Rep. Dave Camp came to Heritage’s weekly bloggers briefing today. He made specific recommendations for health care reform that leaves the individual in charge and actually reduces costs without raising taxes. “80% of Americans have health care, and they don’t want to see it change in a fundamental way,” he said, adding that reform should include 3 things “that get the cost out of health care.” Common-sense liability reform that reduces doctors’ need to practice defensive medicine. Regulatory reform, so small businesses can group together in insurance pools. Strong anti-fraud provisions.
If you dig through the giant 1,018-page House Democrats’ Tri-Committee Health Bill, you’ll find a new “czar.” The bill would place a federal “Health Choices Commissioner” at the helm of the newly-created Health Choices Administration. The Administration would run a brand new national health insurance exchange. For one official, the Commissioner would exercise enormous control over health insurance. While the House sponsors of the bill want the Commissioner to keep closer watch over the insurance industry, this amounts to an enormous concentration of power in one person. It would also …
The guy who’s made those excellent videos on the stimulus and government spending has made a new one on health care. He’s also got a website now: politicalmath.wordpress.com. Watch: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqD-nMpsYAY[/youtube]
Today The Washington Post reported that President Obama’s budget proposal to “tax the rich” to pay for health care, including reduced deductions for charitable donations, is “facing deep skepticism on Capitol Hill”. According to the Post, as an alternative, top lawmakers are pondering a change to the federal tax treatment of health insurance—a relic of the WWII era—as an alternative way to financing health reform. If there is one item where there is a powerful consensus among serious health policy analysts, conservative and liberal alike, it is the need to …
Efforts in Congress to fast-track passage of an economic stimulus package and expansion of the children’s health care program, if successful, would give liberals a big down payment on nationalizing health care. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) has stated as much. America already was on a fast track toward the tipping point in health care — that point where the federal government will control more spending on personal health than the private sector does. Today, as this chart shows, government controls 46 percent of such spending; its share is …
Yesterday the nation’s largest health insurance trade group, the America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), unveiled its proposal for major reform of the U.S. health care sector. AHIP President Karen Ignagni told the Los Angeles Times, “The nation is on the eve of a national discussion about healthcare. This comes around once every generation.” Indeed, health care reform was a major theme in President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign. During the campaign, Obama pledged to build a health care system in which Americans can be assured of access to affordable health insurance; to …
A Round up of Op-eds from the Heritage Foundation US: Why We are All Winners – Israel Ortega Many of us who are first-generation Americans retain immediate connections to nations truly savaged by civil unrest, ethnic and class conflict and political violence. We don’t have to think too hard to think of places where “suffrage,” “elections” and even “democracy” are generally just catchy slogans[...] Conservatism’s Death: Greatly Exaggerated – Ernest Istook Liberal pundits such as the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne were quick to interpret the recent elections as “a definitive …
Make a list of the things you think government does really well. Almost everyone can agree it is pitifully short. Why, then, would we want government to run something as important as health care? The argument for a federal solution to affordable health care assumes the feds will do a good job, and is marked by a lack of understanding about what has made America the wealthiest country in history. Our meteoric rise was ignited by doing less, not more, when it came to regulating the choices people could make …
Today the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual estimate of the uninsured. For some, it came as a surprise that both the rate and number of people without health insurance actually declined, from 47 million, or 15.8% in 2006, to 45.7 million, or 15.3% in 2007. For those of us who follow the numbers closely, however, it’s no surprise. While the rate and number of uninsured has fallen, this year’s Census shows the beginning of a startling trend. The percent of Americans with private health insurance is on the decline, …
