Health

Against Medicaid Expansion

Against Medicaid Expansion

Expanding Medicaid to the relatively healthy might make sense if it improved general health. But there is little evidence it does. In Oregon, for example, a first-of-its-kind controlled trial tracked individuals who applied for Medicaid through a lottery. After two years, there was no discernible difference in the physical health of the winners and losers. More

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Liberating the Doctors

Liberating the Doctors

For the past half century, virtually every major attempt to reform the health care system has involved people who don’t practice medicine telling the doctors who do practice medicine how to manage their affairs. Yet none of these solutions appears to work. Costs keep rising. Quality of care is not measurably improving. And, access to care (as measured, say, by per-capita doctor visits or the length of time needed to see a doctor) seems to be getting worse. So why not try something different? Why not allow the folks who practice medicine and who are in the best position to eliminate waste, improve quality and expand access to care to solve the very problems no one else seems able to solve? More

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Why Are There Drug Shortages?

Why Are There Drug Shortages?

For the past two decades the US has been experiencing shortages of cancer drugs, antibiotics and even saline, a drug potentially needed by almost every patient who gets admitted to the hospital. Nearly all thirty of the most frequently used emergency department drugs experienced shortages from 2006-2019.

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A Health Reform Whose Time Has Come

A Health Reform Whose Time Has Come

The basic idea: take all the spending and tax subsidies we now provide to private health insurance and use that money to give every American not on a government health plan a refundable tax credit. This money could be used to purchase health insurance and make deposits to Health Savings Accounts, from which people could purchase health services directly. Rep. Pete Sessions has a bill that would do just that. More

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