Listen to almost any diatribe against the health-care system and you will hear the same refrain: We are getting too little care and paying too much for it. And, more and more, we are hearing that the villains behind this are not oppressive government regulators or meddlesome insurance-company bureaucrats – but doctors.
Let's assume President Barack Obama keeps his campaign promise to create a parallel system for health insurance. Those who don't get insurance through an employer would have the opportunity to buy insurance through a government-run exchange. Details on how the exchange would work are murky, and the clearer they become the worse the whole idea sounds.
The only way Obama can fix the economy is by changing the way banks do business.
I'll start with the bad news: When we get through the economic time that we're in right now, we're going to be confronted with an even bigger problem. The first of the Baby Boomers started signing up for early retirement under Social Security last year. Two years from now they will start signing up for Medicare. All told, 78 million people are going to stop working, stop paying taxes, stop paying into retirement programs, and start drawing benefits. The problem is, neither Social Security nor Medicare is ready for them.
THE most important domestic policy crisis this country faces was not discussed by either candidate in the 2008 presidential election. On the Democratic side, that is understandable. Democrats, after all, …
What should we do about the fact that as many as 46 million Americans at any one time lack health insurance? My colleagues and I at the National Center for …
Health care reform seems poised to take centre stage in the upcoming presidential election in the United States. Not surprisingly, American presidential hopefuls Barack bama and John Mc-Cain have proposed …
If you listen only to presidential campaign rhetoric, you might conclude that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama proposed bold new changes for our health-care system, while John McCain is offering …
Typically, Medicaid enrollees face restricted treatment options and limited access to health care. At the same time, they are sheltered from health care costs because they pay nothing out of …
As of January of this year, U.S. employers can automatically enroll their employees in 401(k) plans with diversified portfolios- without fear of lawsuits and without certain regulatory burdens. Automatic enrollment …
In a rational world, deductibles and copayments serve an economic purpose. In the health insurance market, however, those principles are increasingly being turned upside down as a result of government …
America's health care system has three fundamental problems: cost, quality and access. Why do we have these problems? What do the Democratic presidential candidates propose to do about them? Health …
Thirty years ago Michael Dukakis campaigned for president with the boast, "I have insured everybody in Massachusetts." Of course he hadn't, and three decades later, everybody in Massachusetts is still …
The state children's health insurance program (SCHIP) was originally a Republican program to provide health insurance to children in near-poor families who did not qualify for Medicaid. Democrats now want …
Michael Moore's documentary "SiCKO" opened to wide release and much fanfare on June 29th. Generally lauded as "thought-provoking" and "affecting" by movie reviewers, Moore's new opus has gained attention for …
Originally Published in: The Wall Street Journal Our public-school system and our health-care system may seem as different as night and day. Yet both systems share something in common: Mediocrity …
Applying the "Do No Harm" Principle to Health Policy For article: 20070326JCG.pdf Author Posting. (c) Taylor & Francis, 2007.This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here …
Dr. John C. Goodman, President and founder of the NCPA and Kellye Wright Fellow, is known as the father of Health Savings Accounts and was dubbed by National Journal as …
“First, do no harm.” This principle is well-known to physicians as part of the Hippocratic Oath. No similar oath is taken by politicians, of course. But suppose they did. Suppose …
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I welcome the opportunity to testify this morning about the challenges and opportunities related to health care coverage and access. I am John …
Employer-Sponsored, Personal, And Portable Health Insurance (PDF)
To control health care costs, someone must choose between health care and other uses of money. The value of most health care is experienced subjectively, as is the value of other goods and services.
Virtually everyone in the "deploring" business points out that most of the uninsured have low incomes, hoping to invoke our sympathy. But this fact is misleading.
One of the strange features of the U.S. health care system is that the health plan most of us have is not a plan that we chose; rather, it was selected by our employer.