Publications
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Policy Tip Sheet: Prohibiting State Procurement of Electric Vehicles Produced by Forced Labor and Child Labor
Publication -Policy Tip Sheets -Electric vehicles (EVs) are powered by lithium-ion batteries, which can only be manufactured with rare earth elements. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not rare; rather, they are found in low concentrations. This means that rare earth elements are much more difficult to extract than other metals and minerals. Moreover, it is very difficult […] -
Research & Commentary: Protections Against Big Tech Censorship Are Integral in Alabama’s Next Legislative Session
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Legislation that would protect Alabamans’ free speech on social media platforms is an integral and timely policy goal that should be considered in 2025. States around the nation have introduced legislation with the same objective in mind since the peak of blatant censorship throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. These various bills have manifested in myriad ways, […] -
- Health Care News
Psychiatric Hospitals Hold Patients Involuntarily—for Money
Publication -In-patient mental health and drug abuse facilities across the country are holding patients involuntarily, now aided by a new Biden administration rule requiring insurers to cover the treatment equally with other hospital care. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice alleges some in-patient facilities for psychological or drug abuse problems fraudulently kept people hospitalized […] -
- Health Care News
ACA Quality of Coverage Is Getting Worse
Publication -Enrollees in Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance plans are being buffeted not just by higher premiums but also by a marked decline in the quality of coverage available to them compared to what is offered in employer-sponsored insurance, a new study states. While acknowledging many factors go into the selection of an individual health insurance […] -
- Health Care News
Man Dies After Mental Health Care Denied on Obamacare Plan
Publication -A man struggling with alcoholism died after trying unsuccessfully for months to find a mental health therapist covered by his Obamacare plan. An NPR/ProPublica report describes in depth the events preceding Ravi Coutinho’s May 2023 death, apparently from an accident involving a relapse into alcohol abuse while alone in his Phoenix apartment. Coutinho’s Ambetter plan, […] -
- Health Care News
Managerialism Is Destroying Medicine -Commentary
Publication -By Aaron Kheriaty, M.D. Americans are rapidly losing trust in the medical profession. The percentage of U.S. adults who are confident medical scientists act in the best interests of the public declined from 40 percent in 2020 to 29 percent in 2022, according to Pew research. A 2021 survey by the American Board of Internal Medicine found one […] -
Research & Commentary: New Report Finds Implementation of New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan Would Cost Garden Staters $40 Billion
Publication -Research and Commentaries -A report released in May by the Garden State Initiative (GSI) finds the goals of New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan (EMP) are unobtainable and unworkable, and would cost New Jerseyans an estimated $40 billion. EMP, issued by executive order in 2020 by Gov. Phil Murphy, commits the Garden State to achieving 100 percent “clean” energy […] -
- Health Care News
‘Skyrocketing’ Chronic Illness Rates Prompt Concerns in Congress
Publication -With health care expenditures soon to reach 19 percent of U.S. Gross National Product (GDP), the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee announced the formation of a bipartisan caucus to investigate the escalating incidence of chronic disease and how best to stop it. Rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease “are skyrocketing,” said Health […] -
- Health Care News
Medical Groupthink Makes People Sicker, Analysts Argue
Publication -Medicine has a huge “blind spot” that has led to an explosion of childhood obesity, diabetes, autism, peanut allergies, and autoimmune diseases in the United States, says Martin Makary, M.D., author of the bestselling book Blind Spots. “We have the sickest population in the history of the world … right here in the United States, […] -
- Health Care News
Speech: ‘Silicon Curtain’ Is Protecting Government Censorship
Publication -Citing Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” metaphor describing the Cold War division of Europe, health care policy expert Dr. Jay Bhattacharya told an audience, “We are now in the middle of a Silicon Curtain of censorship descending across the previously free West.” In a keynote address at The Heartland Institute’s Benefit Dinner in Chicago on September […] -
- Health Care News
RFK Jr. Reveals Health Care Agenda
Publication -Despite dropping out of the race for president in August, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is turning up the volume on reforming national health care and drug policy and attracting attention to what role he might play in an administration depending on the outcome of the November election. Kennedy has endorsed former President Donald Trump, and […] -
Research & Commentary: Virginia Falling Far Behind on Education Freedom
Publication -Research and Commentaries -The Heritage Foundation has released the latest version of its Education Freedom Report Card, and the Old Dominion is not faring particularly well. Virginia rose three spots overall from 2023, but still sits at 19th in the rankings. However, it fell two spots in the “education choice” category, and now sits near the bottom of the country at […] -
