Opinion
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Smallpox Health Facts
Opinion -Smallpox spreads from person to person, primarily via droplets or aerosols expelled from the throat of infected persons, by direct contact, and via contaminated clothing and bed linens. It is fatal in perhaps a third of previously unvaccinated victims. -
Proposed Bush Medicare Reform Plan Anticipates State of the Union Address
Opinion -Where Congress failed, the Bush administration has succeeded: It has found a way to initiate Medicare reform and offer prescription drug coverage to senior citizens. The three-year demonstration project doesn’t require the approval of Congress. -
Should the Medicare Bureaucracy Manage a Drug Benefit?
Opinion -Many Members of Congress want the current Medicare bureaucracy to manage a new Medicare prescription drug benefit. But a major government-wide survey of federal managers, conducted by the U.S. -
Rx Reimportation: A Legislative History
Opinion -In the absence of any Congressional action on a Medicare prescription drug benefit, some states have focused instead on immediate, incremental measures such as drug discount cards and drug reimportation. -
10/2002 State Legislative Update
Opinion -While preparing the November update, I kept running into the numerous convulsions over sharply increasing medical malpractice insurance rates. -
Bad Medicine for America
Opinion -Prescription drugs and their costs are high on political agendas this campaign season. Unfortunately, many candidates are seeking to score cheap points by attacking the nation’s pharmaceutical industry, the most innovative in the world. -
California Defies Federal Stem Cell Policy
Opinion -On September 22, California Gov. Gray Davis signed into law a bill that encourages stem cell research using embryos from fertility clinics or embryonic cloning. The measure takes effect January 1, 2003. -
Congress Approves $100 Million for High-Risk Pools
Opinion -The Trade Adjustment Assistance Act (TAAA), passed by the Senate on August 2 by a vote of 64-34, contains a little-known provision that could provide a big boost to market-based health care financing. The measure was signed by President George W. -
Patent Protection Law at Risk
Opinion -Failing to pass a prescription drug benefit for seniors in July, the Senate offered consumers legislation that encourages cheaper generic alternatives to brand-name drugs by passing the Greater Access to Affordable Pharmaceuticals Act (GAAP). -
09/2002: The Pulse
Opinion -Scott Holleran publishes “The Pulse,” a weekly email newsletter sort of like this one, on behalf of Americans for Free Choice in Medicine. His current edition includes a wonderful little “blast from the past” in the form of President Richard M. -
Why Price Controls Don’t Work
Opinion -State efforts to rein in health care spending by imposing price controls on pharmaceutical manufacturers are not the first time price controls have been suggested in the health care reform debate. -
Congress Gets Hooked on Rx Drug Plans
Opinion -Bidding wars over a Medicare prescription drug benefit are accelerating, with political leaders behaving as though they were in a high-stakes poker game with no tomorrow. Earlier this year, President George W. -
Other People’s Money
Opinion -On Capitol Hill, members of Congress are continually increasing the price Americans pay for health care. They do this by giving away benefits and, in some instances, by making people buy unwanted benefits. -
What Are High-Risk Pools?
Opinion -High-risk pools play an important role in a free-market health care system. They are state-chartered, nonprofit associations offering comprehensive health insurance through the private sector to individuals with pre-existing and chronic health problems. -
09/2002: State Legislative Update
Opinion -Managing Editor’s note: Information here on legislative activity regarding MEHPA was provided by Andrew Schlafly, Esq., general counsel for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS). He can be reached at 908/719-8608. -
09/2002: The Galen Report
Opinion -The country dodged a bullet when the Senate rejected the latest compromise bill for a Medicare prescription drug benefit. -
Colorado Health Insurance Market Evaporating
Opinion -Colorado’s small group health insurance market displays all the symptoms of a patient in dire distress. While premiums and the ranks of the uninsured soar, the number of carriers plummets. -
Profits, Patents, and Seniors: A guide for policymakers
Opinion -The U.S. House of Representatives passed Medicare prescription drug benefit legislation, only to have it defeated in the Senate. -
MEHPA Update: Most States Reject Law
Opinion -A year ago this month, anthrax attacks sent shock waves from coast-to-coast and border-to-border as state health care officials tried to cope with potential bioterrorism and other public health emergencies following the September 11 terrorist attacks. -
Reform the FDA, Not Patent Laws
Opinion -The Senate’s recent passage of the Greater Access to Affordable Pharmaceuticals Act (GAAP) proves Senators are seeking an easy way around a complex issue. -
Senate Rejects Yet Another Rx Plan
Opinion -A Medicare prescription drug benefit is all but dead for this year’s Congressional session. The Senate defeated a scaled-back plan to help the nation’s neediest seniors pay for their medicines. -
State Drug Price Controls Backfire
Opinion -Politicians in Washington, DC and state capitols across the country have claimed the remedy for high-priced prescription drugs is to be found in enacting price controls on medications sold to senior citizens. -
The Myths of Medical Monopoly and Monopsony
Opinion -Two erroneous notions have long infected the debate about appropriate public policies for prescription drugs. The first is that patents protecting intellectual property grant monopoly power and keep prices higher than they otherwise would be. -
Peter Jennings’ Bitter Mistakes
Opinion -On May 29, ABC aired an hour-long attack on the nation’s pharmaceutical industry masquerading as an objective documentary.
