Healthcare
The Providence Journal reported the responses of health care experts around the state to President Obama’s speech on reform to Congress a few weeks ago: Five Rhode Islanders with expertise in health care were among the many who watched President Obama’s speech Wednesday night. A professor, a doctor, a hospital president, a businessman and a…
Periodically, I catch an episode of The Mentalist, in which a non-cop, always-right, psychiatrist-type character assists the police with their cases. One episode featured the actor who played Chip on Kate and Allie, who — if I may indulge in a spoiler — played a murderer who had spent years posing as a mentally handicapped…
This past weekend’s episode of Newsmakers, with AFL-CIO RI President George Nee, is worth a watch: Nee is among the more reasonable-sounding of the labor representatives, but that presentation only emphasizes the absence of space between how he responds to questions and how any given Democrat partisan would answer them. Sure, he’s the guy who…
Stephen Moses, Health Care Policy Fellow for the Ocean State Policy Research Institute, brings to light an easy to miss loss of state dollars: In 1993, the federal government made it mandatory for state Medicaid programs to recover the cost of benefits paid to older people with exempt (sheltered) assets out of their estates. In…
The rapid transformation of this country into a European-style socialist democracy is certainly distressing. American life is on its way to becoming more difficult and less free, less innovative — in a word, less American. But it is the combination of that atrophy with the existence of nations seeking to duplicate the international accomplishment of…
I suppose I lack the grounds to object to Robert Whitcomb’s protestations in yesterday’s Providence Journal (not online) that his experience living in France doesn’t jibe with the warnings that he hears fellow Americans giving against socialized medicine: The ignorance and dishonesty in the U.S. health-care debate are beyond belief. … Then there are the…
Given his long record interest on the subject (which Anchor Rising was reporting on before reporting on the details of healthcare reform was a big thing in the blogosphere), Oregon Senator Ron Wyden’s (D – Oregon) strong skepticism about Democratic healthcare reform plans is a potentially significant development. From an article posted last night at…
This graphic showing the stock gains made by six health insurance companies after President Obama’s healthcare speech is interesting fuel for contemplation. What is it that has attracted investors’ interest? The possibility that health insurers are moving toward becoming another category of government-backed business? The possibility that consumers will rush to acquire plans that will…
Blogger “Tigerhawk” is reporting on a proposal by Senate Democrats to raise taxes on medical devices to pay for their healthcare reform plans (h/t Instapundit)…Senate Democrats are proposing [to levy] a “value added tax” on medical device companies according to their proportion of U.S. sales. This tax would be without regard to profitability, so it…
Something resonated oddly for me, the other day, and it occurred to me that there’s an important philosophical point to be made in response: “What we can be proud of in Europe is the ground rules, that everyone has the right to health care,” said Jose Martin-Moreno, a health expert at the University of Valencia…
