Health Care
Health Care
Sally Pipes Cited in Heartland News Story on CA Individual Mandate
California Considers Implementing Individual Mandate By Jake Grant The California Legislature is considering an individual mandate that would effectively force young, healthy Californians to purchase health insurance . . . Sally Pipes, Pacific Research Institute’s president, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy, says California legislators might ...
Commentary
Imposing price controls on prescription drugs
President Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders don’t agree on much. But they both believe in price controls. Both men recently introduced separate proposals to impose price controls on prescription drugs. Though both men are likely well-intentioned, their plans are deeply misguided. Both proposals would discourage drug research and reduce ...
Commentary
Wasteful Medicaid spending prevents government from fulfilling core responsibilities
Few states can waste public healthcare dollars like California. According to a recent state audit, Medi-Cal — the Golden State’s Medicaid program, which covers about 13 million people — improperly spent more than $4 billion on thousands of ineligible enrollees from 2014 to 2017. At least one of those ineligible enrollees had been dead ...
Commentary
Health spending in US is finally slowing: Here’s why
America’s health bill appears to be moderating, and market forces deserve the credit for this good news. National health expenditures grew more slowly in 2017 than in 2016, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The CMS statistics break down cost increases by category. Private health insurance spending grew ...
California
California’s Doomsday Clock Getting Closer to Midnight
In 1947 a group of scientists unveiled the Doomsday Clock to show how near civilization was to a man-made catastrophic end. Maybe California should have its own doomsday clock, since it seems headed for a wreck. Today’s official Doomsday Clock reads 11:58 pm, two minutes before disaster. The Bulletin of ...
Commentary
The NHS’s Winter Crisis Is a Red Flag for Americans Enticed by Single-Payer
The winter flu season has plunged Britain’s government-run National Health Service into a full-blown crisis. Medical professionals are struggling to cope with an influx of patients. One doctor described his workplace as “an absolute war zone” and the “worst hospital conditions in my memory.” This is hardly the first time that flu ...
Agriculture
GMO crops are key to sustainable farming—why are some scientists afraid to talk about them?
By Henry I. Miller, M.S, M.D. and Colin A. Carter Molecular genetic engineering has spawned a strange new allergy. No, not the kind of allergy that causes hives or wheezing; rather, an aversion to mentioning the role of genetic engineering in agriculture. In analyses, reports, and supposedly scholarly articles on ...
Commentary
Partial Medicaid expansion isn’t the solution
Some Trump administration officials, and even President Trump himself, reportedly favor allowing states to partially expand Medicaid, the program for low-income Americans jointly funded by the federal and state governments. Any expansion is a bad idea, for both fiscal and moral reasons. Obamacare enabled states to enroll able-bodied, childless adults ...
California
Governor Newsom’s troubling first act on medications
In one of his first acts, Governor Newsom signed an executive order that will change how medicines are purchased in California. With visions of big-box store discounts dancing in his head, Governor Newsom has established a bulk program that will now purchase drugs for the state’s Medicaid program (Medi-Cal). The ...
Commentary
Why Britons are sick of single-payer health care
The British National Health Service (NHS) is unraveling. This month, authorities said they’d consider relaxing official targets for waits in the country’s emergency rooms. At present, the system aims to see and admit, discharge or transfer 95 percent of patients within four hours. The NHS hasn’t been able to hit that target in years. ...
Sally Pipes Cited in Heartland News Story on CA Individual Mandate
California Considers Implementing Individual Mandate By Jake Grant The California Legislature is considering an individual mandate that would effectively force young, healthy Californians to purchase health insurance . . . Sally Pipes, Pacific Research Institute’s president, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy, says California legislators might ...
Imposing price controls on prescription drugs
President Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders don’t agree on much. But they both believe in price controls. Both men recently introduced separate proposals to impose price controls on prescription drugs. Though both men are likely well-intentioned, their plans are deeply misguided. Both proposals would discourage drug research and reduce ...
Wasteful Medicaid spending prevents government from fulfilling core responsibilities
Few states can waste public healthcare dollars like California. According to a recent state audit, Medi-Cal — the Golden State’s Medicaid program, which covers about 13 million people — improperly spent more than $4 billion on thousands of ineligible enrollees from 2014 to 2017. At least one of those ineligible enrollees had been dead ...
Health spending in US is finally slowing: Here’s why
America’s health bill appears to be moderating, and market forces deserve the credit for this good news. National health expenditures grew more slowly in 2017 than in 2016, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The CMS statistics break down cost increases by category. Private health insurance spending grew ...
California’s Doomsday Clock Getting Closer to Midnight
In 1947 a group of scientists unveiled the Doomsday Clock to show how near civilization was to a man-made catastrophic end. Maybe California should have its own doomsday clock, since it seems headed for a wreck. Today’s official Doomsday Clock reads 11:58 pm, two minutes before disaster. The Bulletin of ...
The NHS’s Winter Crisis Is a Red Flag for Americans Enticed by Single-Payer
The winter flu season has plunged Britain’s government-run National Health Service into a full-blown crisis. Medical professionals are struggling to cope with an influx of patients. One doctor described his workplace as “an absolute war zone” and the “worst hospital conditions in my memory.” This is hardly the first time that flu ...
GMO crops are key to sustainable farming—why are some scientists afraid to talk about them?
By Henry I. Miller, M.S, M.D. and Colin A. Carter Molecular genetic engineering has spawned a strange new allergy. No, not the kind of allergy that causes hives or wheezing; rather, an aversion to mentioning the role of genetic engineering in agriculture. In analyses, reports, and supposedly scholarly articles on ...
Partial Medicaid expansion isn’t the solution
Some Trump administration officials, and even President Trump himself, reportedly favor allowing states to partially expand Medicaid, the program for low-income Americans jointly funded by the federal and state governments. Any expansion is a bad idea, for both fiscal and moral reasons. Obamacare enabled states to enroll able-bodied, childless adults ...
Governor Newsom’s troubling first act on medications
In one of his first acts, Governor Newsom signed an executive order that will change how medicines are purchased in California. With visions of big-box store discounts dancing in his head, Governor Newsom has established a bulk program that will now purchase drugs for the state’s Medicaid program (Medi-Cal). The ...
Why Britons are sick of single-payer health care
The British National Health Service (NHS) is unraveling. This month, authorities said they’d consider relaxing official targets for waits in the country’s emergency rooms. At present, the system aims to see and admit, discharge or transfer 95 percent of patients within four hours. The NHS hasn’t been able to hit that target in years. ...
