Opinion
-
Drug Wars in Maine
Opinion -In an effort to provide affordable prescription drugs to state Medicare beneficiaries, Maine was the first state in the nation to pass legislation establishing state-level drug price controls. -
Long-term Care Legislation Introduced
Opinion -Legislation introduced on March 1 by Rep. -
Prescription Drug Proposal Gets Lukewarm Reception
Opinion -The Democrats’ reception for President George W. Bush’s prescription drug benefit plan was about as warm as their reception of the nomination of now-Attorney General John Ashcroft. -
Study: Health Care Costs Overstated
Opinion -Elderly Americans spend about 12 percent of their income on out-of-pocket health expenses on average, and the poor elderly spend about 20 percent, according to a study by Santa Monica, California-based RAND. -
The Battle for Vermont
Opinion -The Vermont legislature, like the legislatures of many other states, recently defeated an attempt to pass a cloned version of the single-payer health care plan devised by the Clinton administration in 1994. -
MSAs Made Easy
Opinion -The information on this page is drawn from two publications of the American Medical Association’s Center for Health Policy Research, Medical Savings Accounts: Why the American Medical Association Supports Medical Savings Accounts (2000) and MSAs Made -
03/2001: The Pulse
Opinion -More MSA Experiments in AfricaFirst it was South Africa, and now Zimbabwe is moving ahead on the Medical Savings Account (MSA) front. A new company, Sovereign Health Zimbabwe, has been formed to provide coverage to companies with 10 or more employees. -
03/2001: State Legislative Update
Opinion -Arizona Arizona Senator Sue Grace has introduced legislation that would create a high-risk health insurance pool in the state. -
Statement of Principle on Patient Choice
Opinion -October 11, 2000 Because the Patients' Bill of Rights will raise costs and reduce access to health insurance, employers and employees should have the ability to opt out of the provisions of the bill if they so desire. -
Employers Unite to Tackle Medical Errors
Opinion -Medical errors are an important consumer issue ripe for pandering to those who use health care the most: our elder generation. The button on this one doesn’t get any hotter. -
Does Managed Care Cause Medical Errors?
Opinion -Managed care programs restrict patient and physician choices in order to lower prices paid by employers and minimize unnecessary procedures. -
Prevention Better than Cure for Medication Problems
Opinion -By applying the timely tincture of common sense, it is possible to reduce the risks presented by medications. Avoiding medication problems is better than managing them later. -
When Patient Protection Backfires
Opinion -It was not so many years ago that managed care in general, and HMOs in particular, were hailed as the solution to ever-rising health insurance costs. President Clinton made HMOs the cornerstone of his elaborate managed competition proposal. -
Myths about Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance
Opinion -For more than 50 years, America has relied on employers as the primary source of health insurance coverage. For the most part, this has been a successful approach, providing coverage in 1998 to 155 million people, compared to only 15. -
Unlimited Prescription Drug Coverage May Endanger Seniors
Opinion -"Hazardous to seniors' health." That could be an appropriate warning label to attach to proposals being made for unlimited prescription drug coverage under Medicare. -
The Defined Contribution Revolution
Opinion -An idea that has greatly benefitted over 55 million Americans holding 401(k) retirement plans may also be the best idea for making health insurance more available and affordable. That idea is "defined contributions. -
Doctors Long for Simple Care, Too
Opinion -Let's not kid ourselves. Becoming a physician today requires more than altruism. It requires courage. Thanks to the shift from fee-for-service care to third-party insurance, caring for patients has become a day-to-day battle with managed care companies. -
FDA’s Pediatric Rule Hurts Public Health
Opinion -A physicians' association and two public interest groups filed suit in federal court, challenging the validity of the Food and Drug Administration's "Pediatric Rule. -
Fee-for-service Health Care Makes a Comeback
Opinion -Remember when you could choose to go to any doctor, pay a reasonable fee for your medical service, and not worry about co-pays, deductibles, and some distant stranger authorizing or denying the care prescribed by your physician? -
Market-based Reforms Get Post-Election Boost
Opinion -As the Clinton administration departed Washington and George W. Bush moved in, health care reform measures attracted some much-needed public policy attention. -
Vermont Suffers Under Health Insurance Illusion
Opinion -Calvin Coolidge once said, “Laws do not make reforms, reforms make laws. We cannot look to government. We must look to ourselves.” He easily could have been talking about health care reform in Vermont. -
Why We Need Market-based Health Care Reform: Part 1 of 2
Opinion -The United States does not have a properly functioning market for health care, and the financing system needs to be reformed. The market is distorted by a tax policy that is mistargeted, miscalibrated, and open-ended. -
FDA loosens rules on labeling, claims by dietary supplements
Opinion -The Food and Drug Administration has issued a final rule to address the labeling and marketing of dietary supplements. Many health advocates are distressed about some of its content. -
Medicare Reform Deja Vu?
Opinion -“The votes tell the story. On June 2, 1988, the House passed the Catastrophic Health Care Act 328-72. On Wednesday [October 4, 1989], the House voted to repeal it 360-66. Rep.