Opinion
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Health Affairs Analysts Stir Up Controversy
Opinion -An October Health Affairs report by Mark Pauly and Len Nichols, calling itself “a roadmap through the areas of agreement and disagreement in a critical debate on how to solve the problem of too many uninsured Americans,” attracted a flurry of reaction -
From Inception to Ingestion
Opinion -According to studies cited by the pharmaceutical industry, it costs more than $800 million to move a new drug through the 10- to 12-year discovery, development, and approval process. -
Cost-Shifting Hides True Cost of Government-Run Health Care
Opinion -How do we ensure that Americans have access to the health care they need, encourage innovation and research, and still contain costs? -
Real Health Care Reform Means Repealing, Not Passing, Laws
Opinion -This year’s elections were similar to those in the past in at least one respect: Most candidates for office promised to “do something” to fix the country’s imploding health care system. -
Study: Pill-Splitting Saves Money, Is Safe
Opinion -A Stanford University Medical Center researcher said pill-splitting saves money and is likely to be safe and effective with appropriate screening ... even though he didn’t specifically study the safety of the procedure. -
A Dissenting View: Patently Absurd
Opinion -President George W. Bush’s proposal to limit the ability of biotech and pharmaceutical firms to protect products from being replaced by generic versions before their patent expires is regarded as a way to speed affordable medicines to consumers. -
12/2002 State Legislative Update
Opinion -ARKANSAS Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) says state officials will begin promoting Eli Lilly’s and Pfizer’s prescription drug discount cards to low-income residents who are eligible for Medicare and lack prescription drug coverage. -
12/2002 The Galen Report
Opinion -I was invited by Miles Cole of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce to speak about Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) at a public hearing before the Maryland Health Care Commission in Baltimore. -
Bush Acts to Limit Rx Patent Protections
Opinion -President George W. Bush announced on October 21 his plan to speed up the process of getting generic drugs to the marketplace. -
Comparison Shopping Can Reduce Prescription Drug Prices
Opinion -High prescription drug prices and what to do about them were high on the campaign agendas of candidates across the country, and those issues will likely find their way into legislative proposals at the state and federal level next year. -
SPN Hosts Health Care Reform Summit
Opinion -Nearly 50 representatives of public policy think tanks from across the country converged on Indianapolis, Indiana on October 17-19 for the tenth annual meeting of State Policy Network. Attendees were welcomed to the event by SPN President Tracie Sharp. -
Ten Principles to Guide Medicare Reform
Opinion -Politicians of both major parties are endorsing ill-considered schemes to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. While the problems with the program are bad, most of the proposed solutions are worse. -
Britain Considers Privatization
Opinion -Managing Editor’s Note: David Green, director of London’s CIVITAS, The Institute for the Study of Civil Society, sees progress in the debate over opening England’s single-payer health care system to private players, competition, and choice. -
10/2002 The Pulse
Opinion -Let’s rev up those engines by starting with a bit of hubris from academia. Grant Reeher is a poli-sci professor at the Maxwell School at Syracuse. -
Maine Rx Price Controls Violate Medicaid Law
Opinion -Maine’s beleaguered prescription drug program is still under fire for violating Medicaid and interstate commerce laws. Although the bill was enacted by the state legislature in 2001, it has not yet taken effect. -
Executive Summary: Prescription Drug Security Plan (PDS)
Opinion -The program has two parts: 1. An up-front subsidy for routine drug expenses 2. -
Medicare Drug Follies
Opinion -Our senior citizens should have the life-saving medicines they need without going broke or giving up life’s other necessities in the process. However, we need to inject or infuse a dose of common sense into the treatment plan. -
IRS Ruling Expected to Increase HRA Participation
Opinion -A June 2002 ruling by the Internal Revenue Service may boost sales of defined-contribution plans by health insurance companies, but it’s debatable whether the decision will slow spending on health services. -
IRS Ruling Makes Patient Choice A Reality
Opinion -There is a saying I often think of when discussing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS): “Bureaucracy is the art of making the possible, impossible.” But every now and then even the IRS surprises me by doing the exact opposite. -
10/2002 The Galen Report
Opinion -The revolution in consumer-driven health care is indeed taking hold, if the responses to two speeches I gave in October are an indicator. I spoke in Ocean City to the annual convention of MedChi, the Medical Society of Maryland. -
Health Care Inflation 101
Opinion -On September 21, 2002 USA Today writers attempted to explain double-digit health care inflation. The news story (and I’m being generous here) was headlined: “Finger Pointers Can’t Settle On Who’s to Blame for Health Costs. -
AIDS Activists Hinder Their Cause
Opinion -In September at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the head of UNAIDS, Peter Piot, told delegates he was upset that AIDS discussions were not higher up the agenda of the summit. -
Smallpox Vaccine Controversy Grows
Opinion -The Bush administration is about to announce a major shift in policy regarding vaccinating the general population against smallpox in case of a terrorist attack. -
Bush Picks His Man
Opinion -After a long delay, President George W. Bush nominated Dr. Mark McClellan, a senior White House health policy advisor, to serve as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
