Health Care

Op-eds and Blogs by date

• Economists’ Letter to Obama on Health Care Reform (November 18, 2009)
  this blog mentions John Shoven
  This afternoon a group of 23 prominent economists — including two Nobel laureates as well as previous members of both Democratic and Republican presidential administrations — sent a letter to President Obama about the priorities for health care reform. . . .
• Should The Government Fund Abortions? (November 17, 2009)
  by Richard A. Epstein
  The now out-of-control debate about major health care reform has hit yet another speed bump over whether participants in the subsidized public option may receive coverage for abortions. . . .
• Research gains at risk (November 16, 2009)
  by Scott W. Atlas
  As the world accelerates technology solutions for everything from education to commerce to environmental health to economic growth, our president is focused on government centralization and traveling back in time to "reform" American health care. . . .
• Stop The (Health Reform) Juggernaut (November 16, 2009)
  by Henry I. Miller
  The Pelosi bill will hurt not only drugmakers, but patients too. . . .
• Shutting off the miracle-drug spigot (November 9, 2009)
  by Henry I. Miller
  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was right last week when she called her latest health-care-reform proposal a "his toric moment": After decades of life-saving and cost-cutting scientific innovations from drug and medical-device companies...
• The “Costs” of Medical Care (November 3, 2009)
  by Thomas Sowell
  We are incessantly being told that the cost of medical care is “too high”—either absolutely or as a growing percentage of our incomes...
• The "Costs" of Medical Care: Part II (November 3, 2009)
  by Thomas Sowell
  Although it is cheaper to buy a pint of milk than to buy a quart of milk, nobody considers that to be lowering the price of milk...
• The "Costs" of Medical Care: Part III (November 3, 2009)
  by Thomas Sowell
  One of the strongest talking points of those who want a government-run medical care system is that we simply cannot afford the high and rising costs of medical care under the current system...
• The "Costs" of Medical Care: Part IV (November 3, 2009)
  by Thomas Sowell
  What is so wrong with the current medical system in the United States that we are being urged to rush headlong into a new government system that we are not even supposed to understand, because this legislation is to be rushed through Congress before even the Senators and Representatives have a chance to read it?...
• Do They Care? (November 2, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  While many people dismiss insights from public choice, what's striking is its casual acceptance in conversation and discussion...
• The public option (November 2, 2009)
  by Russell Roberts
  Here is the video where Obama uses the Post Office as an example of why the public option won’t hurt private competitors...
• No placebo for lower costs (November 2, 2009)
  by Henry I. Miller
  There must be a self-satisfied smirk on the face of the executives at big pharmaceutical companies as they watch congressional Democrats attempt to punish health insurance plans for having the nerve to raise questions about the consequences of current health reform proposals...
• Greg Mankiw and Homework on Marginal Tax Rates (November 2, 2009)
  by John B. Taylor
  In an op-ed in today's New York Times Harvard's Greg Mankiw gives a good example of how government transfer programs increase marginal tax rates...
• Thomas Sowell On Economics Of Medical Care (October 28, 2009)
  by Thomas Sowell
  The high cost of medical care has been a recurrent theme in countries around the world...
• Pseudo-Competition (October 27, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  The congressional leadership has been very vocal lately about the need for competition in health insurance...
• Tyler’s Triple on Health Care (October 26, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  Hey, it’s baseball playoff time and the article is in the New York Times and so of course I'm going to use a baseball metaphor...
• Where's the benefit? (October 26, 2009)
  by Scott W. Atlas
  Regardless of the facts, most of the media seem to focus on one aspect of the proposed health care legislation - cost - as if it is a given that the Democratic reforms are desirable, except for the quandary of how to pay for them...
• Public Opinion and Health Reform (October 23, 2009)
  by David Brady and Daniel P. Kessler
  Earlier this month, President Barack Obama said that an "unprecedented consensus has come together behind" health-care reform...
• Obama's CEA on Adverse Selection (October 19, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  Back in July, Bryan had an excellent post on adverse selection, pointing out that the textbook idea that adverse selection is an important problem in insurance is simply wrong...
• Great Moments in Health Economics (October 19, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  From President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, "The Economic Case for Health Reform," June 2009:...
• Are Taxes “Passed On”? (October 15, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  In arguing with the recent study done by Price Waterhouse Coopers for the American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the White House bloggers say the following:...
• The desperate defense of Obamacare (October 13, 2009)
  by Tibor R. Machan
  The political arena has abandoned all civility, it seems...
