Americans spend more than $234 billion a year on legally purchased chemical entities. Although the expense is a small part of our nation's $1.8 trillion health care bill, the dollars involved are substantial, amounting to more than $2,000 per household per year.
This paper treats interest groups – people in their role as consumers of a public good and people in their role as taxpayers – as the unit of account for representative voting. Each group is allowed to make an effort to support its preferred candidate and, at the margin, the effort-benefit ratio is the political price the group is willing to pay to secure an additional dollar of benefits.
John Kerry wants your money and your life. He has proposed a bold new health plan with a 10-year cost in excess of $1 trillion, to be paid in part by rescinding President Bush's tax cuts for the highest-income taxpayers.
The modern era has inherited two models of health insurance: the fee-for-service model and the HMO model. Neither is appropriate to the Information Age. Both models assume that (1) the …
Despite all the controversy about the new Medicare prescription-drug benefit, the law signed by the president this month contains a gem of an idea that should command support across the political spectrum. Beginning Jan. 1, 250 million nonelderly Americans will acquire the right to have a tax-free Health Savings Account.
We've all had the experience. You're riding in an airplane and discover that the person in the next seat paid $200 for his ticket, while you paid $800 for yours. Or maybe it was the other way around. Maybe you had the cheap fare and your seatmate paid top dollar.
Mandated health insurance benefits are laws requiring insurers to cover specific providers and procedures not usually included in basic health care plans. In 1965 there were only seven state-mandated benefits nationwide. Today there are close to 1,500.
People on Medicare are the only group in our society that needs to purchase a second insurance policy to fill the gaps in their primary health plan. Even after doing that, many seniors do not have coverage for the prescription drugs that non-seniors take for granted.
Ever since Hillary Clinton's calamitous attempt to restructure the nation's health care system, Democrats have been reluctant to propose any major health care reforms. For almost 10 years, therefore, the health-policy field has been a wide open area of opportunity for Republicans. But they too have been reluctant to act.
The President's Comission to Strengthen Social Security has concluded that Social Security is in trouble and needs a radical overhaul. The commission is right.
Critics on the left and right are questioning President George W. Bush's plan to make it easier for faith-based charities to compete for federal welfare funds.
The number of people who lack health insurance now stands at about 43 million, more than were uninsured a decade ago. Moreover the growth in the uninsured has occurred during a period when income and wealth was rising for the vast majority of American families.
One in four Texans does not have health insurance, the highest percentage in the nation. One reason is that a lot of families cannot afford health insurance. But many Texas families who can afford it simply choose not to buy it. As a result, many Texans are uninsured by choice.
A left-leaning federal judge in Texas ruled recently that the Medicaid system in the state was not to his liking, and ordered changes. This isn't too surprising, as activist judges in Texas have a history of attempting to take over everything from prisons to schools.
Most historians, and virtually everyone on the political left, views most human interactions as zero-sum (to borrow a term from game theory). One person's gain is another person's loss.
Tax credits for health insurance is not a new idea. A refundable tax credit for low-income families became part of the tax code in 1990, primarily due to the efforts of Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Very few families took advantage of this tax subsidy, however (because of mechanical problems discussed below), and the tax credit was repealed a few years later.
Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) give patients direct ownership and control over a portion of their health care dollars.
From members of Congress to candidates for president to activist groups buying advertising time on television, everyone is telling us that seniors need insurance coverage for prescription drugs.
To listen to some politicians speak one might get the impression that the only way seniors can get prescription drug coverage is for Washington to add a large new benefit onto Medicare. This is simply not so.
To listen to some politicians speak, one might get the impression that the only way seniors can get prescription drug coverage is for Washington to add a large new benefit to Medicare. This is simply not so.
The federal government "spends" about $125 billion in tax subsidies each year, encouraging people to buy private health insurance. Yet the number of people without insurance has reached 44 million and continues to grow. Why?
Congratulations to Bill Bradley. He is the first credible presidential candidate to call for abolishing Medicaid, a program historically plagued by waste, inefficiency, fraud and questionable quality of care.
Unless President Clinton vetoes the legislation, Congress is set to increase the minimum wage a dollar an hour, from $5.15 to $6.15, over the next two to three years.
The Democratic Party used to have a legitimate claim to represent the interests of the poor. No longer.
Congratulations to Al Gore. His new health care reform plan proposes a major step toward eliminating severe inequities in the tax law and giving needed relief to the millions of people who must buy their own health insurance or go without.