What You Need to Know About Amendment 73 and Public Education Funding
IB-C-2018 (Sept. 2018) Author: Linda Gorman DOWNLOAD REPORT IN PDF Executive Summary: In November 2018, voters will decide on Amendment 73, a state constitutional amendment which would increase income, property and corporate taxes in Colorado to fund public education. If Amendment 73 passes, Colorado will no longer have equal state income tax rates for all. […]
For health policy that works, look at the evidence
When a policy generating a lot of fame and fortune starts to go wrong, the temptation to ignore new data can be irresistible. For over 50 years, mainstream U.S. health policy makers have promoted research supporting Kenneth Arrow’s 1963 assertion that “it is the general social consensus, clearly, that the laissez-faire solution for medicine is […]
Proposed health transparency bills bad medicine for Colorado
Maybe Colorado legislators can explain how the heavy cost of their transparency bills will improve Obamacare insurance rules, Medicare pricing, the FDA review process, and the Hatch-Waxman Act corruption of normal patent law.
Obama is gone, but his fiscal waste is still befouling American health care
For real health care waste, it is hard to beat the Obama administration. Crony capitalists, academic institutions, select nonprofits, and state bureaucracies are raking in enormous sums. Ordinary Americans are paying the price. If government officials cannot find the courage to return control of health care to patients and their doctors, American health care quality […]
Senate Bill 18-023: The Free Speech in Medicine Act
IB-A-2018 (February 2018) Author: Linda Gorman DOWNLOAD REPORT IN PDF Executive Summary: The question is whether prohibiting the dissemination of truthful medical information about off-label use of prescription drugs does more good than harm.
It’s time to scrap federal physician quality measurements
When ObamaCare passed, ABMS had a virtual monopoly. The Affordable Care Act used the standard tactic of creating market power by listing specific requirements that only the ABMS program could meet. Among other things, “equivalent programs” would have to report patient data to a registry, require periodic exams, and conducting periodic “practice assessments.”
Medicaid funds shouldn’t be used to subsidize state taxes on health care
Medicaid patients are the losers. Studies suggest that higher Medicaid reimbursements are associated with better care, and that Medicaid patients are more likely to be treated by lower quality hospitals and less highly trained physicians. Recent studies also suggest that the health reforms favored by state and federal governments have done little to improve quality or reduce costs.
Congress could improve health care by reforming the False Claims Act
In a new Independence Institute working paper on the use and misuse of the False Claims Act (FCA), attorneys Mark W. Pearlstein and Laura McLane explain how an 1863 statute written to expose and punish Civil War contractors who billed for gunpowder and supplied kegs full of sawdust raises costs and threatens access to medical care.
Foreign health care is no model for the United States
by Linda Gorman Repealing ObamaCare would produce better outcomes for patients, those who care for them, and those who pay their bills. To understand why, policy makers must recognize that national expenditures on health care are not the same as health care costs, admit that international comparisons omitting the costs of waiting lists are invalid, […]
ObamaCare is a success … at sucking vast sums of money from the private sector
ObamaCare forces the purchase of health insurance without regard to its price, quality, or value. Federal policies that increase coverage increase the amount of money flowing to special interests. Federal policies that decrease coverage mean more money for private households. No wonder both ObamaCare supporters and Obamacare reformers evaluate proposed changes on whether they increase or decrease coverage.
Hickenlooper’s climate order based on magical thinking
Governor Hickenlooper has ordered a two percent decline in electricity sales and wishes to give state government control of energy pricing and production.
ObamaCare has failed patients with pre-existing conditions
There are many ways to provide medical care for people with pre-existing conditions. Real world experience shows that some work better than others. Properly structured stand-alone high risk pools and medically underwritten individual health policies guaranteed coverage for more than a decade before ObamaCare. They cost much less and provided more flexible coverage. Why not repeal ObamaCare and introduce new and improved structures based on past successes?
