Healthcare

Whether It Is or Not, It’s What Rationing Will Sound Like

By Justin Katz | August 19, 2009 |

TPublico constructively offers correction of my mention of proposed healthcare-reform changes to wheelchair purchases under the Social Security Act: That specific section in the Health Reform Bill has nothing to do with rationing, or as the source says ‘…if you don’t specifically need the motorized chair for complex rehabilitation, Obamacare says you can freaking walk…

The Special Interests Are in the Details

By Justin Katz | August 19, 2009 |

Lee Drutman reminds readers of a point that Milton Friedman made often: And yet, start reading the actual legislation, and you quickly realize the U.S. health-care system is a dizzying jumble of a thousand and one interconnected pieces, which means a lot of little rules and incentives to get right if any reform is going…

Open Thread: Questions on Healthcare

By Carroll Andrew Morse | August 19, 2009 |

As we head towards our town hall meetings in the state of Rhode Island where the subject of healthcare reform will be a major issue, here is the big picture question regarding the proposals currently under consideration by Congress: The President and Congressional Democrats are promising that by expanding the Federal role in healthcare regulation…

It Might Be Better to Face the Swine

By Justin Katz | August 18, 2009 |

Folks might want to consider this before signing up for inoculation: A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter. The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been…

Hard-Luck Cases Make Bad Law, Especially When the President Doesn’t Understand Them

By Carroll Andrew Morse | August 18, 2009 |

The third example used by President Barack Obama in his Sunday New York Times op-ed arguing for more Federal control of healthcare contains serious errors at both the factual and at the conceptual levels (as opposed to his first example, where the error is entirely conceptual)…OUR nation is now engaged in a great debate about…

On Medical Absurdity

By Justin Katz | August 18, 2009 |

Wading through the self-defeating snideness of Ed Fitzpatrick’s Sunday column on the healthcare debate (sorry to be harsh, Ed, but it oozes off the page), I wondered whether Fitzpatrick has heard the term “quality-adjusted life year.” Here’s the definition provided by MedicineNet.com: A year of life adjusted for its quality or its value. A year…

Congressman Langevin’s Town Hall Has Changed Venue

By Carroll Andrew Morse | August 18, 2009 |

Congressman James Langevin has changed the location of his town-hall meeting with constituents this week. It will be held at Warwick City Hall at same time as originally scheduled, 6 to 7 pm on Wednesday, August 19.

The Casual Assumption of Correctitude

By Justin Katz | August 17, 2009 |

There are surely practitioners of the stratagem on both political wings, and it’s the sort of ploy into which one can slip from time to time, but it seems to me that it is much more characteristic of liberals to weave rhetorical comforters that allow them to slip opinions through as objective fact. This, from…

The Road Not Mentioned

By Justin Katz | August 17, 2009 |

The scoffs that have been so prevalent in response to right-wing talk of “death panels” and such repeat a common liberal tactic of missing the point through deliberate myopia: “Why, this bill merely provides for consultations about end-of-life options, hardly a group of bureaucrats voting to pull the plug. As for rationing, show me one…

Status of the Public Option

By Carroll Andrew Morse | August 16, 2009 |

At the time of this posting, the Drudge Report is displaying a big red headline that reads…RETREAT: TEAM OBAMA DROPS ‘PUBLIC OPTION’…which links to an Associated Press story that opens by saying…President Barack Obama’s administration signaled on Sunday it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run health insurance as…