cure Obamacare ills
Nationwide, many (including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman) seem to think that California got Obamacare right. Given the fiasco of the Obamacare launch in other states, that’s a low bar. At least, the Covered California website works. And so it should. Whereas development of the federally operated insurance exchange, ...
User Fees for Medical Devices: Third Time Lucky?
President Obama just signed the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act. The Act includes the third authorisation of user fees, paid by the medical-device industry to the FDA, so that the FDA can improve its performance in licensing new medical devices. The FDAs process has long been unsatisfactory. ...
Skin in the Game: Governor Brown is Right and Secretary Sebelius Is Wrong About Medicaid Co-Pays
Key Points: Governor Jerry Brown and California legislators have attempted to get Medi-Cal’s budget under control by charging reasonable co-pays for medical and hospital services, especially emergency rooms. Secretary Sebelius has just quashed the state’s co-pay reform, relying on dubious legal interpretation. This federal overreach cost California taxpayers half a ...
Chart Focus: Will Americans Ever Control As Many Of Our Own Health Dollars as the Swiss, the Swedes, or the Canadians?
Key Points: Americans control a smaller share of our health spending than do residents of most other developed countries. In the late 1980s, the United States allowed patients to control more health spending than any other country, except Switzerland. In the twenty years to 2008, the share of U.S. health ...
Health spending slows but premiums still rising
A funny thing happened as a result of Obamacare, signed in March 2010: Although the cost of health care has increased at a slower rate than in previous years, premiums for health insurance and the share of premiums used for purposes other than paying claims has been increasing faster than ...
Feed the Beast: Renewing the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA)
Key Points: There is a crisis in biopharmaceutical R&D in all segments of the industry – large, mid-market, and new ventures. Much of the responsibility for this can be laid at the door of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is slow to approve new drugs. The law that ...
What I Learned At Haas Business School’s Health Care Conference
Theres a lot of entrepreneurial energy in the Bay Area, but Im always surprised at how much of it is directed towards health care. As Apothecary readers surely recognize, if we were to rank sectors where the government lies ready to crush the entrepreneurial spirit, health care and education must ...
Health care gurus: Idaho needs to return the exchange money and wait on the idea
A pair of health policy experts Thursday talked about state and federal health exchanges and they have a single message for Idaho lawmakers: Give the money back and wait. John Graham, health care studies director for the Pacific Research Institute, a California-based think tank, and Christie Herrera, with the American ...
