Healthcare

Redefining Corporate Welfare

By Marc Comtois | January 25, 2008 |

Ian Donnis points to a “strong post” (alluded to earlier) which illustrates how approximately $11.2 million of taxpayer dollars are going to government supplied health care for workers who don’t get health care through their jobs. Where is that money going, you might ask…. It is going to Bank of America, and their 382 employees…

Willful Naivete on Healthcare

By Justin Katz | January 15, 2008 |

Although I’m fully sympathetic with the inclination to ignore complications, I find it hard to believe that syndicated columnist Froma Harrop hasn’t heard the basic argument against the following assumption, spoken this time with reference to health insurance (emphasis added): You see, health care has become just another racket by which clever operators can scoop…

Alzheimer’s Research Breakthrough and the RI Economy

By Marc Comtois | January 10, 2008 |

Take this with a grain of salt–it’s early research after all–but there may have been a substantial breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research: A drug used for arthritis can reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s “in minutes”. It appears to tackle one of the main features of the disease – inflammation in the brain. The drug, called Enbrel,…

RE: Rhode Island’s Literal Depressed Status

By Marc Comtois | November 30, 2007 |

There may be a reason the state as a whole is so depressed: not enough Republicans! Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats or independents to rate their mental health as excellent, according to data from the last four November Gallup Health and Healthcare polls. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, compared…

Rhode Island’s Literal Depressed Status

By Carroll Andrew Morse | November 30, 2007 |

The number and kinds of lists that Rhode Island is placing near the bottom of is starting to get just plain ridiculous. Here is yet another one from an organization called Mental Health America…Using data from nationally representative surveys conducted by the United States government, Mental Health America created two different rankings of the states:…

A Note for Our Dialogue

By Justin Katz | November 4, 2007 |

Well, if we’re all going to sit around the table and resolve the healthcare crisis in Rhode Island, as Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts wishes, I’d like to make sure that this sort of testimony doesn’t slip out of sight onto the floor: Unfortunately Sicko is a dishonest film. That is not only my opinion. It…

Making It Your Job to Stay Healthy

By Justin Katz | October 29, 2007 |

The economics of changing insurance rates based on demonstration of a healthy lifestyle are simply to understand. Still, do we really wish to make it the responsibility of employers to enforce those lifestyles? [State Health Insurance Commissioner Christopher F.] Koller explained that HEALTHpact was created, at the direction of Governor Carcieri and the General Assembly,…

Roland Benjamin: The Problems with Medicare-for-All

By Engaged Citizen | October 25, 2007 |

Hyperbole aside, Robert Whitcomb’s Projo op-ed from October 19 can be summarized by his one statement:In short, extend Medicare to everyone.He proceeds to use exaggerated estimations of private insurance overhead costs and completes his argument by saying:Then we would not have to hang our heads in shame that Americans are the most unhealthy people of…

Behold the People’s Glorious Five Year Plan

By Carroll Andrew Morse | October 22, 2007 |

I wonder, when Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts proposes a five-year plan for healthcare reform, followed by Projo columnist Charles Bakst writing approvingly of it…It was a pleasure to hear Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts deliver a thoughtful speech Tuesday calling for a program of compulsory, affordable health insurance for Rhode Islanders…. “Where is the vision? Rather…

Just One Thing, Mr. Whitcomb

By Justin Katz | October 19, 2007 |

In a signed editorial that doesn’t appear to be online, Providence Journal Editorial Pages Editor Robert Whitcomb suggests that the simple solution to America’s healthcare problem is to expand Medicare to encompass everybody: The Republicans will do anything but go to thye simplest, most cost-effective reform — putting everyone into Medicare. The latter’s overhead: 2…