Research and Commentaries
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Research & Commentary: Medicare Physician Reimbursement
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Physicians were given insight into their cost-effectiveness last month when the federal government sent reports detailing the cost and quality of their services. -
Research & Commentary: Plastic Bag Bans
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Following the San Francisco city council’s decision in 2007 to ban the use of plastic bags at grocery stores and chain pharmacies, a number of local governments have implemented similar policies within their jurisdiction. -
Research & Commentary: Obamacare Costs Taxpayers $4 Trillion
Publication -Research and Commentaries -A new report from the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, using Congressional Budget Office data, reveals the federal health care law will impose $4 trillion in tax increases by 2035. -
Research & Commentary: Credit Union Member Business Lending and Bill S. 2231
Publication -Research and Commentaries -The U.S. Senate is considering a bill that would lift—but not eliminate—the current cap on credit unions’ ability to lend to businesses. -
Research & Commentary: Federal Flood Insurance Subsidies in Puget Sound
Publication -Research and Commentaries -For more than four decades, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has subsidized construction in floodplains in the United States. Although intended to break even and discourage construction in the most flood-prone areas, NFIP has done neither. -
Research & Commentary: Teachers Association Options
Publication -Research and Commentaries -For many decades, unions were the only large-scale professional organizations available to teachers and education administrators. -
Research & Commentary: Medicare Competitive Bidding
Publication -Research and Commentaries -The policy centerpiece of House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget proposal this year is his Medicare reform. -
Research & Commentary: Taxing Internet Sales in Connecticut
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Connecticut is one of many states struggling to balance their budgets by introducing taxes on Internet goods and services. -
Research & Commentary: Onshore Reserving in the District of Columbia
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Many insurance and reinsurance companies reserve assets for U.S. catastrophe coverage in “offshore” locations such as Bermuda, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Germany. They do this because current U.S. -
Research & Commentary: Subsidies for Renewable Energy in Florida
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Sometime in the next few days, Florida Gov. -
Research & Commentary: Digital Learning Possibilities and Pitfalls
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Harnessing modern technology to tailor education personally and make it efficient is new and greatly unsettled territory. States, schools, entrepreneurs, and families are testing variations on many programs to see what works for them. -
Research & Commentary: The Louisiana Parent Trigger
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Louisiana legislators have proposed an education reform that is garnering significant national attention: the Parent Trigger. The legislation, first passed in California, is currently being drafted in a dozen other states. -
Research & Commentary: Cat Bonds for State-Run Catastrophe Insurance
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Catastrophe bonds are insurance-linked securities that offset major costs to taxpayers and insurers caused by natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes. Cat bonds, as they are known, work differently from other types of bonds. -
Research & Commentary: HHS Final Exchange Rules
Publication -Research and Commentaries -As states have been debating whether to implement a health insurance exchange, a key deterrent has been that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had released only draft rules. -
Research & Commentary: Special-Needs Vouchers
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Seven states currently offer special-needs students the opportunity to take their public funds to a private school, and at least 10 more states are currently considering similar legislation. -
Research & Commentary: Obama Administration Education Policies
Publication -Research and Commentaries -As the 2012 elections approach, it is an appropriate time to review the president’s record on education policy. Several prominent observers have done so recently. The president’s education policies seem to please no one extremely well. -
Research & Commentary: The Obamacare Individual Mandate
Publication -Research and Commentaries -The most heavily debated element of President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is the constitutionality of the individual health insurance mandate, which requires every citizen, with few exceptions, to purchase health -
Research & Commentary: Repatriation of Foreign Earnings
Publication -Research and Commentaries -To avoid high U.S. corporate tax rates, U.S.-based companies operating internationally have kept their foreign earnings in subsidiaries overseas rather than bringing them back to the United States. -
Research & Commentary: PPACA and Medicaid Expansion
Publication -Research and Commentaries -The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) requires states to expand Medicaid eligibility to all individuals whose income is less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level. -
Research & Commentary: Hydraulic Fracturing Impact Fees
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Hydraulic fracturing has enabled profitable extraction of oil and gas in diverse areas of the country. As a result, many states sitting atop the country’s shale formations are reconsidering the way they tax these resources, to fill budget holes. -
Research & Commentary: Workers’ Compensation Reform in Illinois (Update)
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Illinois has the third-highest workers’ compensation insurance rates of any state in the United States. In Illinois, provision of workers’ comp is compulsory for all employers, and the state government does not provide insurance through a state fund. -
Backgrounder: Hydraulic Fracturing
Publication -Research and Commentaries -The recent discovery of vast deposits of oil and natural gas trapped in shale rock formations has revolutionized our nation’s short-term, mid-term, and long-term energy outlook. -
Research & Commentary: Loosening Teacher Tenure
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Several states, including Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, South Dakota, and Virginia, are considering making teacher tenure more difficult to obtain or replacing it with rolling contracts. -
Research & Commentary: Insurance Price Controls and California Proposition 103
Publication -Research and Commentaries -In the mid-1980s, high premium costs and a tidal wave of auto insurance litigation led to vast public outrage against auto insurers.
