Showing archive for: “Health Care”
The Law and Economics of Any Willing Provider Laws
While I’m posting about health care regulation, I’d like to point TOTM readers to a short article with Jonathan Klick (University of Pennsylvania) summarizing the economics and empirical evidence surrounding “Any Willing Provider”(AWP) laws for the Washington Legal Foundation. We write: This analysis evaluates the antitrust law ramifications of proposals requiring pharmacy benefit managers (“PBMs”) ... The Law and Economics of Any Willing Provider Laws
Holtz-Eakin & Smith on The Economics of ObamaCare
Douglas Holtz-Eakin and my former George Mason colleague and Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith are in the WSJ today discussing the economic wisdom and constitutionality of ObamaCare. From the WSJ: The Obama administration defends the mandate on the ground that a person’s decision to not buy health insurance affects commerce by materially increasing the costs of ... Holtz-Eakin & Smith on The Economics of ObamaCare
Is Dental Care a Preventive Measure Health Insurers Must Cover? Let’s Hope Not.
I recently heard an ominous NPR story on the rise in trips to the emergency room by people seeking dental treatment. In 2009 alone, Tennessee’s emergency rooms had more than 55,000 dental-related visits — five times as many as for burns. Florida’s emergency rooms experienced over 115,000 ER visits for dental matters in 2010. Charges for those visits totaled $88 million. This ... Is Dental Care a Preventive Measure Health Insurers Must Cover? Let’s Hope Not.
The Magical World of Mandates
It seems President Obama has discovered a magical cure for his contraception controversy: simply force insurance companies to provide free coverage for contraceptive services, but only for women who work for organizations that qualify for exemption from the original mandate that requires contraceptive coverage be part of any respectable (i.e., Obama-approved) health plan. Never mind ... The Magical World of Mandates
Religious Liberty for Dummies
According to Senators Barbara Boxer, Jeanne Shaheen, and Patty Murray, the Catholic Church is the real bully in the fight over whether religious employers must include coverage for contraception in the insurance policies they offer their employees. In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, the three responded to, in their words, the “aggressive and misleading campaign” against this ... Religious Liberty for Dummies
What if the Government Ordered the Human Rights Campaign to Cover Conversion Therapy for Gays?
A thought experiment: It’s late January 2016. Newt Gingrich is President. The House of Representatives is solidly Republican, and there’s a slight Republican majority in the Senate. Because Republicans lack a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) remains on the books. (The reconciliation process, which allowed the law to be ... What if the Government Ordered the Human Rights Campaign to Cover Conversion Therapy for Gays?
The Administration’s Rigorous Defense of the Affordable Care Act
In yesterday’s Washington Post, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius makes an impassioned plea for skeptics to reconsider the Affordable Care Act. Secretary Sebelius argues that the Act will bring down health care costs by, among other things, assisting those who cannot afford health insurance coverage. Although expanding health insurance coverage is a worthy ... The Administration’s Rigorous Defense of the Affordable Care Act
FDA Medical Device Approval
The New York Times today has an article on approval of medical devices. The take is that venture capitalists want a more efficient process. The tradeoff mentioned is between faster approval for investor returns versus safety of devices if they are approved faster. There is no mention in the article of the benefits to patients ... FDA Medical Device Approval
Shouldn’t the Wall Street Occupiers Oppose Obamacare?
It’s hard to discern much that’s coherent — much less cogent — from the cacophony that is Occupy Wall Street, but one valid complaint continually sounds through the noise: When business interests get in bed with the government, injustice tends to result. The Wall Street Occupiers are of course focused primarily on bailed-out financial firms (though not on union favorites GM ... Shouldn’t the Wall Street Occupiers Oppose Obamacare?
Efficiency, Competition, Capital Formation, Investor Protection, Apple Pie and Puppies
One of the things that I hope to spend more time doing now that I have returned to the blogosphere is open-source article writing. By that I mean blogging about an article idea and updating it as I progress. Some say it’s a bad plan…people might steal your ideas, or maybe you expose yourself to ... Efficiency, Competition, Capital Formation, Investor Protection, Apple Pie and Puppies
Banning Executives
From the WSJ: The Department of Health and Human Services this month notified Howard Solomon of Forest Laboratories Inc. that it intends to exclude him from doing business with the federal government. This, in turn, could prevent Forest from selling its drugs to Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans Administration. If the government implements its ban, ... Banning Executives
Cheap Donuts, Expensive Broccoli and Soda Taxes
David Leonhardt’s NY Times column laments the fact that the price of healthful foods has increased relative to unhealthful foods. He presents this useful chart: The fact that relative prices have changed is often invoked in support of various “fat taxes,” e.g. consider the recent salvo of proposed soda taxes (For example, here and here). ... Cheap Donuts, Expensive Broccoli and Soda Taxes
