Health Care
Commentary
Banning mRNA vaccines would stop emerging cancer treatments
Several states have effectively declared war on medical progress. Lawmakers in Iowa, Montana, Idaho, Texas and Kentucky introduced bills that would ban or restrict vaccines that use messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology — despite its immense potential for treating and even preventing some of the most vexing diseases known to ...
Commentary
Obamacare Is Killing Small Business. Here’s How To Fix It.
Obamacare was back on trial this month, as the U.S. Supreme Court heard a challenge about the constitutionality of the panel that determines which preventive care services health plans must cover. According to the Commonwealth Fund, “The case has consequences for the Affordable Care Act’s guarantee of coverage for a ...
Blog
QALYs Put Patients Last
In his latest entry for the American Action Forum’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems,” Michael Baker offers an excellent primer on this heartless metric. QALYs attempt to assign a monetary value to life. A year in perfect health equals one QALY. A year with illness or disability counts ...
Commentary
Delaying Coverage of Weight-loss Meds Won’t Cure Obesity
In an interview this month, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., appeared open to the idea of Medicare covering drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy for beneficiaries with obesity. “Ideally, over the long term, we’d like to see . . . those drugs available for people after ...
Commentary
Drug company profits don’t threaten lives; price controls do
More than 4 in 5 Americans blame the pharmaceutical industry’s profits for the high prices of prescription drugs. It’s little wonder, then, that roughly the same share supports placing price controls on prescription drugs through Medicare. The logic is straight out of Robin Hood. Our leaders should take from the ...
Commentary
Trump is right: Housing isn’t healthcare
The Trump administration shut off federal funding through Medicaid for non-healthcare-related services such as housekeeping, groceries, and internet earlier this month. It’s about time. Medicaid exists to provide health benefits to the nation’s neediest, not to subsidize a laundry list of liberal priorities. Over the last two decades, it has ...
Commentary
Deregulation Is The Pathway To Greater Pharmaceutical Innovation
Surveys confirm that most Americans recognize the value of prescription drugs. But the same surveys also show that Americans are worried that they will be unable to afford needed medicines. These conflicting feelings exemplify the inherent tension when it comes to prescription drugs – how do we incentivize innovation to ...
Commentary
Common-Sense Fixes in Medicaid Could Save Hundreds of Billions, Making Reform Less Daunting Than Pundits Suggest
Congressional Republicans are currently negotiating a budget reconciliation package that aims to wrest $880 billion in savings from Medicaid over the coming decade. Democrats have asserted that this effort will be devastating to Medicaid’s beneficiaries. They underestimate just how widespread waste, fraud, and abuse are in the program. Read the ...
Commentary
California can’t afford free health care for undocumented immigrants
California’s multibillion-dollar budget deficit could soon grow worse. State tax revenue dropped over 14% in the recession that followed the dot-com bubble, nearly 14% during the Great Financial Crisis from 2008 to 2009, and almost 8% during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with financial markets reeling thanks ...
Blog
Two Good Healthcare Headlines
We all could use a little bit of good news on health policy these days. And Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum provides it in the latest edition of AAF’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems.” He commends two articles for readers of the series, and I will ...
Banning mRNA vaccines would stop emerging cancer treatments
Several states have effectively declared war on medical progress. Lawmakers in Iowa, Montana, Idaho, Texas and Kentucky introduced bills that would ban or restrict vaccines that use messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology — despite its immense potential for treating and even preventing some of the most vexing diseases known to ...
Obamacare Is Killing Small Business. Here’s How To Fix It.
Obamacare was back on trial this month, as the U.S. Supreme Court heard a challenge about the constitutionality of the panel that determines which preventive care services health plans must cover. According to the Commonwealth Fund, “The case has consequences for the Affordable Care Act’s guarantee of coverage for a ...
QALYs Put Patients Last
In his latest entry for the American Action Forum’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems,” Michael Baker offers an excellent primer on this heartless metric. QALYs attempt to assign a monetary value to life. A year in perfect health equals one QALY. A year with illness or disability counts ...
Delaying Coverage of Weight-loss Meds Won’t Cure Obesity
In an interview this month, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., appeared open to the idea of Medicare covering drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy for beneficiaries with obesity. “Ideally, over the long term, we’d like to see . . . those drugs available for people after ...
Drug company profits don’t threaten lives; price controls do
More than 4 in 5 Americans blame the pharmaceutical industry’s profits for the high prices of prescription drugs. It’s little wonder, then, that roughly the same share supports placing price controls on prescription drugs through Medicare. The logic is straight out of Robin Hood. Our leaders should take from the ...
Trump is right: Housing isn’t healthcare
The Trump administration shut off federal funding through Medicaid for non-healthcare-related services such as housekeeping, groceries, and internet earlier this month. It’s about time. Medicaid exists to provide health benefits to the nation’s neediest, not to subsidize a laundry list of liberal priorities. Over the last two decades, it has ...
Deregulation Is The Pathway To Greater Pharmaceutical Innovation
Surveys confirm that most Americans recognize the value of prescription drugs. But the same surveys also show that Americans are worried that they will be unable to afford needed medicines. These conflicting feelings exemplify the inherent tension when it comes to prescription drugs – how do we incentivize innovation to ...
Common-Sense Fixes in Medicaid Could Save Hundreds of Billions, Making Reform Less Daunting Than Pundits Suggest
Congressional Republicans are currently negotiating a budget reconciliation package that aims to wrest $880 billion in savings from Medicaid over the coming decade. Democrats have asserted that this effort will be devastating to Medicaid’s beneficiaries. They underestimate just how widespread waste, fraud, and abuse are in the program. Read the ...
California can’t afford free health care for undocumented immigrants
California’s multibillion-dollar budget deficit could soon grow worse. State tax revenue dropped over 14% in the recession that followed the dot-com bubble, nearly 14% during the Great Financial Crisis from 2008 to 2009, and almost 8% during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with financial markets reeling thanks ...
Two Good Healthcare Headlines
We all could use a little bit of good news on health policy these days. And Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum provides it in the latest edition of AAF’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems.” He commends two articles for readers of the series, and I will ...
