All Posts Tagged With: "health insurance"
Medical Markets Can’t Work?
Dr. Darshak Sanghavi, an academic pediatric cardiologist who (like all physicians) financially benefits from the cartelization of medicine, explains in Slate, the online magazine, that health care markets can’t work because of the information asymmetry between physician and patient (“Talk to the Invisible Hand”). So we need the cartel. This is not particularly surprising; most [...]
5Jan2010 | Theodore Levy | 5 comments | ContinuedThe Senate's 40 Percent Middle-Class Tax
The New York Times‘ Bob Herbert has a thought-provoking column for a change. He shows that the Senate health-insurance bill’s 40 percent tax on “Cadillac” coverage, which has been sold as a tax on the rich, will easily become a tax on the middle class — if it works as the authors expect. Within three [...]
29Dec2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedObamacare and the Legacy of Progressivism
In the end, the bill will be whatever the White House wants it to be. The ultimate legacy of “Progressivism” is that political debate no longer matters.
23Dec2009 | William L. Anderson | 4 comments | ContinuedThe Health Care Debate Has Been “Meaningful”? It Just Ain’t So!
There is a clash of fundamental values in the health care debate, but it’s not within conventional electoral politics. The real debate is between politics as a means of providing health care and a freer, more humane alternative: consensual social organization.” Read the rest of Charles Johnson’s article at TheFreedomOnline.org.
22Dec2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Health Care Debate Has Been “Meaningful”? It Just Ain’t So!
Credit where credit is due: David Brooks does say one true thing in his New York Times column “The Values Question” (Nov. 24) on government health care reform: “The system after reform will look as it does today, only bigger and more expensive.” Brooks is certainly right that no “health care reform” proposal with any [...]
22Dec2009 | Charles Johnson | 22 comments | ContinuedDemocrats End Debate on Health Care
“The Democratic-controlled Senate, voting 60-40, swept aside Republican objections and moved to close off debate on health overhaul legislation, marking a milestone moment for President Barack Obama’s most pressing domestic initiative. “All 58 Democrats and two independents voted to approve the first — and most crucial — of three motions needed to break off action, [...]
21Dec2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedObama Claims U.S. ‘Bankrupt’ Without Health Care Reform
“President Obama told ABC News’ Charles Gibson in an interview that if Congress does not pass health care legislation that will bring down costs, the federal government ‘will go bankrupt.’” (ABCNews, Wednesday) He also said his stimulus plan would save or create 4 million jobs. FEE Timely Classic: “Democracy Versus Liberty” by James Bovard
17Dec2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedPublic Support for Healthcare Reform Drops Even More
“A bare majority of Americans still believe government action is needed to control runaway health-care costs and expand coverage to the roughly 46 million people without insurance. But after a year of exhortation by President Obama and Democratic leaders and a high-octane national debate, there is minimal public enthusiasm for the kind of comprehensive changes [...]
16Dec2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedHoward Dean: “Kill the Bill”
“This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. And, honestly, the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill and go back to the House and start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.” (Vermont Public [...]
16Dec2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedPerverse Health Care Incentives
Ronald Brownstein of The Atlantic is the only mainstream reporter I am aware of who glimpses what the debate over health care economics should be about. Last month he wrote, “To save costs, Democrats mostly want to change the incentives for providers. Republicans mostly want to change the incentives for patients by shifting toward a [...]
11Dec2009 | Sheldon Richman | 9 comments | ContinuedThe Power to Tax is the Power
The authority for forcing us to buy health insurance is said to be the Commerce Clause and the taxing power. TGIF looks at these claims.Read TGIF here.
27Nov2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Power to Tax Is the Power
It would be nice if we could count on the court, at the very least, to forbid Congress from achieving a goal by means that violate freedom if means are available that do not. But let’s hold our breath.
27Nov2009 | Sheldon Richman | 7 comments | ContinuedAnother Mystery of the Universe
In an actual free market who would buy medical coverage from a company with a reputation for trying never to pay claims or dropping customers after they get sick?
24Nov2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedTGIF: The Mandated Health Insurance Outrage
Want to know how the politicians justify forcing us to buy health insurance? I discuss their screwball grounds in this week’s TGIF.
20Nov2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Mandated Health Insurance Outrage
With the introduction of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s 2,074-page health insurance nationalization bill, we can be thankful for one thing at least. It will most likely be the last bill of its kind introduced this year. Who’d have time to wade through another? This doesn’t mean there is anything in the bill to be [...]
20Nov2009 | Sheldon Richman | 37 comments | ContinuedMonsieur Bastiat, Call Your Office
In September I lectured at the Liberty Weekend Dedicated to the Life and Legacy of Frédéric Bastiat, sponsored by the Polish-American Foundation for Economic Research and Education (PAFERE) in Warsaw. Preparing for my visit, I reread Bastiat’s great book The Law. Oh do we need Bastiat today! The Law is the kind of book you [...]
18Nov2009 | Sheldon Richman | 5 comments | ContinuedBig Business Goes Big for Health Care Reform
“What disturbs Americans of all ideological persuasions is the fear that almost everything, not just government, is fixed or manipulated by some powerful hidden hand,” Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times a few months ago. That manipulation should disturb us. But contrary to Rich, it is not the work of “corporatists” who have [...]
18Nov2009 | John Stossel | 5 comments | Continued-
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