Health Care
Commentary
Commonwealth Fund’s Count of “Underinsured”: Lifting the Carpet
Once again, the scholars at the Commonwealth Fund have scared the bejayzus out of the mainstream media with their latest reckoning that over 25 million Americans are “underinsured”. While the 2007 numbers look worse than the previous ones from 2003 (when the estimate was only 15.6 million), the problems with ...
Commentary
Schwarzenegger Supporter Advocates Government Monopoly Health Care
One of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s reasons for his Health Care Deforminator ABX1 1, which would have imposed a massive tax hike to fund “universal” private health care, was that it would short circuit calls for single-payer, government-monopoly, “universal” health care. Indeed, Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed a single-payer bill, SB-840, in September 2006. ...
Commentary
A Primer for Follow-On Biologics
Generic drugs are chemically identical to their brand-name counterparts. And they cost about 70 percent less. That’s why, with healthcare costs escalating, policymakers want to expand the use of generics. As part of that effort, the Senate is considering a measure that would allow the generic drug industry to produce ...
California
Cultural Revolution in San Francisco’s Health Access Plan!
Being Friday, I thought I’d lay off the heavy analysis and have some fun with my old bugaboo, San Francisco’s pointless and expensive Health Access Plan. As discussed before, I am at a loss to understand what this program achieves, other than levying a “pay or play” tax on employers ...
Commentary
Waiting Lists? Hospital Closures? Too Few Doctors? …Canada? No: Los Angeles
An appalling job of reporting in today’s New York Times, about the consequences to Los Angeles’ poorest residents of closing the county-run Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital almost a year ago. As I’ve written before, the county had plenty of opportunity over the last few months to let private operators ...
Commentary
Don’t Get Ill in Illinois: State Medical Society Wants to Reduce Patients’ Choices
At the request of an Illinois state representative, the Federal Trade Commission has cast its eye over HB 5372, an appalling bill that threatens to reduce Illinois residents’ choice of where, when, and how they seek out health services. Well aware of the benefits of convenient clinics, the FTC pulls ...
California
California Health Care Deforminator ABX1 1 Rises from the Dead – In Bits & Pieces
In many horror movies, the hero kills the zombie only to find that the baddie’s hand he chopped off keeps crawling towards him, relentless in its quest to strangle the living. Some of the health care bills moving through the California Legislature remind me of that sort of scene. The ...
California
Unbalanced Billing in California: No Easy Answer
One area of health care where hospitals and doctors face off against health plans, without any satisfactory resolution, is providers’ “balance billing” patients who present at out-of-network emergency rooms. Because the hospital is not in the patient’s health plans’ network, the hospital and/or ER doctor stick the patient with a ...
Commentary
Md. Tax Records Are Scoured for SCHIP-Eligibles
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), June 1, 2008 Health officials in Maryland are working with state Comptroller Peter Franchot to identify children eligible for, but not enrolled in, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The comptroller’s office will use state income tax records to locate families whose incomes qualify ...
Commentary
Bogus Figures
The Eagle (Reading, PA), June 1, 2008 Letters from readers Bogus figures Editor: It has been stated by many politicians that 47 million Americans do not have health insurance. This number is bogus. According to Sally C. Pipes, president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Research Institute, the number ...
Commonwealth Fund’s Count of “Underinsured”: Lifting the Carpet
Once again, the scholars at the Commonwealth Fund have scared the bejayzus out of the mainstream media with their latest reckoning that over 25 million Americans are “underinsured”. While the 2007 numbers look worse than the previous ones from 2003 (when the estimate was only 15.6 million), the problems with ...
Schwarzenegger Supporter Advocates Government Monopoly Health Care
One of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s reasons for his Health Care Deforminator ABX1 1, which would have imposed a massive tax hike to fund “universal” private health care, was that it would short circuit calls for single-payer, government-monopoly, “universal” health care. Indeed, Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed a single-payer bill, SB-840, in September 2006. ...
A Primer for Follow-On Biologics
Generic drugs are chemically identical to their brand-name counterparts. And they cost about 70 percent less. That’s why, with healthcare costs escalating, policymakers want to expand the use of generics. As part of that effort, the Senate is considering a measure that would allow the generic drug industry to produce ...
Cultural Revolution in San Francisco’s Health Access Plan!
Being Friday, I thought I’d lay off the heavy analysis and have some fun with my old bugaboo, San Francisco’s pointless and expensive Health Access Plan. As discussed before, I am at a loss to understand what this program achieves, other than levying a “pay or play” tax on employers ...
Waiting Lists? Hospital Closures? Too Few Doctors? …Canada? No: Los Angeles
An appalling job of reporting in today’s New York Times, about the consequences to Los Angeles’ poorest residents of closing the county-run Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital almost a year ago. As I’ve written before, the county had plenty of opportunity over the last few months to let private operators ...
Don’t Get Ill in Illinois: State Medical Society Wants to Reduce Patients’ Choices
At the request of an Illinois state representative, the Federal Trade Commission has cast its eye over HB 5372, an appalling bill that threatens to reduce Illinois residents’ choice of where, when, and how they seek out health services. Well aware of the benefits of convenient clinics, the FTC pulls ...
California Health Care Deforminator ABX1 1 Rises from the Dead – In Bits & Pieces
In many horror movies, the hero kills the zombie only to find that the baddie’s hand he chopped off keeps crawling towards him, relentless in its quest to strangle the living. Some of the health care bills moving through the California Legislature remind me of that sort of scene. The ...
Unbalanced Billing in California: No Easy Answer
One area of health care where hospitals and doctors face off against health plans, without any satisfactory resolution, is providers’ “balance billing” patients who present at out-of-network emergency rooms. Because the hospital is not in the patient’s health plans’ network, the hospital and/or ER doctor stick the patient with a ...
Md. Tax Records Are Scoured for SCHIP-Eligibles
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), June 1, 2008 Health officials in Maryland are working with state Comptroller Peter Franchot to identify children eligible for, but not enrolled in, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The comptroller’s office will use state income tax records to locate families whose incomes qualify ...
Bogus Figures
The Eagle (Reading, PA), June 1, 2008 Letters from readers Bogus figures Editor: It has been stated by many politicians that 47 million Americans do not have health insurance. This number is bogus. According to Sally C. Pipes, president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Research Institute, the number ...
