President Obama often says that bending the curve in health spending downward is one of the main objectives of his health care reform agenda. There is indeed a consensus that health costs are growing at a rapid rate, and that reformers should work to slow the rising tide of spending. But as Heritage’s Robert A. Book, Ph.D, and Jason D. Fodeman, M.D. point out, the big picture is not so simple. In order to successfully reduce health care spending, legislators must address what is causing expenses to rise in the …
Dr. James Eelkema, a Burnsville, MN family practice physician was fed up with the costly paperwork insurance companies required and the second guessing of his medical decisions by company bureaucrats. So when he learned that up to a third of his pay was to become contingent on “measures such as whether his patients got pap smears or whether he got them to stop smoking,” Dr. Eelkema decided enough was enough and converted to a cash-only practice. Dr. Eelkema’s decision represents a growing trend of medicine returning to its fundamental role …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkPiJayiuUA[/youtube] “The most outrageous detail in the current House bill is the philosophy on which it is premised. It is premised on the philosophy that the government knows best how to organize 1/6th of our economy,” said Rep. Ryan (R-WI) today before visiting Heritage’s Bloggers Briefing. Ryan was speaking about the current House health bill, a behemoth piece of legislation weighing in at 1,990 pages and costing $1.5 trillion.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-BoR9hAvQ[/youtube] Dr. Norm Thurston is doing something extraordinary: he’s implementing consumer-driven health care fixes in Utah. When many employers recently started dropping health benefits the state reacted with reforms that make costs predictable for both employers and consumers. Predictability depends on accurate information for all sides. The Utah Health Exchange makes this possible. Here’s how it works: Companies choose a fixed amount to contribute toward employee health benefits. Employees contribute pretax money from their own paychecks, and they can make contributions from a spouse’s job or a second employer as well.
This summer, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal outlining a pro-consumer, pro-market vision for health care reform that would take our country in the opposite direction of Obamacare. This September, he sat down with Reason’s Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch to talk health care and capitalism: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYcFCyZC8Sc[/youtube]
During his address to a joint session of Congress President Obama said, “If you come to me with a serious set of proposals, I will be there to listen. My door is always open.” Well, it’s time for the President and Congressional leaders to listen, especially if they are sincere about wanting a bipartisan approach to health care reform. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, has joined a host of other Republicans in the House of Representatives by crafting a serious conservative alternative to the health …
