John R. Graham

Commentary

Prop. 45 support dropping for a good reason

Proposition 45, a ballot initiative that would give the state’s 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 Obamacare’s standards could Covered California, Sacramento’s 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 FDA’s 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

There’s a lot of entrepreneurial energy in the Bay Area, but I’m 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 ...
Commentary

Prop. 45 support dropping for a good reason

Proposition 45, a ballot initiative that would give the state’s 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 Obamacare’s standards could Covered California, Sacramento’s 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 FDA’s 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

There’s a lot of entrepreneurial energy in the Bay Area, but I’m 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 ...
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