• Britain's Central Planning Death Panels (October 12, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  Hazel Fenton, from East Sussex, is alive nine months after medics ruled she had only days to live, withdrew her antibiotics and denied her artificial feeding...
• Inside The Baucus Health Plan (October 12, 2009)
  by Scott W. Atlas
  The Congressional Budget Office numbers are in, and America's politicians and self-defined experts in the media will be either extolling its accuracies or deriding its fantasies, to validate their own positions on the Baucus health plan...
• Health care: Which is the real party of no? (October 8, 2009)
  this blog mentions Gary S. Becker
  The biggest lie, falsehood, misinformation — whatever you want to call it — in our health-care debate has been that the Democrats are the only side that’s contributing ideas...
• Coercion and laziness in health care reform (October 6, 2009)
  by Tibor R. Machan
  When people have a strong urge to get something accomplished they cannot — or perhaps better put, are unwilling to — do by themselves, they often insist that it must be done by the government...
• Is the Swiss Health Care System a Good Model for US? (October 5, 2009)
  by Gary S. Becker
  The Swiss health care system has several important properties that I (and many others) have been advocating should be incorporated into any reform of the US health care system...
• A tax by many other names (October 5, 2009)
  by Henry I. Miller
  President Barack Obama, appearing recently on ABC-TV's "This Week," made what may be the most revealing statements of his tenure...
• Infantalizing US (September 25, 2009)
  this blog features Thomas Sowell
  I’ve long believed — for reasons very similar to, but less refined than, those offered by my colleague Bryan Caplan — that the modern state brings out the children in us...
• Doubling Down on a Flawed Insurance Model (September 25, 2009)
  by John F. Cogan and Daniel P. Kessler
  “What this plan will do is make the insurance you have work better for you....And here’s what you need to know, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits—either now or in the future. Period.”...
• Data on Canadian Medical Care (September 24, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  My wife had breast cancer in 1986 and is an active consumer of information about breast cancer...
• Health care debate about liberty versus equality (September 24, 2009)
  by David Davenport
  As the war over health care comes into sharper relief, it is apparent that the real debate is about something very fundamental in American politics...
• The Feds' Attack on Freedom of Speech (September 22, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  Not the Fed, as in Bernanke, but the Feds, as in the federal government...
• Competition in Media Works (September 22, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  When I read that President Obama would make the rounds of all the major network news shows except that of Fox News Channel, I was skeptical that any hard information would come out...
• The Congressional Seizure Of Private Health Care Plans (September 22, 2009)
  by Richard A. Epstein
  The current incoherent struggle over health care reform is fast coming to a head...
• Obama's Bait and Switch (September 21, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  In the spring of this year, President Obama argued that one reason for health care reform was to get long-term spending on government health care under control...
• Economics of Mandated Health Insurance (September 17, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  Today's Wall Street Journal contains an interesting front-page news story about mandated health insurance, focusing on the case of Massachusetts...
• The New Third Rail (September 16, 2009)
  by Tod Lindberg
  If Hogwarts were a school for politicians, there would be a required class on "Defense Against the Dark Arts of Demagoguery."...
• Fables for adults (September 15, 2009)
  by Thomas Sowell
  Many years ago, as a small child, I was told one of those old-fashioned fables for children...
• Last Night Didn’t Quite Do It (September 11, 2009)
  by Victor Davis Hanson
  Obama’s problem with warning Americans about bickering, partisan politics, lying, and misrepresentation last night is that his green advisor Van Jones just left after it was disclosed that he called Republicans “a–holes”, whites polluters / more prone to mass murder in schools, and charged the former President with involvement in 9/11...
• Obama's Contradiction on Health Care: II (September 11, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  Three commenters on my post last night (ed, mark, and Karl Smith) pointed out, correctly, it turns out, that I missed Obama's point...
• Listening to a Liar: Part II (September 11, 2009)
  by Thomas Sowell
  "Hubris-laden charlatans" was the way a recent e-mail from a reader characterized the Obama administration...
• Obama's Contradiction on Health Care (September 10, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  Here are two segments of Obama's speech this evening...
• Three health care questions (September 10, 2009)
  by Russell Roberts
  Why does the impending fiscal disaster known as Medicare justify increasing the role of the federal government and reducing the role of prices which are the essence of Medicare?...
• Another fine speech will not be enough (September 10, 2009)
  by Timothy Garton Ash
  "Change – I'd like mine back"...
• A Great Opportunity and Great Danger Tonight for Obama (September 10, 2009)
  by Victor Davis Hanson
  I think what most are asking about health-care reform are very simple questions — and which party that answers them best will gain public support...
