Commentary
Commentary
Don’t Get Too Excited About a Coronavirus Vaccine
There is widespread anticipation of vaccines to prevent COVID-19 infections so life can “get back to normal.” Some three dozen vaccines, made with a variety of technology platforms, or approaches (naked RNA, weakened or killed viruses, hybrid viruses, subunit vaccines, etc.), are now in clinical trials. Many of these vaccine development programs have ...
Henry Miller, M.S., M.D.
July 31, 2020
Commentary
Mourning The Many Foibles Of Medicare And Medicaid At 55
Today, Medicare and Medicaid both mark their 55th birthdays. But hold the cake. There’s not much to celebrate on this anniversary. You’d be hard pressed to find two more wasteful, fraud-ridden programs than Medicare and Medicaid. They grow less fiscally sustainable with each passing year. And they routinely deliver subpar care that, ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 30, 2020
California
CalPERS, Corruption And Cronyism
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which has a history of making poor choices, plans to become a lending institution. A healthy pension fund wouldn’t be making such a risky decision. Still hurting from $100 billion in losses from the Great Recession, CalPERS was bruised again by the coronavirus pandemic. ...
Kerry Jackson
July 30, 2020
Commentary
Affordable short-term healthcare plans can flourish thanks to Trump
Millions of people will continue to have access to affordable short-term health plans, thanks to a new ruling from the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. A three-judge panel of the court upheld by a 2-1 margin a Trump administration rule extending the maximum duration of a short-term plan to ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 29, 2020
Commentary
After COVID-19 subsides, ‘the telehealth revolution must march on’
It’s hard to find a silver lining in a pandemic. But one of the few may be the rapid rise of telemedicine. With people stuck at home, doctors retooled their practices to see patients via videoconference. Insurance companies and regulators expanded the number of services available via telemedicine—and made reimbursement ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 28, 2020
Business & Economics
It’s time to bring our economy back to life. Paying workers to stay home won’t help
The federal government’s emergency unemployment benefits are set to expire this week. Set at $600 a week by the CARES Act — the economic rescue package Congress passed back in March — the emergency benefits were intended to supplement state unemployment insurance and offset the economic carnage caused by the coronavirus lockdowns. That extra ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 25, 2020
Commentary
Trump’s drug pricing executive orders harmful to patients — will hinder development of new drugs
President Trump issued four executive orders Friday that he said will lower drug prices — but in reality, three of the orders will cause far more harm than good and represent electioneering at its worst. The three harmful executive orders allow the importation of drugs from Canada, reduce the price ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 24, 2020
Commentary
President Trump’s Big Government Instincts Threaten Drug Innovation And Availability
President Reagan famously said, “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government and I’m here to help”. It is time for President Trump to learn this wisdom. Along with Speaker Pelosi, Senator Sanders, and Representative Ocasio-Cortez, President Trump seems to believe that giving the ...
Wayne Winegarden
July 24, 2020
California
California Doubles Down on Unworkable Data Privacy Law During Second COVID Shutdown
Businesses were ordered to close. Schools were shuttered. People were told to stay home. Many believed that in a week or two life for the most part would return to normal and that COVID would be a bad memory. Now, four months later, California has not just halted reopening but ...
Bartlett Cleland
July 23, 2020
Commentary
Why Trump administration should say goodbye to ‘Buy America’
It’s not often that Joe Biden agrees with President Trump. But the former vice president found common ground with his presumptive opponent this month when he announced he would outline a plan to bring medical manufacturing back to the United States, something the president has long endorsed. This isn’t the ...
Sally C. Pipes
July 23, 2020
Don’t Get Too Excited About a Coronavirus Vaccine
There is widespread anticipation of vaccines to prevent COVID-19 infections so life can “get back to normal.” Some three dozen vaccines, made with a variety of technology platforms, or approaches (naked RNA, weakened or killed viruses, hybrid viruses, subunit vaccines, etc.), are now in clinical trials. Many of these vaccine development programs have ...
Mourning The Many Foibles Of Medicare And Medicaid At 55
Today, Medicare and Medicaid both mark their 55th birthdays. But hold the cake. There’s not much to celebrate on this anniversary. You’d be hard pressed to find two more wasteful, fraud-ridden programs than Medicare and Medicaid. They grow less fiscally sustainable with each passing year. And they routinely deliver subpar care that, ...
CalPERS, Corruption And Cronyism
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which has a history of making poor choices, plans to become a lending institution. A healthy pension fund wouldn’t be making such a risky decision. Still hurting from $100 billion in losses from the Great Recession, CalPERS was bruised again by the coronavirus pandemic. ...
Affordable short-term healthcare plans can flourish thanks to Trump
Millions of people will continue to have access to affordable short-term health plans, thanks to a new ruling from the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. A three-judge panel of the court upheld by a 2-1 margin a Trump administration rule extending the maximum duration of a short-term plan to ...
After COVID-19 subsides, ‘the telehealth revolution must march on’
It’s hard to find a silver lining in a pandemic. But one of the few may be the rapid rise of telemedicine. With people stuck at home, doctors retooled their practices to see patients via videoconference. Insurance companies and regulators expanded the number of services available via telemedicine—and made reimbursement ...
It’s time to bring our economy back to life. Paying workers to stay home won’t help
The federal government’s emergency unemployment benefits are set to expire this week. Set at $600 a week by the CARES Act — the economic rescue package Congress passed back in March — the emergency benefits were intended to supplement state unemployment insurance and offset the economic carnage caused by the coronavirus lockdowns. That extra ...
Trump’s drug pricing executive orders harmful to patients — will hinder development of new drugs
President Trump issued four executive orders Friday that he said will lower drug prices — but in reality, three of the orders will cause far more harm than good and represent electioneering at its worst. The three harmful executive orders allow the importation of drugs from Canada, reduce the price ...
President Trump’s Big Government Instincts Threaten Drug Innovation And Availability
President Reagan famously said, “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government and I’m here to help”. It is time for President Trump to learn this wisdom. Along with Speaker Pelosi, Senator Sanders, and Representative Ocasio-Cortez, President Trump seems to believe that giving the ...
California Doubles Down on Unworkable Data Privacy Law During Second COVID Shutdown
Businesses were ordered to close. Schools were shuttered. People were told to stay home. Many believed that in a week or two life for the most part would return to normal and that COVID would be a bad memory. Now, four months later, California has not just halted reopening but ...
Why Trump administration should say goodbye to ‘Buy America’
It’s not often that Joe Biden agrees with President Trump. But the former vice president found common ground with his presumptive opponent this month when he announced he would outline a plan to bring medical manufacturing back to the United States, something the president has long endorsed. This isn’t the ...