How to Insure Americans who have Pre-Existing Conditions
Published in Pajamas Media: People with pre-existing conditions deserve better than ObamaCare’s price controls. Free market reforms can provide it. Like a hammer that sees every problem as a nail, many politicians think the solution to every problem is legislation that erodes our liberties.
Dave Kopel & John Suthers on Judge Vinson’s ruling that strikes down ObamaCare
Senior Federal Judge Roger Vinson has ruled that “Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void.” This ruling declares that the law. Read reactions by the Independence Instiute’s Dave Kopel, CO Attorney General John Suthers, and others.
Hey FDA, government doesn’t ban cars because people drive them off cliffs
The government doesn’t ban cars just because some idiots drive cars off cliffs; it doesn’t ban pencils because pencils can be shoved into the eye; and it [e.g., the FDA] has no business banning a painkiller just because some patients don’t know how to use it correctly.
De facto death panels: all four pieces in place
All 4 pieces are in place for gov’t to deny life-saving medicine: Health Info. Technology to track doctors, comparative effectiveness research to decide what works, Accountable Care Orgs. to control doctors’ practice, & end-of-life counseling to inform patients. Greg Scandlen explains.
“Accountable Care Organizations” vs. private practice medicine
From physician Scott Gottlieb on HR 3590‘s “Accountable Care Organizations”: The health legislation doesn’t call on government tribunals to euthanize seniors, as some fanciful critics claim, but the bill does kill off private-practice medicine. ObamaCare envisions that doctors will fold their private offices to become salaried hospital employees, making it easier for the federal government […]
Dangers of mandating medical loss ratios
John R. Graham of the Pacific Research Institute discusses the harms of the medical loss ratios mandated in ObamaCare (HR 3590): One of the ways in which ObamaCare will reduce individuals’ and businesses’ choices of health insurance is through regulating the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR), a relatively simple concept: Take the amount of dollars an […]
Mandated medical loss ratios promote bad customer service
Arnold Kling points out how mandating a minimum medical loss ratio promotes poor customer service. Quoting Uwe Reinhart: The recently passed Affordable Care Act requires heath insurance issuers to use at least some minimum fraction of revenue from the premiums it receives on medical services. Kling writes: A big cost component for health insurance companies […]
Will Colorado Authorities Push Anthem to be a Slumlord Insurance Company?
Will Anthem act like a slumlord health insurer if the CO Division of Insurance forbids them from increasing rates? The Denver Post reports that Colorado authorities are still deliberating about whether to permit Anthem to increase premiums. It’s taken as a given that government officials have a right to interfere with what should be private […]
The AMA & biased legislation vs. health care mutual aid societies
Mary Ruwart nicely summarizes how the American Medical Association and legislation biased toward insurance companies crowded out health care mutual aid societies. Today their equivalents are health care cooperatives. The following is from The Liberator Online, June 24, 2010:
QUESTION: I think part of the problem with today’s health care system is the over-reliance on […]
No equal access with Germany’s “universal” health care
Many people support government-controlled health care because they think it will provide everyone with equal access to medical treatment, regardless of their ability to pay. Ronald Bachman of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation recently visited Germany with other health care policy wonks from the U.S. to learn about the health care in Germany. He reports […]
