Making Ideas
Change the World
Creating jobs, liberating taxpayers,
empowering patients, and more…
What We Have Accomplished
Turning Ideas
into Public Policy
Health Savings Accounts
Because of the idea of Health Savings Accounts, more than 30 million people are managing some of their own health care dollars in accounts they own and control.
401(k) Plans
Because of automatic enrollment in diversified portfolios, 16 million employees are enjoying higher and safer returns.
Social Security
Because of another idea, 78 million baby boomers are able to work beyond age 65 without losing Social Security benefits.
Roth IRAs
Because of the idea of Roth IRAs, $265 billion in savings has been taxed once and will never be taxed again.
Recent Commentaries
What’s New
Why Social Security Needs DOGE
If the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) can stop our Social Security system from sending checks to dead people, that would be a plus. Yet a far more important task is to stop the system from overpaying people who are very much alive. Last year the Social Security Administration admitted it had identified 2 million beneficiaries who have been overpaid and sent them “clawback” letters, demanding the government’s money back. Some of these claims go back several decades, and they can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. More
House Republicans Love HSAs
Industry experts believe that the House reconciliation bill would result in 20 million more Americans having a Health Savings Account. Among the changes, Bronze and catastrophic plans sold in the (Obamacare) exchanges would automatically qualify for HSAs. And people could use their HSA to pay the monthly premium of a direct primary care doctor of their choosing – providing 24/7 primary care.
However, John Goodman says that for the same CBO score, the Senate could make the bill much better. More.
What the GOP Should Be Doing About Medicaid
In his latest commentary at Forbes, John Goodman explains a huge, missed opportunity by House Republicans.
They should have focused on why Medicaid does such a poor job of meeting the needs of the enrollees. Then, they should have explored ways of making Medicaid better and reducing spending at the same time. This would have been a very positive message to voters.
Let’s hope this turns around in the Senate. More.
What Price for Drugs?
When was the last time you saw a news headline announcing that a cancer patient died because she couldn’t afford a drug that could have saved her life? I bet you haven’t. Why? Because it doesn’t happen. At least not in this country. President Trump doesn’t understand the market for drugs. He is not alone. Most people don’t understand it. Here is John Goodman’s contribution to clear thinking:
- In Part I, he asks readers to imagine a free market for drugs, in which drug manufacturers are given a patent for a certain length of time. The patent allows drug companies to charge a monopoly price. But by price discriminating, they insure that almost no one goes without a lifesaving drug.
- In Part II, he asks how free market health insurance would cover expensive drugs. People who are more risk averse would purchase “top up” plans to pay for drugs conventional insurance finds not cost effective.
- In Part III, he shows that both public insurance and unwisely-regulated private health insurance face perverse incentives to favor the healthy over the sick. Reforms are suggested.
Public Policy Research
Leveraging People,
Money and Ideas
Our Role in Tax Reform
Goodman Institute scholars Laurence Kotlikoff and Alan Auerbach were the intellectual source of the Ryan/Brady (“Better Way”) tax reform proposal. They are also the leading intellectual defenders of tax reform, drawing on the most sophisticated and accurate economic models that exist.
Our Role in Health Reform
We are witnessing a radical transformation of the U.S. health care system. Although health care is the most regulated market in our economy, we have recently witnessed massive deregulation — partly in response to the coronavirus threat. These changes were only possible because of three years of prior effort by the Trump administration. Many of the core ideas were pioneered by Goodman Institute health economists.
New Partnership: Health Care News
The Goodman Institute for Public Policy has agreed to partner with Heartland to ensure the newspaper’s survival going forward. This new partnership could not have come at a better time. Polls consistently show that healthcare is the number one issue with voters.
The Health Blog
For many years, our health care blog was the only free enterprise health policy blog on the internet. Then, when the NCPA closed its doors, the health blog stopped as well.
During this five-year hiatus no one else has come forward to claim the space. So, my colleagues and I have decided to restart the blog in connection with the Goodman Institute. We invite you and others to use this forum to share your views.
Debater Resources
Health Care Briefing With Newt Gingrich
Former Congresswoman Nan Hayworth, Newt Gingrich and I discuss healthcare in the next election and beyond. Newt and I have a mutual admiration society that goes back many years. Newt has always been an outlier among Republican politicians when it comes to the topic of health care – aggressively searching for solutions instead of avoiding the subject.
Sessions Health Care Bill:
- Creates a new optional federal health insurance tax credit that is generous, universal, portable, and the same amount for everyone regardless of income,
- Allows employers and their employees to maintain their current employer-provided health insurance tax status, if preferred,
- Creates a new “Roth” style Health Savings Account to pay for health care expenses,
- Allows employees to have a 24/7 direct primary care doctor of their choice.
- Permanently expands telehealth availability, and
- Promote price transparency and competition.
Our Scholars
Read the most recent commentaries available in the
nation’s most important news publications.
John Goodman
Larry Kotlikoff
Thomas Saving
Devon Herrick
Linda Gorman
All Experts
Testimonials
What They
Are Saying
Many years ago I read a book called Patient Power. It was… written by Musgrave and Goodman. John Goodman is… known as the Father of Health Savings Accounts.
They’ve developed innovative ideas on how to create a better health system, a less expensive health system, a health system with more access for well over two decades.
John Goodman is the leading expert on free market proposals for probably the most dysfunctional 1/6th of our economy that exists. He does a spectacular job.
Our Priorities
The Goodman Institute is doing work not done by any other organization – especially in the areas of tax, health care and entitlement policy. Without our work the nation might not have obtained tax reform. Now we need to defend it.
We work with the best scholars from around the country on the nation’s most difficult public policy problems. Our mission is to find private alternatives to government programs that aren’t working. Ideas have enormous potential to change the course of human events.
Tax
Reform
Health
Reform
Virtual
Think Tank
Our
History