HR 3962: Will health care bill criminalizes affordable insurance

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Dr. Paul Hsieh has a great article in the Washington Examiner about HR 3962 and mandatory health insurance. It begins: Suppose the mafia came to your town and forced everyone to purchase all their meals at mob-approved restaurants. The mafia would also select the menu items. If you liked broccoli but their ...

Health care bill: fewer insured, higher premiums

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Obama Care - more uninsured, higher premiums, writes economist Martin Feldstein in the Washington Post: A key feature of the House and Senate health bills would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to anyone with preexisting conditions. The new coverage would start immediately, and the premium could not reflect the individual's ...

Bizarro Health Care ‘Reform’: Expect Less, Pay More

Friday, November 6th, 2009

Pajamas Media was kind enough to publish my article about the Democrats' "Bizarro" health care reform. Here's the first few paragraphs: Expect less, pay more. It’s not the slogan for some “Bizarro World” Target store in a comic book; it’s an accurate slogan for congressional Democrats’ health care “reform” proposals. They ...

Mandatory insurance: higher costs, less care, rights violations, & rationing

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

So explains Paul Hsieh MD in "ObamaCare: A National Version of RomneyCare" Massachusetts’ system of mandatory insurance drives up costs and violate individual rights “Coverage” is not the same as actual medical care The Massachusetts plan will end in rationing.

Feds bail out Massachusetts, but who bails out feds?

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Writes Grace-Marie Turner in the Wall Street Journal: Massachusetts is a problematic model on which to base federal health-care reform because the state relies heavily on Medicaid. Washington in 2008 agreed to provide the state with $10.6 billion over three years as part of its Medicaid waiver request, which allows the ...

Massachusetts: Your insurance is illegal!

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Here is yet another example of how mandatory insurance can make your insurance policy illegal. Writes Wendy Williams in the Wall Street Journal: ...Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this year, without informing us directly, the state had changed the rules in a way that made our bare-bones ...

Taking Another Look at Swiss Health Care

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

The Swiss health care system [gated, but with abstract] has attracted interest from many conservatives because insurance there is mainly private, long-term, and personal and portable. By some estimates it also is the most egalitarian health system in the world. What is less well understood is that when the Swiss ...

Massachusetts health care: long waits, poor access

Monday, October 5th, 2009

"The percentage of primary care practices closed to new patients is the highest it’s ever been as recorded by the Medical Society."  -- Massachusetts Medical Society Is this what we should expect if insurance is mandatory across the United States? More from study linked above: Primary Care: Long waits, ...

Mandatory insurance: wrong for America

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Paul Hsieh, M.D. has an excellent op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor about the harms of mandatory insurance. It begins: In his recent speech to Congress, President Obama could have promoted healthcare reforms that tapped the power of a truly free market to lower costs and improve access. Instead, he chose ...

Mandatory insurance is a tax

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Some links to good articles on this: Sorry, O: It Is a Tax, Michael Tanner, Cato Health 'Reform' Is Income Redistribution, Michael Leavitt, Al Hubbard and Keith Hennessey, Wall Street Journal (via FIRM) Nobody Considers Health Insurance Mandates a Tax? Really??, Michael Cannon. ... Except for Obama’s National Economic Council chair, Obama’s appointee ...