Opinion
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Medicare Reimbursement Cap Called Unlikely to Stop Fraud
Opinion -Responding to serious Medicare fraud and corruption in Florida’s Miami-Dade County, where five doctors from one clinic were found guilty of racketeering over the past three years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is proposing a -
Patients Accept Incentives for Improvement
Opinion -A review of the first two years of West Virginia’s alternative Medicaid program shows some positive results for patients willing to accept incentives to improve their health through personal action. -
California Interdistrict Choice Program Revived
Opinion -A popular public school choice program in California will continue until at least 2016, after lawmakers voted to reinstate and expand the state’s 17-year-old “district of choice” policy, which had expired in July. -
Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly #8-19
Opinion -Photo FinishedA U.K. photographer was ordered to reimburse $2,000 U.S. to a couple whose wedding photos he botched.He took 400 photos, but only 20 were acceptable. -
Health Care Co-op Plan Raises More Questions
Opinion -Facing criticisms of its proposed public option plan, the White House announced in mid-August President Barack Obama is open to a government-chartered cooperative approach. -
Value of Prevention as a Cost-Cutter Doubted
Opinion -While President Barack Obama has repeatedly touted prevention as a cost-cutting measure and a key element of his health care reform plan, funding preventive health care does not appear to lower costs, according to Sally Pipes, author of Top Ten Myths of -
Pay-for-Performance Study Results Disputed
Opinion -Hospitals included in a Medicare pilot project linking payments to government evaluations of the quality of care provided to patients saw sharp decreases in the number of people who died from heart attacks. -
California Court Limits Private School’s Arbitration Provision
Opinion -A California appellate court has issued a major decision regarding private schools and arbitration agreements. -
California Special Session Yields Education Changes
Opinion -California lawmakers met in special session in September to debate an ambitious package of legislation that would overhaul part of the education code and put the state in competition for more than $4 billion in federal stimulus dollars.Gov. -
Governor Puts Onus of Bigger Classes on Local N.C. School Boards
Opinion -A last-minute, face-saving deal on class size allowed North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue (D) to shift blame for the loss of teaching positions in this year’s budget from Raleigh down to local school boards and superintendents. -
Kennedy’s Death Affects Health Care Debate
Opinion -The August 25 death of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), a lifelong champion of universal government-run health care on a national level, was felt particularly in the political debate over health care reform. -
Insurance Reforms Spotlight States’ Failures
Opinion -Experiences around the nation show many of the reforms supported by President Barack Obama with the intent of improving America’s health care system already have been tried and failed at the state level. -
Public Option Could Drive Out Private Insurers
Opinion -While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and other supporters of the proposed public option, a government-backed health care plan that would compete against private insurance plans, claim it will help keep the private insurance industry -
Maternity Ward Bed Shortages Plague U.K.
Opinion -Scores of women are giving birth outside of maternity wards in the United Kingdom because the government-run system lacks beds and midwives.U.K. -
Maine’s Public Health Care Initiative Viewed as Failure
Opinion -Six years after Maine created what many hailed as an innovative public health care initiative, the plan has failed to live up to its goals. -
Consumer Power Report #197
Opinion -First, a bit of context. The CBO has been busy lately. Along with estimating the cost of the Senate Finance "framework," it revealed this week that the deficit for this fiscal year, which ended on September 30, is $1. -
Longmont, CO Puts Telecommunications Services on Ballot
Opinion -If Longmont, Colorado’s city council had its way, failing in the telecommunications industry a decade ago wouldn’t get in the way of failing again—but this time on a grander scale. -
Can You Keep Your Own Plan Under Health Care Overhaul?
Opinion -President Barack Obama has repeatedly said if you like your current health insurance plan you can keep it under his proposed overhaul—but does the legislation match the rhetoric?According to John C. -
Krugman Provides a Glimpse Into Global Warming La-La Land
Opinion -When global warming legislation forces American consumers to purchase electricity from sources that are 75 percent to 887 percent more expensive than coal, we will hardly notice the difference in our wallets, columnist Paul Krugman argued in the -
IRS Requirement in Health Care Bill Raises Privacy Concerns
Opinion -Provisions in the proposed national health care overhaul bill that some observers say undermine privacy protections for citizens are raising concerns. -
H1N1 Vaccine a Preview of Government-Run Health Care
Opinion -As the winter flu season approaches, many are watching the federal government’s handling of H1N1 vaccines as a preview of national, government-run health care. -
CBO: Health Care Spending Will Increase Deficit
Opinion -While a world leader in productivity, wealth, technology, and personal freedom, the United States is also fast becoming a leader in national debt, which may weigh heavily on the ultimate economic effect of national health care reform. -
White House Shifts Away from Public Option After Protests
Opinion -As hundreds of thousands of citizens gathered in Washington, DC to protest government expansion and rising deficits, President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill shifted their goals on a national health care overhaul from a so-called -
Conference Will Defend Tax Competition, Fiscal Sovereignty, and Financial Privacy
Opinion -On Tuesday, October 20, the Cato Institute and co-sponsors will host a conference on tax competition and financial privacy aimed at educating the public policy community on issues such as tax competition, financial privacy, fiscal sovereignty, and