• Pfizer's $2.3 Billion-Dollar Settlement (September 9, 2009)
  by Charles L. Hooper and David R. Henderson
  Even Google didn't believe it...
• Why Are These Health Care Fixes Ignored? (September 9, 2009)
  by Scott W. Atlas
  Our president and his allies in Congress have been advancing their plan to offer government as the answer to insurance reform...
• Listening to a Liar (September 8, 2009)
  by Thomas Sowell
  The most important thing about what anyone says are not the words themselves but the credibility of the person who says them...
• A Dangerous Cost-Cutting Prescription (September 8, 2009)
  by Henry I. Miller
  Health care reform is intended to control spending, expand coverage and protect consumers...
• No such thing as free health care (September 8, 2009)
  by Tibor R. Machan
  TANSTAAFL is an acronym for "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch."...
• When it comes to health care town halls, why should incumbents get all the fun? (September 4, 2009)
  this blog mentions Hoover Institution
  Members of Congress aren't the only ones holding town halls on health care...
• Health Lessons From Schools (September 3, 2009)
  by Paul E. Peterson
  IF Congress creates a public option in health-care insurance, will that inevitably lead to a single-payer system, with the government everyone's insurer?...
• GOP Principles with Thaddeus McCotter: Chapter 3 of 5 (September 2, 2009)
  by Peter M. Robinson
  Rep. Thaddeus McCotter describes why the American people don’t want Obamacare, and why a good many Democrats won’t vote for it...
• Obama's Summer of Discontent (September 1, 2009)
  by Fouad Ajami
  So we are to have a French health-care system without a French tradition of political protest...
• More Regulation of Mortgages would Likely Hurt Consumers (August 31, 2009)
  by Gary S. Becker
  No doubt many consumers made mistakes in their credit decisions during the past few years, perhaps especially in the mortgages they chose...
• Dr. Ouelett on Canada's Medicare (August 31, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  Early this morning (PDT), C-SPAN carried an interesting interview and call-in show with Dr. Ouelett, outgoing president of the Canadian Medical Association...
• How American Health Care Killed My Father (August 31, 2009)
  by David R. Henderson
  Not my father: David Goldhill's father...
• Native Americans and the Public Option (August 31, 2009)
  by Terry Anderson
  Montana Sen. Max Baucus, a leading architect of national health-care reform, visited the Flathead Indian Reservation near Pablo, Mont., in May, and he was confronted with a surprising critique...
• The coming debt debacle: Top economist says President Obama must slash spending, now (August 31, 2009)
  by John B. Taylor
  New federal budget numbers released last week by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) ought to be a game-changer for Congress and the Obama administration...
• Mr. Health Care (August 27, 2009)
  by Scott W. Atlas
  Sen. Ted Kennedy was long established as the singularly effective Democrat leader in the Senate for causes related to "social justice."...
• A health care manifesto (August 26, 2009)
  by Russell Roberts
  What are the key principles of reform that would allow us to talk about reform without putting it in scare quotes?...
• The Power of the Patient (August 26, 2009)
  by Scott W. Atlas
  The Obama and Democrat health care agenda is meeting loud and strong opposition from American voters, who are fighting back for what they believe in...
• Obama and ‘Redistributive (August 26, 2009)
  by Victor Davis Hanson
  The first seven months of the Obama administration seemingly make no sense...
• The drugs do work (August 24, 2009)
  by Henry I. Miller
  Once upon a time there was a horse that was so productive working in the field that he put all the other horses to shame...
• Personalized Rx therapy (August 24, 2009)
  by Henry I. Miller
  Two drug companies that jointly market a prominent cancer drug recently changed the labeling to discourage the drug's use in colon-cancer patients who have certain gene mutations, following clinical studies that showed the drug is not effective in those patients...
• Le illusion (August 24, 2009)
  by Russell Roberts
  Sara Paretsky, in an article in the NYT entitled Le Treatment, described an emergency room in France and observes that rude bureaucrats in the French health system are worth putting up with, given the price:...
• Health care vs. health insurance (August 24, 2009)
  by Russell Roberts
  In this post, I asked you to respond to this question I received from a reader, Tom:...
• 'A contest between hope and fear'? (August 21, 2009)
  by Victor Davis Hanson
  There is something creepy about the sudden invocation of Christian morality by the president to galvanize support for his state-run health care plan, as if his opponents are suddenly to be seen as somehow selfish or even un-Christian...
• Looking Beyond The Public Option (August 20, 2009)
  by Scott W. Atlas
  The Obama administration claims its motivation for a public plan option--government insurance for all--rests on the more fundamental goal of increasing competition among health insurance providers...