Research & Commentary: Tennessee Falling Behind on Education Freedom
Publication -Research and Commentaries -The Heritage Foundation has released the latest version of its Education Freedom Report Card, and the Volunteer State is not faring particularly well. Tennessee fell one spot overall from 2023, and now sits at eighth in the rankings, which still leaves the state in a comparatively good position. However, it fell two spots in the “education choice” category, […] -
- Health Care News
AGs Question Pediatricians Pushing Trans Treatment
Publication -Attorney generals from 20 states and legislators from Arizona signed an interrogatory letter to the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) about the group’s support of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery for children and adolescents who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. “Often the AAP has exercised its influence responsibly,” states the […] -
States Should Protect Patients from AI and Federal Regulators
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Last year, the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) shut down its chatbot named “Tessa” after the group’s executive director found the service was directing patients seeking “eating disorder” information to ways to lose “one to two pounds a week” by limiting calorie intake to 2,000 per day. -
- Health Care News
Biden-Harris Plan Offer ‘Bribe’ to Medicare Drug Insurers
Publication -The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says it will cost taxpayers more than $25 billion to “paper over” a Medicare drug premium price jump created when the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) shifted the burden of drug price cuts to Part D insurers. The result has been a 22 percent jump in 2025 Medicare Part D premiums […] -
- Health Care News
Empowerment Accounts Can Fix Restrictive HSAs – Commentary
Publication -By Robert Koshnick, M.D. In the early 1970s, Paul Ellwood, M.D., the “father of the HMO” convinced President Richard Nixon that physicians who owned their clinics were greedy entrepreneurs. Ellwood’s solution, to have corporations manage people’s health care expenditures, led to the HMO Act of 1973. Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) were given the right to […] -
Research & Commentary: Texas Falls Farther Behind on Education Freedom
Publication -Research and Commentaries -The Heritage Foundation has released the latest version of its Education Freedom Report Card, and the Lone Star State is not faring particularly well. Texas fell seven spots overall from 2023, and now sits at fifteenth in the rankings, which is not ideal but still leaves the state in a comparatively good position. However, it […] -
Research & Commentary: Report Finds ‘Substantial’ Public School Enrollment Declines Since Pandemic School Closures
Publication -Research and Commentaries -A new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute finds that more than 5,000 public schools, nearly one in every 12 public schools across the country, have seen enrollment decline by a “substantial” amount since the COVID-19 pandemic and the forced closure of these schools for significant periods of time. Further, public schools that are […] -
Research & Commentary: States Turn to Reference-Based Pricing to Reduce Health Care Costs
Publication -State health care budgets are driven by many costs that are difficult and, in some cases, impossible to predict. For instance, an unexpected economic downturn can lead to massive job losses, thereby driving up the number of people on public health care programs. Moreover, under these circumstances, states experience a double whammy as tax revenue […] -
Research & Commentary: Report Details ESG Threat to Public Pension Funds from Proxy Voting Advisory Service Firms
Publication -Research and Commentaries -A new report from Life:Powered, a national initiative of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, finds that state pension systems, while for the most part not actively promoting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, are still being pushed into ESG trends by proxy voting advisory service firms like Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). ESG […] -
- Health Care News
Study Points to Why Generic Drugs in the U.S. Are the Lowest in the World
Publication -The United States appears to have the most competitive market for generic drugs among high-income countries, according to a new study. Prices in eight high-income countries under study dropped by between 30 to 82 percent within eight years after going off patent, with the biggest price decline occurring in the United States (82 percent). U.S. […] -
Ranked Choice Voting: A Major Threat to Free, Fair, and Secure Elections
Publication -Policy Briefs -Ultimately, RCV undermines our electoral system and should concern all those who value election integrity and fairness in the democratic process. -
Research and Commentary: Arizona Attempts to Protect Political Candidates from Big Tech Censorship
Publication -Research and Commentaries -A bill that would protect elected officials and candidates on social media platforms has been engrossed by the Arizona Senate and awaits its fate in the Arizona House of Representatives. Arizona Senate Bill 1124 stipulates that a social media website shall not deplatform a candidate who is known by the social media platform to be a candidate, […]