Health Care
California
Out of the Wreckage of ABX1 1, Consumer Watchdog Plans Another Shake-Down
You would think that anyone seriously wanting to improve health care in America would want to reduce, not increase the administrative, bureaucratic burden of over regulation, in order to ensure more dollars go to patient care. But if you profit from the regulatory burden, you’d hardly make that a serious ...
Commentary
Twilight of the Medieval Guilds? Scope of Practice Laws Examined
The California HealthCare Foundation, hardly a bunch of right-wing fanatics like us at PRI, has published a sober, but assertive, analysis of how California regulates the scope of practice of health professionals, along with recommendations for improvement. It’s written by scholars at the University of California, San Francisco’s Center for ...
California
California Health Care Deforminator Model ABX1 1: A Requiem
The Health Affairs blog has just wrapped up a series of posts from a number of folks who supported, to various degrees, the so-called “reform” that Governor Schwarzenegger and his allies recently tried to foist on California. I suppose that one could generally identify these ladies and gentlemen as “Clintonista” ...
California
California Health Care: Learning from history for a healthier future
After folding on ABX 1 1, the governor now tries his hand at the state’s dwindling budget with desperate ideas to rescind tax credits and request more federal funds. As for health care, the legislature’s “new” approach is incremental change. There are few winning hands thus far. The publicity and ...
Commentary
Calls to Inaction? Three New Books on Health Reform
During 2007, some new books on health reform offered the same old message of single-payer, government-monopoly health care. Others offered market-based solutions but, unfortunately, rely too much on “top-down” technical innovation instead of “bottom-up” consumer preference to improve American health care. Three books not only show the wide spectrum of ...
California
California’s Convenient Clinics: Some Win, Some Lose, All Change
The Sacramento Business Journal (subscribers only) has surveyed the “drop-in” clinics that have sprouted up around the state’s capital city in the last three years or so. It’s amazing what a diverse group they are! Sutter Express Care, owned by a large non-profit, hospital chain, has been hoping to use ...
Commentary
Massachusetts’ Commonwealth Connector’s Compliance Confusion
Advocates of so-called “universal” health care often cite the “fragmentation” of the status quo as reason enough to increase taxes and fines so that everybody has health insurance – whether we like what’s offered or not. And, they have a point: the employer-based health care system lets a lot of ...
Commentary
Forced health coverage unhealthy
In 1949, Pennsylvania became the first state to impose benefit mandates on health insurance, requiring plans to pay for osteopathy and dentistry services. It was a watershed event that led to a flood of legal requirements in other states. Unfortunately, it also laid the groundwork for today’s bloated health care ...
Commentary
Health 2.0: A Promising Prescription
Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) recent announcement that it is creating a home for personal health records online is a natural outgrowth of Silicon Valley’s Web 2.0 consumer Internet focus. The question this raises is whether a market-driven system is better for keeping health records than one run by the government. Groups ...
California
State should look east for affordable health insurance
One of Sacramento’s great laments is the number of Californians without health insurance. The predictable bad solution has been to propose billions in additional taxes. California has been spared so far from this counterintuitive, costly “solution.” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators ought to look eastward for a better idea. But ...
Out of the Wreckage of ABX1 1, Consumer Watchdog Plans Another Shake-Down
You would think that anyone seriously wanting to improve health care in America would want to reduce, not increase the administrative, bureaucratic burden of over regulation, in order to ensure more dollars go to patient care. But if you profit from the regulatory burden, you’d hardly make that a serious ...
Twilight of the Medieval Guilds? Scope of Practice Laws Examined
The California HealthCare Foundation, hardly a bunch of right-wing fanatics like us at PRI, has published a sober, but assertive, analysis of how California regulates the scope of practice of health professionals, along with recommendations for improvement. It’s written by scholars at the University of California, San Francisco’s Center for ...
California Health Care Deforminator Model ABX1 1: A Requiem
The Health Affairs blog has just wrapped up a series of posts from a number of folks who supported, to various degrees, the so-called “reform” that Governor Schwarzenegger and his allies recently tried to foist on California. I suppose that one could generally identify these ladies and gentlemen as “Clintonista” ...
California Health Care: Learning from history for a healthier future
After folding on ABX 1 1, the governor now tries his hand at the state’s dwindling budget with desperate ideas to rescind tax credits and request more federal funds. As for health care, the legislature’s “new” approach is incremental change. There are few winning hands thus far. The publicity and ...
Calls to Inaction? Three New Books on Health Reform
During 2007, some new books on health reform offered the same old message of single-payer, government-monopoly health care. Others offered market-based solutions but, unfortunately, rely too much on “top-down” technical innovation instead of “bottom-up” consumer preference to improve American health care. Three books not only show the wide spectrum of ...
California’s Convenient Clinics: Some Win, Some Lose, All Change
The Sacramento Business Journal (subscribers only) has surveyed the “drop-in” clinics that have sprouted up around the state’s capital city in the last three years or so. It’s amazing what a diverse group they are! Sutter Express Care, owned by a large non-profit, hospital chain, has been hoping to use ...
Massachusetts’ Commonwealth Connector’s Compliance Confusion
Advocates of so-called “universal” health care often cite the “fragmentation” of the status quo as reason enough to increase taxes and fines so that everybody has health insurance – whether we like what’s offered or not. And, they have a point: the employer-based health care system lets a lot of ...
Forced health coverage unhealthy
In 1949, Pennsylvania became the first state to impose benefit mandates on health insurance, requiring plans to pay for osteopathy and dentistry services. It was a watershed event that led to a flood of legal requirements in other states. Unfortunately, it also laid the groundwork for today’s bloated health care ...
Health 2.0: A Promising Prescription
Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) recent announcement that it is creating a home for personal health records online is a natural outgrowth of Silicon Valley’s Web 2.0 consumer Internet focus. The question this raises is whether a market-driven system is better for keeping health records than one run by the government. Groups ...
State should look east for affordable health insurance
One of Sacramento’s great laments is the number of Californians without health insurance. The predictable bad solution has been to propose billions in additional taxes. California has been spared so far from this counterintuitive, costly “solution.” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators ought to look eastward for a better idea. But ...
