Health Care

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 ...
Commentary

Innovation Incentives in Danger from Congress

U.S. patents have fostered American innovation ever since George Washington signed the first one in 1790. By protecting the rights of inventors, the patent system has spurred the development of everything from the light bulb to lifesaving medicines. You wouldn’t think Congress would want to mess with such a winning ...
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 ...
Commentary

Innovation Incentives in Danger from Congress

U.S. patents have fostered American innovation ever since George Washington signed the first one in 1790. By protecting the rights of inventors, the patent system has spurred the development of everything from the light bulb to lifesaving medicines. You wouldn’t think Congress would want to mess with such a winning ...
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