Commentary
Commentary
Chicago Hospital Pricing: Is a 40% Discount Enough?
The Chicago Tribune reports that area hospitals are giving discounts of up to 40% to uninsured patients, or even “anyone who asks”. This may be a result of a law passed last year that attempted to compel some transparency and common-sense pricing for Illinois hospitals. As I’ve noted before (p. ...
Commentary
Our View: Despite qualms of some, universal health care becoming a reality
When Juan Figueroa, president of Meriden-based Universal Health Care Foundation, introduced “SustiNet” two weeks ago the response was, for the most part, enthusiastic. And why shouldn’t it be? Foundation officials said that if implemented over a five-year timeline, SustiNet would save households and businesses a combined total of $1.75 billion ...
Commentary
Overhauling health care could boost the economy
There are plenty of reasons to overhaul our creaky health care system, ranging from its status as the most expensive system in the world to its failure to provide for the health of millions of our fellow citizens. But several recent studies suggest that there’s one more reason for reform: ...
Business & Economics
Antioch business workshops try to keep small employers afloat
Contra Costa Times (CA), January 24, 2009 Parwin Fazli is determined to keep her company afloat even as every week seems to bring word of another business caving to the weak economy. “We have to make it,” said Fazli, co-owner of the Antioch limousine service All Vital Transportation. “We have ...
California
Free(ing) Health Insurance in California?
State senator Sam Aanestad is still rolling out good health-care legislation in the Golden State. A few months ago, he introduced a bill that would improve California’s high-risk pool for health insurance, by allowing its beneficiaries to buy low-premium, consumer-driven policies, and allow different premiums for smokers and the obese ...
Commentary
The CTA’s Latest Ads: A Dishonest Defense of a Dysfunctional Monopoly
Flash Report (CA), January 23, 2009 Public school funding is plunging to the bottom of the national spending barrel, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest budget “attack” on education is to blame—or so the California Teachers Association claims. In their latest statewide radio ad campaign, the CTA claims California “sank” to ...
Business & Economics
Obama Set to Change Science and Tech
When Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States this week, he promised that his administration would “restore science to its rightful place.” Whether reality will fit the rhetoric remains to be seen, and there are reasons to be both optimistic and a little wary. ...
Business & Economics
Pattern is playing out again
There is no doubt that the United States and much of the world are in perilous economic times. Sensing opportunity in crisis, many left-leaning politicians and experts, including President-elect Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, are calling for a potentially massive expansion of the state without explaining how such action ...
Commentary
Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying for State Take-Over of Health Care?
Last January, governor Schwarzenegger’s expensive and unwieldy proposal for so-called “universal” health care finally gasped its last breath, after a long year of lobbying and coalition-building by the governor’s team. Good thing, too, as I wrote at the time. But those who advocated it are more active than ever. Daniel ...
Business & Economics
Governor’s tort reform will yield jobs
I commend Gov. Sonny Perdue for his efforts to enact meaningful tort reform in Georgia (“Perdue says tort reform needed,” Jan. 14). During this time of economic crisis, no state can afford to endure the unnecessary costs of an inefficient tort system. Excess litigation cost America’s economy $589 billion in ...
Chicago Hospital Pricing: Is a 40% Discount Enough?
The Chicago Tribune reports that area hospitals are giving discounts of up to 40% to uninsured patients, or even “anyone who asks”. This may be a result of a law passed last year that attempted to compel some transparency and common-sense pricing for Illinois hospitals. As I’ve noted before (p. ...
Our View: Despite qualms of some, universal health care becoming a reality
When Juan Figueroa, president of Meriden-based Universal Health Care Foundation, introduced “SustiNet” two weeks ago the response was, for the most part, enthusiastic. And why shouldn’t it be? Foundation officials said that if implemented over a five-year timeline, SustiNet would save households and businesses a combined total of $1.75 billion ...
Overhauling health care could boost the economy
There are plenty of reasons to overhaul our creaky health care system, ranging from its status as the most expensive system in the world to its failure to provide for the health of millions of our fellow citizens. But several recent studies suggest that there’s one more reason for reform: ...
Antioch business workshops try to keep small employers afloat
Contra Costa Times (CA), January 24, 2009 Parwin Fazli is determined to keep her company afloat even as every week seems to bring word of another business caving to the weak economy. “We have to make it,” said Fazli, co-owner of the Antioch limousine service All Vital Transportation. “We have ...
Free(ing) Health Insurance in California?
State senator Sam Aanestad is still rolling out good health-care legislation in the Golden State. A few months ago, he introduced a bill that would improve California’s high-risk pool for health insurance, by allowing its beneficiaries to buy low-premium, consumer-driven policies, and allow different premiums for smokers and the obese ...
The CTA’s Latest Ads: A Dishonest Defense of a Dysfunctional Monopoly
Flash Report (CA), January 23, 2009 Public school funding is plunging to the bottom of the national spending barrel, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest budget “attack” on education is to blame—or so the California Teachers Association claims. In their latest statewide radio ad campaign, the CTA claims California “sank” to ...
Obama Set to Change Science and Tech
When Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States this week, he promised that his administration would “restore science to its rightful place.” Whether reality will fit the rhetoric remains to be seen, and there are reasons to be both optimistic and a little wary. ...
Pattern is playing out again
There is no doubt that the United States and much of the world are in perilous economic times. Sensing opportunity in crisis, many left-leaning politicians and experts, including President-elect Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, are calling for a potentially massive expansion of the state without explaining how such action ...
Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying for State Take-Over of Health Care?
Last January, governor Schwarzenegger’s expensive and unwieldy proposal for so-called “universal” health care finally gasped its last breath, after a long year of lobbying and coalition-building by the governor’s team. Good thing, too, as I wrote at the time. But those who advocated it are more active than ever. Daniel ...
Governor’s tort reform will yield jobs
I commend Gov. Sonny Perdue for his efforts to enact meaningful tort reform in Georgia (“Perdue says tort reform needed,” Jan. 14). During this time of economic crisis, no state can afford to endure the unnecessary costs of an inefficient tort system. Excess litigation cost America’s economy $589 billion in ...
