Commentary
Commentary
Telehealth is a rare good thing to come from the pandemic. Let’s make it permanent
It’s time for your annual physical. You make an appointment with your doctor and mark the date on your calendar. But when the day arrives, you don’t set aside two to three hours or wait for a nurse to call your name in a sterile doctor’s office. You log onto ...
Commentary
Independent Doctors Are Worth Saving
Physicians are losing their independence, according to a new report from the consulting firm Avalere and the Physician Advocacy Institute. Almost 70% of American doctors are now employed by a hospital, a health system, or some other corporate entity, like a private equity firm or insurer. Less than one-third of ...
Commentary
Stop The Bid To Expand Medicare
Progressives in Congress are laying the groundwork to expand Medicare by the slimmest of margins later this year. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the head of the Senate Budget Committee, is teeing up a $6 trillion legislative package that would, among other things, lower the age at which older adults become ...
Commentary
America’s Centers for Disease Confusion
America’s vaccination campaign is stalling. In late June, pharmacists and other providers were administering roughly 800,000 shots a day — down 80 percent from a peak of more than 4.6 million in mid April. Because of this precipitous decline, the Biden administration recently admitted it would miss its self-imposed goal ...
Commentary
Democrats’ Medicare Plan Lavishes Billions on Patients Who Don’t Need It
Medicare is running out of money. According to a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office, the program’s Part A hospital insurance trust fund is projected to be insolvent in 2024. At that point, there won’t be enough tax revenue coming in to cover the claims costs of the program’s beneficiaries. Naturally, ...
California
Enough of Politicians’ Expensive Toys
With President Joe Biden now making federal transportation policy, the reckless California high-speed rail project is in line for a $929 million grant from Washington, D.C. The funds will surely be squandered in similar fashion to the billions already wasted. The grant had been sensibly pulled by Donald Trump in ...
Agriculture
Key Supreme Court ruling protects Californians’ private property rights
“I’m going to take this to the Supreme Court,” is almost always an empty, baseless threat generated by in-the-moment fury from someone who believes they were wronged. But sometimes cases get that far. Sometimes the offended party wins. And on occasion, that victory undergirds the framework of a free society. ...
Business & Economics
Basic Income: High Praise but Poor Results
Handing out taxpayer dollars in the form of basic incomes is the latest policy rage. The Los Angeles Times reports there’s “a growing enthusiasm for basic income programs.” Vox says “guaranteed income is graduating from charity to public policy.” At KQED, they’re giving Oaklanders tips on how they can apply for the city’s ...
Commentary
States are better off without Medicaid expansion
Congressional Democrats are debating several ways to offer Medicaid coverage to low-income, able-bodied adults in the 12 states that have refused to expand the program under Obamacare. Spending more federal dollars on the country’s largest entitlement is a bad idea. Medicaid is an unsustainable program that costs a fortune yet ...
Commentary
America’s drug rebate system is broken
Rebates and discounts are generally viewed as important competitive tools that lower prices for consumers, and rightly so. But consumers should beware when discounts create competitive restrictions that reduces their choices and increases their costs. Such is the case when dominant drug manufacturers use rebates to keep lower-priced drugs off ...
Telehealth is a rare good thing to come from the pandemic. Let’s make it permanent
It’s time for your annual physical. You make an appointment with your doctor and mark the date on your calendar. But when the day arrives, you don’t set aside two to three hours or wait for a nurse to call your name in a sterile doctor’s office. You log onto ...
Independent Doctors Are Worth Saving
Physicians are losing their independence, according to a new report from the consulting firm Avalere and the Physician Advocacy Institute. Almost 70% of American doctors are now employed by a hospital, a health system, or some other corporate entity, like a private equity firm or insurer. Less than one-third of ...
Stop The Bid To Expand Medicare
Progressives in Congress are laying the groundwork to expand Medicare by the slimmest of margins later this year. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the head of the Senate Budget Committee, is teeing up a $6 trillion legislative package that would, among other things, lower the age at which older adults become ...
America’s Centers for Disease Confusion
America’s vaccination campaign is stalling. In late June, pharmacists and other providers were administering roughly 800,000 shots a day — down 80 percent from a peak of more than 4.6 million in mid April. Because of this precipitous decline, the Biden administration recently admitted it would miss its self-imposed goal ...
Democrats’ Medicare Plan Lavishes Billions on Patients Who Don’t Need It
Medicare is running out of money. According to a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office, the program’s Part A hospital insurance trust fund is projected to be insolvent in 2024. At that point, there won’t be enough tax revenue coming in to cover the claims costs of the program’s beneficiaries. Naturally, ...
Enough of Politicians’ Expensive Toys
With President Joe Biden now making federal transportation policy, the reckless California high-speed rail project is in line for a $929 million grant from Washington, D.C. The funds will surely be squandered in similar fashion to the billions already wasted. The grant had been sensibly pulled by Donald Trump in ...
Key Supreme Court ruling protects Californians’ private property rights
“I’m going to take this to the Supreme Court,” is almost always an empty, baseless threat generated by in-the-moment fury from someone who believes they were wronged. But sometimes cases get that far. Sometimes the offended party wins. And on occasion, that victory undergirds the framework of a free society. ...
Basic Income: High Praise but Poor Results
Handing out taxpayer dollars in the form of basic incomes is the latest policy rage. The Los Angeles Times reports there’s “a growing enthusiasm for basic income programs.” Vox says “guaranteed income is graduating from charity to public policy.” At KQED, they’re giving Oaklanders tips on how they can apply for the city’s ...
States are better off without Medicaid expansion
Congressional Democrats are debating several ways to offer Medicaid coverage to low-income, able-bodied adults in the 12 states that have refused to expand the program under Obamacare. Spending more federal dollars on the country’s largest entitlement is a bad idea. Medicaid is an unsustainable program that costs a fortune yet ...
America’s drug rebate system is broken
Rebates and discounts are generally viewed as important competitive tools that lower prices for consumers, and rightly so. But consumers should beware when discounts create competitive restrictions that reduces their choices and increases their costs. Such is the case when dominant drug manufacturers use rebates to keep lower-priced drugs off ...
