Massachusetts enacted an ambitious plan for near-universal health insurance coverage in 2006, the product of a compromise between then-Gov. Mitt Romney and the state Legislature. The cornerstone of the plan is mandatory health insurance. Individuals must purchase insurance directly or get it through an employer or Medicaid.
Charitable gift funds are more than a toy of the nearly rich. They offer a surprising advantage to retirees with ordinary incomes. Using a charitable gift fund, a retired couple can increase their giving or increase the amount they spend on themselves. Or they can do a bit of both.
A quarter-century ago, Chile replaced its traditional social security system with personal retirement accounts funded by workers and invested in stocks and bonds. Chile's president recently proposed several modifications to its pension system, including a new retirement benefit funded by general government revenues.
Can the economy grow faster without causing inflation to accelerate? Some argue that the downside of a rapidly rising gross domestic product (GDP) is more inflation, and that you can't have more of the former without more of the latter. But both logic and history suggest otherwise.
For centuries, North America's coastal fisheries ranked among the most bountiful on the planet. For instance, five hundred years ago the English explorer John Cabot reported the waters off Newfoundland were so thick with cod you could catch them by hanging baskets over the ship's side. But the boom is over. American and world fisheries have entered a period of rapid and unprecedented decline.
Restricted to two letter-size pages, a Brief Analysis summarizes some aspect or aspects of a public policy issue, presenting points for consideration in policy debates or responding to points that …
Texas needs to end its addiction to inefficient, unresponsive public policies. To that end, the Legislature should go cold turkey and consider 12 radical changes.
President Bush made bold health policy proposals in his State of the Union message.
President Bush made two bold health policy proposals in his State of the Union message.
Most of what Americans "know" about air pollution is false. A recent NCPA study by air researcher Joel Schwartz shows, air pollution across the United States has been declining for decades – and was declining even before passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act.
Leaders of the new Democrat-controlled Congress have expressed concern about the out-of-pocket costs to seniors under many of the new Medicare drug plans. Some are calling for expanded coverage, which would lead to higher premiums, higher taxes or both. Others want the federal government to negotiate prices directly with drug companies. But this approach threatens to limit seniors' access to many drugs. Fortunately, there is a better way: The Internet.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi has promised that within its first 100 hours the Democrat-controlled House will repeal the ban preventing Medicare from negotiating directly with pharmaceutical companies. She must expect this legislation to bring down drug prices dramatically. However, it is not obvious that allowing the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies will lead to lower prices than those achieved by private drug plans. There are several good reasons why not.
This summer, the Senate fell short of the super-majority needed to bring to a vote a measure permanently repealing the estate tax.
Coal is critical to electricity production in many countries and the United States is no exception. It is a low-cost source of reliable, baseload power – continuously produced power necessary to keep electricity flowing.
The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) enacted in 1978 was intended to tax the small number of wealthy individuals who, in any given year, legally owe no personal income tax due to the many exemptions allowed by the U.S. tax code.
Surging demand for oil in rapidly developing countries like China and India and sustained demand in the United States and the rest of the world has outstripped growth in global production, reducing excess capacity to near zero and pushing oil prices to an all-time high of more than $75 a barrel in April 2006.
Former Vice President Al Gore has long argued that human activities — primarily the burning of fossil fuels — are causing the Earth to warm significantly, with potentially catastrophic results. His most recent attempt to persuade the general public of his view is a movie and companion book entitled An Inconvenient Truth.
Consumer-driven health care (CDHC) is leading to new models for the delivery of medical services. Consumer-driven health plans generally include personal accounts — such as Health Reimbursement Arrangements or Health Savings Accounts — that allow patients to directly control some of their health care dollars. Because they have a financial stake in their own spending, patients have incentives to shop for the best price and to make tradeoffs between convenience and cost.
Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) has introduced the Health Care Choice Act (H.R. 2355), which would increase access to individual health coverage by allowing insurers licensed to sell policies in one state to offer them to residents of any other state. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has introduced a companion bill in the Senate (S. 1015). If enacted, the law would create a more competitive, nationwide health insurance market.
The national average price of gasoline is approaching the record high of $3.21 per gallon (adjusted for inflation) set in 1981. [See the figure.] The public is upset, and politicians are scrambling to find ways to reduce the pain of high prices or, failing that, to appease their constituents by investigating, penalizing or punitively taxing oil companies.
Congress is debating repeal of the estate tax — again. The 2001 tax cuts included a gradual phase-out and full repeal of the estate tax in 2010. But due to the sunset provision imposed by federal budget rules, the estate tax will reappear at its full pre-reform rates in 2011. At that time, estates in excess of $2 million will be taxed at the old rates — up to 55 percent.
The Social Security benefits tax – while nominally a tax on Social Security benefits – is really a tax on other retirement income like pensions or personal savings. And it inflicts some of the highest marginal tax rates in the entire federal tax code.
Millions of Americans are saving for retirement in 401(k)s and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). These tax-deferred accounts allow people to invest pretax dollars, but require them to pay taxes on their deposits and accumulated earnings at the time of withdrawal. By contrast, a Roth account allows individuals to deposit after-tax dollars, but withdraw the accumulated balances tax-free.
The period between 1950 and 2000 was the greatest half-century in human history in terms of the improvement of economic conditions and the betterment of life for the great majority of people. The last quarter of the 20th century was probably the best 25 years of all time from a strictly economic point of view.
International trade – the essence of globalization – benefits the world economy as a whole. It allows people, regions and nations to specialize in the production of what they do best, to enjoy the economies of large-scale production and to buy more cheaply those things that others do best. Impediments to trade limit the benefits of trade.