The recent letter to Congressman Rangel from the AMA in appreciation and support for H.R. 3200, the “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009” is disconcerting and fails to accurately represent the concerns of many of America’s physicians, myself included. The AMA has failed to clearly discuss the significant trade-offs that private practice physicians and their patients will face if this legislation is rushed through congress. First of all, if the legislation is passed along with the option of a public plan that competes with private plans, physicians will bear …
This Pajamas TV video is on the longer side, but it’s a must-see for those following the health care debate. Watch as Steven Crowder goes undercover deep inside the Canadian socialized health care bureaucracy. He comes out relatively unscathed, though completely untreated for what he went in for. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jijuj1ysw[/youtube]
So what would happen to you if President Barack Obama succeeds in passing a health care bill that includes a public option? Law professor Hugh Hewitt explains how others’ decisions will impact you quicker than you might think: Some of my law firm’s clients and some executives in my broadcast audience are quietly preparing for the necessary analysis that will follow the passage of Obamacare by asking their personnel departments the obvious question: Will it make economic sense to discontinue health care coverage for my employees and instead push them …
Last Sunday, in an appearance on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) repeated yet another justification for including a “public plan” option in health care legislation. Since other advocates of a public plan have recently been offering the same justification, it is worth taking a moment to point out that the claim is factually incorrect. HOYER: Chris, can I just say something? When they adopted a prescription drug program, they provided for the possibility of a public option in their own plan if it …
From the Maine Heritage Policy Center, Tarren Bragdon reports: Passed in 2003, Maine’s Dirigo Health initiative was lauded as the first state-based universal coverage program this decade. Governor John Baldacci promised that Dirigo Health would (1) provide coverage for all of Maine’s 128,000 uninsured by 2009; (2) not require any new taxes; (3) be paid for by savings created in the health care system in Maine; and (4) reduce health insurance and health care costs for all. The core element of the Dirigo Health initiative was the DirigoChoice “public option” …
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]
In his blog, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman launches an unsubstantiated attack on The Heritage Foundation for our June 25 report showing that Medicare administrative costs are higher than those private health plans, not lower, as Krugman has frequently claimed. We find it somewhat encouraging that his only “refutation” to our basic point consists of (a) an ad-hominem-like attack, and (b) an old quote that is doesn’t refute the point of our report — and is incorrect anyway. The point of our paper is that expressing health administrative costs …
American families would receive $5,000 and individuals $2,000 to buy health insurance if their employers didn’t offer it, according to new health reform legislation introduced yesterday by U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). In addition to providing families and consumers with vouchers, the Health Care Freedom Plan also: • Expands Americans’ use of health savings accounts (HSAs) to pay for insurance premiums • Creates a nationwide market for health insurance by allowing consumers to buy health insurance in any state • Provides block grants to states to develop innovative models for …
Last night, ABC News aired ‘Questions for the President: Prescription for America‘ designed to be a town hall for doctors, patients and health care experts to ask President Obama challenging questions on his health care proposals. Many Americans protested before the program aired, in self-described “waiting rooms,” to challenge a perceived notion that ABC was simply giving the President one hour of prime time television to sell his program without an opposing view. Conservative Members of Congress gathered on Capitol Hill during the hour to showcase their health reform plans at an …
That was the core question U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) directed to health expert Robert Moffit, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Health Policy Studies, yesterday at the House Education and Labor Committee’s first real hearing. “If all of the health plans [including a government-run health plan] are on the same, level playing field, and everyone is guaranteed access to health insurance, why would you need a public option?” Moffit shot back. In his testimony [see below], Moffit warned the committee that several components of the drafted legislation would …
