(Originally posted on John Goodman's Health Policy Blog)
Although Canadian health care is supposedly free, each year thousands of Canadians come to the United States instead. Many have spent so long waiting for care in Canada that they will pay out of pocket for US care in order to escape suffering ...
The following video is based on a new novel called Universal Coverage, by Daniel Putkowski. That is, it's not real. However, medical tourism on a cruise ship is an interesting possible consequence of increased government control over our medical care and insurance. It's sort of the medical version of Seasteading, ...
You often hear animosity for insurance companies from the Left. That is, those who want more government control of medical insurance. Yet, those who want less government should advocate repealing laws that coddle insurance companies at the expense of patients. As I wrote last week, insurance companies could gain so ...
Cato's Michael Tanner summarizes why the proposed "public health plan" would drive commercial insurers out of business:
A government-run plan would have an inherent advantage in the marketplace, because it ultimately would be subsidized by taxpayers. The government plan could keep its premiums artificially low or offer extra benefits, because it ...
Insurance companies are unpopular, so they don't get much sympathy when arguing that the "public option" is unfair competition. The insurance industry should come clean by admitting how much the tax exemption for employer-provided insurance coddles them, which gives them an unfair competitive advantage. It shields insurance companies from competition ...
Cato Institute scholars pick apart the President's claims from the June 24 ABC news show, "Questions for the President: Prescription for America."
For more, see healthcare.cato.org.
[Via John LaPlante]
Some great points by John Steele Gordon in the Wall Street Journal:
The Obama administration is bent on becoming a major player in -- if not taking over entirely -- America's health-care, automobile and banking industries. Before that happens, it might be a good idea to look at the government's track ...
According to the USA Today, president Obama said the government-run & tax-subsidized "public health insurance option" would "keep insurance companies honest." He's not talking about fraud and current laws against it. The idea here, I suppose, is that competition would keep insurance companies honest, as people could opt for ...
This is a title of an excellent essay by Jared Rhodes about how people think it's OK for a government-run insurance plan to compete with commercial insurers. An excerpt:
Private insurers compete with each other to provide the best product they can on the market. Their costs are based on the ...
Some welcome price competition. From the Wall Street Journal blog:
Peggy Starr, a customer services agent for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, saved thousands of dollars on her heart surgery by getting on a plane. The Nevada native didn’t need to go overseas for surgery; instead, her employer flew her to Texas. ...