• Divine Debt Trumps All (August 20, 2009)
  by Victor Davis Hanson
  In Greek mythology, even Olympian gods and heroes were subject to a higher divine power known loosely as “fate” — an allotted moira, or destiny, that could not be changed even by thunderbolt-throwing Zeus...
• Health Care Hyperbole (August 19, 2009)
  by Clint Bolick
  By possibly taking the public option off the table, Democrats who favor nationalized health care have acknowledged that their opponents are winning the public relations debate...
• American Health Care Once Again (August 18, 2009)
  by Gary S. Becker
  In a recent post (see my discussion on July 28) I explained why the American health delivery system is superior in some important dimensions to health care in most other advanced countries...
• Obama's Doomed Utopia (August 18, 2009)
  by Richard A. Epstein
  August is normally a time for vacation and reinvigoration, for this author who is now in attendance at the Mont Pelerin Society meeting in Sweden...
• Whose Medical Decisions?: Part IV (August 18, 2009)
  by Thomas Sowell
  The serious, and sometimes chilling, provisions of the medical care legislation that President Obama has been trying to rush through Congress are important enough for all of us to stop and think, even though his political strategy from the outset has been to prevent us from having time to stop and think about it...
• Whose Medical Decisions?: Part II (August 18, 2009)
  by Thomas Sowell
  When famed bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he said: "Because that's where the money is."...
• Whose Medical Decisions?: Part III (August 18, 2009)
  by Thomas Sowell
  Amid all the controversies over medical care, no one seems to be asking a very basic question: Why does it take more than 1,000 pages of legislation to insure people who lack medical insurance?...
• Whose Medical Decisions? (August 18, 2009)
  by Thomas Sowell
  There was a time when rushing a thousand-page bill through Congress so fast that no one has time to read it would have provoked public outrage...
• Obama's Blue Pill and Red Pill - Choose Wisely! (August 13, 2009)
  this blog includes quotes from Henry I. Miller
  Yesterday, President Barack Obama went to a townhall meeting in New Hampshire to clear up some "misinformation" about his health care reform plans...
• Homeopathic Medicine Is Homeo-Pathetic (August 12, 2009)
  by Henry I. Miller
  "Complementary and alternative medicine" is big business, accounting for almost $34 billion annually in out-of-pocket spending in the U.S., according to a report from the National Institutes of Health released last month...
• A Sickly Medical Device Safety Act (August 11, 2009)
  by Richard A. Epstein
  Congressional mischief comes in large packages, like health care reform, and in small bundles, like the ill-advised Medical Device Safety Act of 2009 (MDSA) which is now moving forward in both the House and Senate...
• A runaway deficit may soon test Obama’s luck (August 11, 2009)
  by Niall Ferguson
  President Barack Obama reminds me of Felix the Cat...
• SOLUTIONS: Revitalizing American entrepreneurship (August 10, 2009)
  by Jeffrey M. Jones
  this op-ed mentions Hoover Institution
  Every day we're reminded of just how bad this recession is...
• User Fees Confuse and Abuse (August 7, 2009)
  by Henry I. Miller
  Federal "user fees," a sort of tax imposed on those who benefit directly from governmental actions or programs, are familiar to many Americans: The charges range from admission to national parks to the processing of passports...
• Mitt Romney's Big-Government Health Care Plan (August 7, 2009)
  by Peter M. Robinson
  Mitt Romney appears to have changed his mind once again about the statewide health care program he enacted as governor of Massachusetts...
• Never mind the anecdotes: Do Canadians like their health-care system? (August 7, 2009)
  this blog includes quotes from Scott W. Atlas
  By an overwhelming margin, Canadians prefer the Canadian health care system to the American one...
• Reflecting on Thomas Sowell's Observations of National Health Care (August 6, 2009)
  this blog features Thomas Sowell
  As I have posted on my homepage, my favorite author is Thomas Sowell...
• Care Versus Control (August 5, 2009)
  by Thomas Sowell
  As someone who was once rushed to a hospital in the middle of the night, because of taking a medication that millions of people take every day without the slightest problem...
• Healthcare reform that's hard to swallow (August 5, 2009)
  by Henry I. Miller
  It has become fashionable at the White House and on Capitol Hill to try to cut costs at the expense of the research-intensive (as opposed to generic) pharmaceutical industry...
• 10 Reasons Why American Healthcare Is Better Than You've Been Told (August 3, 2009)
  this blog features Scott W. Atlas
  From Hoover's Scott Atlas (who's also the head of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical School:...