Health Care
California
Why Did California’s Campaign Against Anthem Blue Cross Collapse?
I have written a series of blog entries about California’s health care regulators attacking health plans for “rescission,” which the regulators have equated with “post-claims underwriting.” The former consists of revoking a policy because the beneficiary made a material misrepresentation about his health status on his application. The latter consists ...
John R. Graham
July 7, 2008
Commentary
Hidden provision could endanger economy, civil liberties
As the Senate prepares to vote on the current housing legislation, I would like to bring to your attention a dangerous hidden provision that will burden several innovative Bay Area companies and threaten the civil liberties of all Americans. Senators Christopher Dodd and Richard Shelby quietly attached to H.R. 3221 ...
Daniel R. Ballon
July 7, 2008
Commentary
You’ve Done A Great Job – Don’t Bother Coming Back Tomorrow
OK, let me get this straight: We’ve been critically following the passage of the autism mandate in Pennsylvania for almost a year now. It stalled in the state Senate despite advocates’ citing a study from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) that showed relatively low costs of the ...
John R. Graham
July 3, 2008
Commentary
Unbalanced Medical Billing in California: The (Wrong?) Regulator Attacks
If the media want to mock an enterprise that cannot manage the pace of change, they describe its alleged similarities to buggy-whip manufacturers after the dawn of the automobile age. But what happens to the government agency that regulates the buggy-whip manufacturers? Obviously, the forces of innovation and competition cannot ...
John R. Graham
July 2, 2008
Commentary
MD Examining Citizens’ Income Tax Records For Uninsured
Unfree State, July 2, 2008 Health and privacy experts call Maryland’s Big Brother plan to scour citizens’ state income tax records for uninsured children as a waste of resources and an invasion of privacy. Comptroller Peter Franchot is undertaking the expensive task starting this month as a result of a ...
Pacific Research Institute
July 2, 2008
Health Care
State Health Benefit Mandates Increase the Number of Uninsured
San Francisco, July 1, 2008 – The Pacific Research Institute today released the findings of a new report reviewing the impact of state benefit mandates on the uninsured. According to From Heart Transplants to Hairpieces: The Questionable Benefits of State Benefit Mandates for Health Insurance, benefit mandates increase health insurance ...
Pacific Research Institute
July 1, 2008
Commentary
Tennessee, AT&T Partner to Develop E-Health Info System
The state of Tennessee is partnering with AT&T to develop the first statewide electronic health information system in the United States. The system will enable Tennessee-based medical professionals to share patient records and information through a secure network extending across the entire state. The system will also link to the ...
Katie Flanigan
July 1, 2008
Health Care
From Heart Transplants to Hairpieces: The Questionable Benefits of State Benefit Mandates for Health Insurance
A benefit mandate is simply a state law that requires a health plan to pay for (or at least offer) a specified treatment, but there is nothing simple about quantifying the costs of such mandates. This paper reviews 28 original actuarial and econometric articles that attempt to estimate the cost ...
John R. Graham
July 1, 2008
Commentary
Maryland Law Targets Uninsured to Fill Government Insurance Rolls
Health Care News, Heartland Institute (Chicago, IL), July 1, 2008 As many as 90,000 eligible children in Maryland are not enrolled in the state’s subsidized health insurance program, according to state estimates, despite several expensive and lengthy marketing campaigns commissioned by the state government. This element of the uninsured population ...
Dr. Sanjit Bagchi
July 1, 2008
Health Care
From Heart Transplants to Hairpieces: The Questionable Benefits of State Benefit Mandates
PRI released a new paper today, which examines one critical area where states interfere in residents’ ability to buy health insurance of their choosing. According to From Heart Transplants to Hairpieces: The Questionable Benefits of State Benefit Mandates for Health Insurance, benefit mandates increase health insurance premiums, reduce wages, increase ...
John R. Graham
July 1, 2008
Why Did California’s Campaign Against Anthem Blue Cross Collapse?
I have written a series of blog entries about California’s health care regulators attacking health plans for “rescission,” which the regulators have equated with “post-claims underwriting.” The former consists of revoking a policy because the beneficiary made a material misrepresentation about his health status on his application. The latter consists ...
Hidden provision could endanger economy, civil liberties
As the Senate prepares to vote on the current housing legislation, I would like to bring to your attention a dangerous hidden provision that will burden several innovative Bay Area companies and threaten the civil liberties of all Americans. Senators Christopher Dodd and Richard Shelby quietly attached to H.R. 3221 ...
You’ve Done A Great Job – Don’t Bother Coming Back Tomorrow
OK, let me get this straight: We’ve been critically following the passage of the autism mandate in Pennsylvania for almost a year now. It stalled in the state Senate despite advocates’ citing a study from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) that showed relatively low costs of the ...
Unbalanced Medical Billing in California: The (Wrong?) Regulator Attacks
If the media want to mock an enterprise that cannot manage the pace of change, they describe its alleged similarities to buggy-whip manufacturers after the dawn of the automobile age. But what happens to the government agency that regulates the buggy-whip manufacturers? Obviously, the forces of innovation and competition cannot ...
MD Examining Citizens’ Income Tax Records For Uninsured
Unfree State, July 2, 2008 Health and privacy experts call Maryland’s Big Brother plan to scour citizens’ state income tax records for uninsured children as a waste of resources and an invasion of privacy. Comptroller Peter Franchot is undertaking the expensive task starting this month as a result of a ...
State Health Benefit Mandates Increase the Number of Uninsured
San Francisco, July 1, 2008 – The Pacific Research Institute today released the findings of a new report reviewing the impact of state benefit mandates on the uninsured. According to From Heart Transplants to Hairpieces: The Questionable Benefits of State Benefit Mandates for Health Insurance, benefit mandates increase health insurance ...
Tennessee, AT&T Partner to Develop E-Health Info System
The state of Tennessee is partnering with AT&T to develop the first statewide electronic health information system in the United States. The system will enable Tennessee-based medical professionals to share patient records and information through a secure network extending across the entire state. The system will also link to the ...
From Heart Transplants to Hairpieces: The Questionable Benefits of State Benefit Mandates for Health Insurance
A benefit mandate is simply a state law that requires a health plan to pay for (or at least offer) a specified treatment, but there is nothing simple about quantifying the costs of such mandates. This paper reviews 28 original actuarial and econometric articles that attempt to estimate the cost ...
Maryland Law Targets Uninsured to Fill Government Insurance Rolls
Health Care News, Heartland Institute (Chicago, IL), July 1, 2008 As many as 90,000 eligible children in Maryland are not enrolled in the state’s subsidized health insurance program, according to state estimates, despite several expensive and lengthy marketing campaigns commissioned by the state government. This element of the uninsured population ...
From Heart Transplants to Hairpieces: The Questionable Benefits of State Benefit Mandates
PRI released a new paper today, which examines one critical area where states interfere in residents’ ability to buy health insurance of their choosing. According to From Heart Transplants to Hairpieces: The Questionable Benefits of State Benefit Mandates for Health Insurance, benefit mandates increase health insurance premiums, reduce wages, increase ...