Entitlement Bandits Rob Medicaid/Medicare
Giving Medicare enrollees vouchers for private insurance and block-granting Medicaid (as passed by the House of Representatives but defeated in the Senate) would reduce the crushing levels of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.
England’s NHS ‘creaking at the seams’ as waiting lists rise
The Telegraph (UK) reminds us that single-payer “universal” health care is really universal misery: “A senior doctors’ leader has warned that the NHS is “creaking at the seams” as official figures showed almost a third more patients are waiting too long to be treated in hospital.”
Colorado among states with opt-out options for health information exchanges
Maine joins 8 other states in allowing patients to opt out of gov’t health information exchanges, including Colorado. Government tracking of doctors’ treatment methods is a step toward government control of doctors.
Mandatory insurance & regulating inactivity: a radical constitutional departure
Ilya Somin of George Mason School of Law says that the recent appellate court decision finding the individual mandate constitutional undermines federalism, misconstrues the boundaries of congressional authority, and lays the groundwork for limitless federal mandates
Will ObamaCare produce cascade of insolvent Colorado insurers?
ObamaCare threatens the solvency of private health plans, which will significantly reduce consumer choice and increase costs. …[In] Colorado, where one large health plan has already announced plans to leave the state, Graham’s analysis demonstrates a “cascade” of insolvency, whereby only five of the ten largest plans in 2009 will be operating in 2017.
How the FDA Impedes Innovation
[I]nnovations get better over time. But if you impede the first generation the second generation may never come into existence and, as Mandel notes, no first-generation device could satisfy the FDA’s conditions. It’s like refusing to give the Wright Brothers a license to fly because their first airplane only flew for 59 seconds.
“Accountable Care Organizations”: The Coming Collectivization of American Health Care
In the 1930s, the USSR forced independent farmers into large state-run collective farms. … these collective farms could not feed the country. … Unfortunately, the United States is about to make the same mistake in health care by collectivizing doctors and hospitals into government-supervised accountable care organizations (ACOs).
Medicaid as a ghetto: poor access to medical care
“While specialists turned away 11 percent of privately insured children, 66 percent of children with Medicaid were unable to get an appointment. For those who did, the waiting time was 22 days longer than for other patients.”
video: the case for federal Medicaid block grants
The Medicaid program imposes high costs while generating poor results. This Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation video explains how block grants, such as the one proposed by Congressman Paul Ryan, will save money and improve healthcare by giving states the freedom to innovate and compete.
Is the Colorado Health Benefits exchange built to fail?
Last week Governor Hickenlooper’s office announced the members of the Colorado Health Benefits Exchange Board. Paul Howard and Stephen T. Parente write why such exchanges are built to fail. Because of a “litany of new minimum-insurance requirements and regulations … health insurance purchased through an exchange will likely end up more expensive than it is now.”
Health care bill pushes limits of constitutionality
Dave Kopel writes: “When the [health care bill] was moving through Congress, there was a lot of bluster from proponents of the law, who insisted that there were absolutely no potential constitutional problems. Most famously, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scoffed “Are you serious?” to a journalist’s question about the law’s constitutionality. As it turns out, there are a lot of serious questions.”
Avastin & FDA: There’s No ‘Average’ Cancer Patient
Last year, the FDA began the process of revoking Avastin’s approval for breast cancer. … What is the logic of keeping terminally ill patients from potential treatments? Can’t they at least go down fighting?
