Texas Public Policy Foundation Aims to Get It ‘Right on Health Care’

Published December 10, 2019

The Heartland Institute, which publishes Health Care News, is a national research and educational policy organization focused on free-market solutions in all 50 states. Because worthy causes are never achieved single-handedly, we devote this space to share the good work of our allies in this effort.

Few disagree that the American health care system is broken.

The diagnosis has been clear, but the prescription has been disastrous. The Affordable Care Act—Obamacare—expanded the government’s role in health care and in the process replaced choice and competition with layers of bureaucracy and reams of government regulation. It weakened the most inviolable of relationships, that between doctor and patient.

Now there is a push to double down on government’s role in health care with a single-payer system.

Changing the Narrative

The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s (TPPF) Right on Healthcare Initiative seeks to change the narrative that government is the solution to the nation’s health care woes, not the problem.

Our mission is straightforward. Right on Healthcare “seeks to set the tone for a new bold action by building a national coalition of partners that believe in health care freedom and having the States take their rightful role in the care of its communities.”

Through research and commentaries, Right on Health care aims to shape policy and legislation. Our recent research work delved into the history of government’s role in health care and how this evolved into much of the dysfunction consumers and providers see today. Because states can better understand the needs of their citizens than the federal government, Right on Health care analyzes state policies. Our recent report showed how policies that led to self-sufficiency in welfare can work as well for state Medicaid programs like the one in Texas.

Right on Healthcare is led by David Balat, a seasoned hospital executive with more than 20 years of healthcare industry leadership and executive management experience. Rounding out the team are Senior Fellow Brian Blase, Ph.D.; health care economist Stephen Picket; and Legislative Fellow Elizabeth O’Connor.

Additionally, TPPF’s Center for America’s Freedom is helping to lead the legal fight against the ACA, which is currently being decided by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and could be a landmark case that would send Obamacare back before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Right on Healthcare believes the heart of health care is affordability. Through our research and commentary, with our experienced staff and our ability to focus on the right issues, we can win.

 

Roy Maynard ([email protected]is a senior staff writer for the Texas Public Policy Foundation.