Medicare
California
California hospitals’ unhealthy dependence on government
While many Americans are eager for the U.S. Supreme Court this year to decide the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, a federal judge in Los Angeles has just made a misguided decision that cuts right to the root of the government’s role in controlling people’s access to ...
John R. Graham
January 27, 2012
Commentary
Failure to Discuss Healthcare Reform Was Purposeful Lapse
President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address included many important topics, but as far as physicians were concerned, he missed a key one: healthcare reform. To Sally C. Pipes, a longtime activist for free-market healthcare reform, that was no accidental oversight. Pipes, president of the Pacific Research Institute, a ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 25, 2012
Medicaid
If Health Spending is Increasing Slower, Why Are Premiums Rising Faster?
Key Points: The rate of increase in private health spending has dropped significantly since the financial crisis hit in 2008, although government programs like Medicare and Medicaid have continued along their unsustainable path. However, administrative costs and private premiums began to increase immediately upon President Obama’s enacting the Patient Protection ...
John R. Graham
January 23, 2012
Commentary
American Soldiers Deserve Cutting-Edge Health Care
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently expounded upon the tough choices policymakers will face as they attempt to scale back the Pentagons budget. As Panetta put it, our leaders will have to consider not just the weaponization, modernization side of the military but the human side as well. Ensuring the availability ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 23, 2012
Commentary
The road ahead on Obamacare repeal
There’s a case to be made that President Obama’s reform package is not just bad policy, it’s also of questionable constitutionality. As of this writing, 30 legal challenges to the health law have been launched involving states. Most notably, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 18, 2012
Commentary
Where to start in repealing Obamacare
On March 23, 2010, President Obama forever altered the American health care system by signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. Its advocates promised that the measure would reinvent American health care and reinvigorate the American economy. As House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., put it, “This ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 16, 2012
Commentary
Hi, Doc. I’m from the government
Officials in California just announced that they were working with Harvard University doctors Jerry Avorn and Michael Fischer to overhaul how painkillers are prescribed to disabled workers in the state. The federal health reform law aims to take this so-called “academic detailing” crusade nationwide. Proponents say it’s an effective way ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 11, 2012
Commentary
Forget The Doctor Fix, We Need A Medicare Fix
Just before they jetted off for the holidays, Congress and the president brokered a $33-billion deal that extends the payroll tax cut, provides additional unemployment benefits, and spares physicians from steep cuts in Medicare reimbursements. Unfortunately, the compromise simply postpones the day of reckoning for all three issues until March. ...
Sally C. Pipes
January 9, 2012
Commentary
Doctors Say Obamacare Is No Remedy for U.S. Health Woes
Americas doctors have conducted a full examination of the presidents health reform law and their diagnosis of its effects on our healthcare system isnt good. Nearly two-thirds of doctors expect the quality of care in this country to decline, according to a new survey from consulting giant Deloitte. Just ...
Sally C. Pipes
December 26, 2011
Commentary
Coal In Our Stockings: The Destruction of Medical Innovation
The holidays are fast approaching, and the “elves” are busy at the North Pole. No, not the presidential candidates. No, not the Capitol Hill pols. And no, not those unrelenting pursuers of objectivity and truth: the journalists. I refer instead to the bureaucrats, in particular those implementing the new “comparative ...
Benjamin Zycher
December 21, 2011
California hospitals’ unhealthy dependence on government
While many Americans are eager for the U.S. Supreme Court this year to decide the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, a federal judge in Los Angeles has just made a misguided decision that cuts right to the root of the government’s role in controlling people’s access to ...
Failure to Discuss Healthcare Reform Was Purposeful Lapse
President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address included many important topics, but as far as physicians were concerned, he missed a key one: healthcare reform. To Sally C. Pipes, a longtime activist for free-market healthcare reform, that was no accidental oversight. Pipes, president of the Pacific Research Institute, a ...
If Health Spending is Increasing Slower, Why Are Premiums Rising Faster?
Key Points: The rate of increase in private health spending has dropped significantly since the financial crisis hit in 2008, although government programs like Medicare and Medicaid have continued along their unsustainable path. However, administrative costs and private premiums began to increase immediately upon President Obama’s enacting the Patient Protection ...
American Soldiers Deserve Cutting-Edge Health Care
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently expounded upon the tough choices policymakers will face as they attempt to scale back the Pentagons budget. As Panetta put it, our leaders will have to consider not just the weaponization, modernization side of the military but the human side as well. Ensuring the availability ...
The road ahead on Obamacare repeal
There’s a case to be made that President Obama’s reform package is not just bad policy, it’s also of questionable constitutionality. As of this writing, 30 legal challenges to the health law have been launched involving states. Most notably, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta ...
Where to start in repealing Obamacare
On March 23, 2010, President Obama forever altered the American health care system by signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. Its advocates promised that the measure would reinvent American health care and reinvigorate the American economy. As House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., put it, “This ...
Hi, Doc. I’m from the government
Officials in California just announced that they were working with Harvard University doctors Jerry Avorn and Michael Fischer to overhaul how painkillers are prescribed to disabled workers in the state. The federal health reform law aims to take this so-called “academic detailing” crusade nationwide. Proponents say it’s an effective way ...
Forget The Doctor Fix, We Need A Medicare Fix
Just before they jetted off for the holidays, Congress and the president brokered a $33-billion deal that extends the payroll tax cut, provides additional unemployment benefits, and spares physicians from steep cuts in Medicare reimbursements. Unfortunately, the compromise simply postpones the day of reckoning for all three issues until March. ...
Doctors Say Obamacare Is No Remedy for U.S. Health Woes
Americas doctors have conducted a full examination of the presidents health reform law and their diagnosis of its effects on our healthcare system isnt good. Nearly two-thirds of doctors expect the quality of care in this country to decline, according to a new survey from consulting giant Deloitte. Just ...
Coal In Our Stockings: The Destruction of Medical Innovation
The holidays are fast approaching, and the “elves” are busy at the North Pole. No, not the presidential candidates. No, not the Capitol Hill pols. And no, not those unrelenting pursuers of objectivity and truth: the journalists. I refer instead to the bureaucrats, in particular those implementing the new “comparative ...