Medicaid
Commentary
Lessons from States with “Universal” 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. A year later, in 2009, legislators should attempt to learn from two states that have legislated “universal” care. Hawaii imposed ...
Commentary
Hospitals’ “Triple Whammy” Demands Reform
The Los Angeles Times reports that California hospitals are suffering a fiscal “triple whammy”: their investments are in the tank; they cannot borrow money in today’s frozen credit markets; and operating revenues have collapsed. Like I wrote in my analysis of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s failed health reform, hospitals’ finances are not ...
Commentary
NY Times Favors State Calculation of “Usual & Customary” Charges
My confidence always rises when the New York Times editorializes from the opposite side of an issue than I occupy. How pleased I was, then, when the editorial board cheered NY attorney-general Andrew Cuomo’s “settlement” (of course, I prefer “shakedown”) of Ingenix, a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary that compiles proprietary databases, ...
Commentary
UnitedHealth Group: The Gift That Keeps on Giving
It looks like UnitedHealth Group’s trials have just begun. Shortly after NY attorney-general, Andrew Cuomo, announced that UHG’s subsidiary, Ingenix, a database-vendor, was happy to pay him $50 million to get off their case, the American Medical Association announced a class-action settlement of $350 million over the same issue: Ingenix’ ...
Commentary
Obama-Daschle “reform” will cripple American health care
Obama-Daschle “reform” will cripple American health care President-elect Barack Obama has promised sweeping changes during his first few months in office. Perhaps the most far-reaching – and troubling – of his proposals is his plan for healthcare reform. Obama has tapped former Sen. Tom Daschle to serve as both the ...
Commentary
An Emergency Review
This is an emergency book review. Before you do anything else, make a note to read “The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care” by Sally C. Pipes. It might literally save your life, by checking the political stampede toward a government-controlled medical profession– usually presented politically as “universal health ...
Commentary
Serious facts, please
. Louis Post-Dispatch (Saint Louis, MO), January 6, 2009 Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide The editorial “The 30 percent solution” (Dec. 30) claimed that “Americans spent more than $2.5 trillion on health care last year” while “46 million of us [went] without any health insurance. ...
Health Care
Obama Will Ration Your Health Care
People are policy. And now that President-elect Barack Obama has fielded his team of Tom Daschle as secretary of Health and Human Services and Melody Barnes as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, we can predict both the strategy and substance of the new administration’s health-care reform. The ...
Commentary
Don’t Fall Prey to Five Common Healthcare Myths
President-elect Barack Obama has promised to make healthcare reform a top priority. But in order to follow through, Obama and lawmakers on Capitol Hill must reject some longstanding misconceptions about health care in this country. Here are five such myths. Each is widely repeated, deeply held – and dead wrong. ...
Commentary
Hawaii Seeking More Money for Health Plan
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), January 1, 2009 A 9 percent jump in enrollment is forcing Hawaii’s state government to consider ways to increase funding for its taxpayer-funded health coverage program. Officials from Hawaii’s Department of Human Services say the enrollment spike in Med-Quest, the state’s Medicaid managed care program, ...
Lessons from States with “Universal” 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. A year later, in 2009, legislators should attempt to learn from two states that have legislated “universal” care. Hawaii imposed ...
Hospitals’ “Triple Whammy” Demands Reform
The Los Angeles Times reports that California hospitals are suffering a fiscal “triple whammy”: their investments are in the tank; they cannot borrow money in today’s frozen credit markets; and operating revenues have collapsed. Like I wrote in my analysis of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s failed health reform, hospitals’ finances are not ...
NY Times Favors State Calculation of “Usual & Customary” Charges
My confidence always rises when the New York Times editorializes from the opposite side of an issue than I occupy. How pleased I was, then, when the editorial board cheered NY attorney-general Andrew Cuomo’s “settlement” (of course, I prefer “shakedown”) of Ingenix, a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary that compiles proprietary databases, ...
UnitedHealth Group: The Gift That Keeps on Giving
It looks like UnitedHealth Group’s trials have just begun. Shortly after NY attorney-general, Andrew Cuomo, announced that UHG’s subsidiary, Ingenix, a database-vendor, was happy to pay him $50 million to get off their case, the American Medical Association announced a class-action settlement of $350 million over the same issue: Ingenix’ ...
Obama-Daschle “reform” will cripple American health care
Obama-Daschle “reform” will cripple American health care President-elect Barack Obama has promised sweeping changes during his first few months in office. Perhaps the most far-reaching – and troubling – of his proposals is his plan for healthcare reform. Obama has tapped former Sen. Tom Daschle to serve as both the ...
An Emergency Review
This is an emergency book review. Before you do anything else, make a note to read “The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care” by Sally C. Pipes. It might literally save your life, by checking the political stampede toward a government-controlled medical profession– usually presented politically as “universal health ...
Serious facts, please
. Louis Post-Dispatch (Saint Louis, MO), January 6, 2009 Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide The editorial “The 30 percent solution” (Dec. 30) claimed that “Americans spent more than $2.5 trillion on health care last year” while “46 million of us [went] without any health insurance. ...
Obama Will Ration Your Health Care
People are policy. And now that President-elect Barack Obama has fielded his team of Tom Daschle as secretary of Health and Human Services and Melody Barnes as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, we can predict both the strategy and substance of the new administration’s health-care reform. The ...
Don’t Fall Prey to Five Common Healthcare Myths
President-elect Barack Obama has promised to make healthcare reform a top priority. But in order to follow through, Obama and lawmakers on Capitol Hill must reject some longstanding misconceptions about health care in this country. Here are five such myths. Each is widely repeated, deeply held – and dead wrong. ...
Hawaii Seeking More Money for Health Plan
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), January 1, 2009 A 9 percent jump in enrollment is forcing Hawaii’s state government to consider ways to increase funding for its taxpayer-funded health coverage program. Officials from Hawaii’s Department of Human Services say the enrollment spike in Med-Quest, the state’s Medicaid managed care program, ...
