Recent Policy Briefs

The Ryan Budget vs. the Obama Budget

Peter Ferrara
September 21, 2012

By selecting House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) as his running mate, Republican candidate Mitt Romney reframed the 2012 presidential election as a contest between Ryan’s 2013 proposed

Implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Dan Pilla
August 8, 2012

Unless there is a substantial change in leadership in Washington in the next election, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will go into effect as planned. The U.S.

How Should Insurers Treat Tobacco Use? A Review of the Research

Eli Lehrer
July 12, 2012

For insurers, the most salient fact about tobacco use can be summarized simply: overwhelming scientificevidence indicates that all widely used forms of tobacco harm human health.

Shades of EPA: The Flawed Human Health Effects Epidemiology in the California Air Resources Board’s Diesel Truck Emission Rules

Jerome Arnett Jr., MD
March 16, 2012

On December 12, 2009, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), a subdivision of the California Environmental Protection Agency, published its final rule to reduce diesel exhaust emissions in the

Sports Stadium Madness: Is Fan Ownership the Answer?

Joseph Bast
February 27, 2012

The Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank whose researchers have questioned government subsidies to sports stadiums since the mid 1980s, has released a new Policy Brief proposing f

Texas’s Margins Tax: Principles for Reform

Julie Drenner,
February 1, 2012

Texas’s franchise tax—better known as the “margins tax”—does not work as advertised. The tax has not achieved any of the goals its creators set out for it.

Comments on Report to Congress on How to Modernize and Improve the System of Insurance Regulation in the United States

November 29, 2011

The Heartland Institute is a research and educational organization devoted to discovering, developing, and promoting free-market solutions to social and economic problems.

The Case for Creating a Michigan Auto Insurance Fraud Prevention Agency

November 17, 2011

In February 2008, Pennsylvania resident Corey Middleton called the police and his insurance company to report a serious problem.