I had some fun back in April when I noted that politicians and staff on Capitol Hill were getting very agitated about having to be part of Obamacare. Well, it seems that the way the law applies to them is so costly that many of them are thinking about calling it…
Daily Analysis
A Rare – and Encouraging – Glimpse at How a Free Market Could Work in the Health Sector
I’ve complained ad nauseam about how government has screwed up the health sector, both because of spending programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and because of tax and regulatory distortions that have mutated the supposedly private insurance market into some bizarre…
Your Tax Dollars at Work: Medicare Financing Plastic Surgery
What’s the most absurd “health” expenditure by government? There are lots of potential responses, including $240 million for penis pumps. Or how about the fact that Obamacare allows taxpayer-subsidized viagra for sex offenders? But another potential answer is cosmetic…
Time to Say Something Nice about Obamacare
I’ve frequently argued that “third-party payer” is the main problem with the healthcare system. In simpler terms, this is the notion that a market won’t function very well if consumers think they’re spending someone else’s money. Why be a careful consumer, after all,…
Why We Should Be Optimistic about Repealing Obamacare and Fixing the Healthcare System
I’m going to make an assertion that seems utterly absurd. The enactment of Obamacare may have been good news. Before sending a team of medical attendants to cart me off to a sanitarium, allow me to elaborate. I’m not saying Obamacare is good policy. After all, I’ve…
The Sadistic Brutality of England’s Government-Run Healthcare
I’m not easily grossed out or nauseated. Heck, I’m on email lists for a half-dozen softball teams and you can only imagine the strange/filthy/nasty things that guys send to each other. But I read a story about the death panels in the United Kingdom that left me…
Must-Watch Video From Reason TV on How Free Markets – not Obamacare – Can Solve the Healthcare Mess
When I travel, particularly overseas, I run into a lot of people who are totally confused about the American healthcare system. For all intents and purposes, they think the United States relies on the free market and that government (at least in the pre-Obamacare era)…
Rewarding Hospitals to Let Old People Die? That’s the Wrong Way to Cut Government Spending
I used to think I was in favor of every possible step to reduce the burden of government spending. Are agricultural subsidies wasteful and corrupt? Yes, so get rid of the Department of Agriculture. Is Medicaid spending out of control? Yes, so cap outlay growth and…
The Deadly Impact of Government-Run Healthcare in the United Kingdom
I’m not a fan of the American healthcare system. It suffers from huge inefficiencies because of problems such as third-party payer, which is caused by government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid along with a system of tax code-driven over-insurance in the…
The Federalism Solution to the Medicaid Nightmare
This election season has seen lots of talk (and demagoguery) about whether investors, entrepreneurs, and small business owners should be hit with class-warfare tax policy. And there’s also been lots of debate about the best way of averting bankruptcy for Medicare,…