Opinion
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Medicare Plagued by Waste, Fraud, Abuse
Opinion -With cost savings through reduction of waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicare system being offered as a key funding source for health care reform currently under consideration on Capitol Hill, eliminating this corruption could require Medicare to adopt -
2009 November Health Care News: Protests Lead White House to Reconsider Reform
Opinion -The November 2009 issue of Health Care News reports that citizen protests—including the September 12 March on Washington, which attracted hundreds of thousands of participants—have caused the White House to reconsider their support for a -
2009 December Health Care News: (full text PDF)
Opinion -The December 2009 issue of Health Care News reports on the Senate Finance Committee’s October vote to send health care reform legislation to the Senate floor ... and on important studies that say insurers and the insured would be hurt by the plan. -
Damn the Voters
Opinion -Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) declared publicly this week (ended Nov. 7) what insiders had whispered privately for some time: There will likely be no health care bill this year. -
Unions Exert Pressure on Health Care Reform
Opinion -Labor union lobbying is playing a key role in the national debate about health care reform, as unions seek to protect the expensive, full-coverage plans many have negotiated with employers. -
Letter to the Editor: The Real Net Neutrality Debate
Opinion -The following letter to the editor was published in the Nov. 9, 2009 edition of The Chicago Sun-Times.Your Nov. -
Consumer Power Report #201
Opinion -What a week last week was! First were Tuesday's elections, which should have been a wake-up call for Democrats everywhere. -
Swiss Health Care System Poor Model for U.S.
Opinion -Some proponents of the health care overhaul proposals currently before Congress are pointing to the plan Switzerland has used since 1994 as a possible model for ensuring no U.S. citizen is without health insurance coverage. -
Health Care Overhaul Plan Breaks Promises to Seniors
Opinion -President Barack Obama has promised that if you like the health coverage you have now, you can keep it. -
Despite Revisions, Baucus Bill Keeps Tax-and-Spend Focus
Opinion -The Senate Finance Committee’s version of health care reform as constructed by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) is being hailed as a model of bipartisan moderation after it won the vote of Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. -
Texas Could Be Hit Hard By Medicaid Pressures
Opinion -Texas has a history of balancing its state budget during even the worst of economic times, but if a U.S. Senate Finance Committee proposal to expand Medicaid passes, the state might have no choice but to raise taxes dramatically. -
Consumer-Driven Market Is Sizzling
Opinion -While President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats studiously avoid consumer-driven health care models for reform, in the real world, among real people, they continue to be popular. -
Heartland Institute Experts See Cuomo Grandstanding
Opinion -New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on November 4 filed a federal antitrust suit against Intel, the leading manufacturer of microchips. -
What the November 2 Election Results Showed
Opinion -Republican Chris Christie’s surprisingly comfortable margin of victory in Tuesday’s election for New Jersey governor and Republican Bob McDonnell’s devastating landslide in the Virginia gubernatorial election should serve as a -
Rationing in Canada Sparks ‘Private Option’ Calls
Opinion -While House Democrats led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) point to Canada’s government-run public health care system as a model for remedying U.S. health care inadequacies, the Canadian system is showing serious problems of its own. -
Why New Jersey Has High Level of Uninsured
Opinion -As health care reform dominates discussions on Capitol Hill, the experience of states such as New Jersey, which has one of the largest uninsured populations in the country, reveals the challenges of attempting to expand coverage through tighter -
Could Organ Donation Incentives Solve Shortages?
Opinion -The debate over selling human organs has come into the news again following the arrest this summer of a New Jersey businessman accused of buying and selling kidneys, and the speedy procurement of a liver transplant for Apple CEO Steve Jobs. -
Missouri Tort Reform Reverses Doctor Exodus
Opinion -In a development suggesting medical malpractice reform may help alleviate doctor shortages, a package of reforms in Missouri signed in 2005 by then-governor Matt Blunt (R-MO) to curb junk medical lawsuits has created an environment more appealing to -
Public Option May Get Cut from Health Care Bill
Opinion -As congressional Democrats work on the final version of sweeping health care legislation, it remains unclear which provisions will survive the complex bill-making process. -
Medicaid Expansion Would Strain State Budgets
Opinion -State governments are bracing for the effects of the most-prominent congressional health care proposals, all of which would expand Medicaid and increase the burden on state funding.Sen. -
Baucus Health Care Legislation Advances
Opinion -Rifts are emerging in the coalition of support for health care reform in the wake of a 14-9 vote by the Senate Finance Committee to send reform legislation to the Senate floor. -
Wisconsin Seeks More Medicaid Money to Heal Sick State Budget
Opinion -Wisconsin is the latest of 23 states to implement a mechanism to draw down additional federal money to bolster the state's Medicaid program. -
Obama Plan Neglects Importance of Incentives
Opinion -While undoubtedly well-intentioned, President Barack Obama’s health care reform plan ignores a central concern of economics.Economics is the science of incentives. -
Hidden Assumptions in Baucus Health Plan Will Make Costs Jump
Opinion -The Congressional Budget Office’s preliminary cost estimate of the Senate Finance Committee’s health care legislation added up to $829 billion over the first 10 years. Yet this estimate substantially understates the true cost of Sen.