Commentary
Commentary
Medicare Benefits Fall Short of Employer-Provided Health Care Plans
Employer-provided health plans provide more generous benefits to seniors than Medicare does, according to an analysis conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Hewitt Associates. The study compared the traditional fee-for-service Medicare benefit package, including the prescription drug benefit, with typical large employer-provided health plans. The study found ...
Commentary
Medical Licensing Impedes Quality, Affordability of Care
Medical licensing is ineffective and inefficient, and patients would be better served by relying on brand recognition when choosing their doctors, writes Shirley Svorny in a new report for the Cato Institute. “In health care, we haven’t used brand names because people have been trusting licensure,” Svorny told Health Care ...
Commentary
California Passes Laws to Remove Questionable Teachers from Classrooms
California classrooms may soon be safer thanks to a pair of new laws signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). The bills are designed to close loopholes that allowed teachers accused or even convicted of sexual misconduct or drug crimes to work in public school classrooms. The measures were spurred by ...
Commentary
Bush’s Final Medicaid Reform Increases Patient Responsibility
The Bush Administration’s (or the Bush “regime’s”, if you prefer) theme in Medicaid reform has been to give states more flexibility in how they operate their Medicaid programs, despite the federal government paying over half the cost. In its (likely) final hurrah, the Administration recently published Medicaid rules allowing states ...
California
House Committee Considers Tax Breaks for Individual Health Insurance
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), December 1, 2008 Members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee are debating the merits of enacting tax breaks for individuals who buy private insurance, which would put them on equal tax footing with employers who purchase insurance for their employees. The committee ...
Business & Economics
Piracy: Yet 1 more reason for drilling
Somali pirates recently seized the Sirius Star, a supertanker headed for North America with 2 million barrels of oil. In the process, the pirates unwittingly strengthened the case for more domestic oil production in this country. Shipping oil across vast oceans is a dangerous business. Tankers run aground and spill ...
Business & Economics
Impact – November 2008
PRI Ideas in Action – November 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions. Read PDF
Business & Economics
Letter: Litigation costs hurt Bay State doctors, hospitals
To the editor: Kudos for your Nov. 20 editorial on the devastating impact of rising malpractice insurance premiums and defensive medicine costs on the North Shore Birth Center and other medical facilities in Massachusetts. (“Birth Center’s problems highlight need for tort reform”). Defensive medicine is not just a problem in ...
Business & Economics
Decision against Wyeth would clog courts
Regarding “Wyeth should win/Otherwise, a bad case will make bad law” (Editorial, Nov. 17): Your editorial on the ramifications of a ruling against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals for the U.S. health care system was right on the money, particularly regarding the potential for a torrent of frivolous and wasteful lawsuits. A decision ...
Business & Economics
Will Electric Cars Jolt California’s Economy?
With the support of Governor Schwarzenegger, the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose last week announced a $1-billion joint plan to make the Bay Area “the electric-vehicle capital of the world.” The announcement follows President-elect Obama’s pledge to reinvigorate the nation’s economy with millions of “green collar” jobs. ...
Medicare Benefits Fall Short of Employer-Provided Health Care Plans
Employer-provided health plans provide more generous benefits to seniors than Medicare does, according to an analysis conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Hewitt Associates. The study compared the traditional fee-for-service Medicare benefit package, including the prescription drug benefit, with typical large employer-provided health plans. The study found ...
Medical Licensing Impedes Quality, Affordability of Care
Medical licensing is ineffective and inefficient, and patients would be better served by relying on brand recognition when choosing their doctors, writes Shirley Svorny in a new report for the Cato Institute. “In health care, we haven’t used brand names because people have been trusting licensure,” Svorny told Health Care ...
California Passes Laws to Remove Questionable Teachers from Classrooms
California classrooms may soon be safer thanks to a pair of new laws signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). The bills are designed to close loopholes that allowed teachers accused or even convicted of sexual misconduct or drug crimes to work in public school classrooms. The measures were spurred by ...
Bush’s Final Medicaid Reform Increases Patient Responsibility
The Bush Administration’s (or the Bush “regime’s”, if you prefer) theme in Medicaid reform has been to give states more flexibility in how they operate their Medicaid programs, despite the federal government paying over half the cost. In its (likely) final hurrah, the Administration recently published Medicaid rules allowing states ...
House Committee Considers Tax Breaks for Individual Health Insurance
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), December 1, 2008 Members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee are debating the merits of enacting tax breaks for individuals who buy private insurance, which would put them on equal tax footing with employers who purchase insurance for their employees. The committee ...
Piracy: Yet 1 more reason for drilling
Somali pirates recently seized the Sirius Star, a supertanker headed for North America with 2 million barrels of oil. In the process, the pirates unwittingly strengthened the case for more domestic oil production in this country. Shipping oil across vast oceans is a dangerous business. Tankers run aground and spill ...
Impact – November 2008
PRI Ideas in Action – November 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions. Read PDF
Letter: Litigation costs hurt Bay State doctors, hospitals
To the editor: Kudos for your Nov. 20 editorial on the devastating impact of rising malpractice insurance premiums and defensive medicine costs on the North Shore Birth Center and other medical facilities in Massachusetts. (“Birth Center’s problems highlight need for tort reform”). Defensive medicine is not just a problem in ...
Decision against Wyeth would clog courts
Regarding “Wyeth should win/Otherwise, a bad case will make bad law” (Editorial, Nov. 17): Your editorial on the ramifications of a ruling against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals for the U.S. health care system was right on the money, particularly regarding the potential for a torrent of frivolous and wasteful lawsuits. A decision ...
Will Electric Cars Jolt California’s Economy?
With the support of Governor Schwarzenegger, the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose last week announced a $1-billion joint plan to make the Bay Area “the electric-vehicle capital of the world.” The announcement follows President-elect Obama’s pledge to reinvigorate the nation’s economy with millions of “green collar” jobs. ...
