The conceit of Obama’s insurance price controls

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

President Obama has wants empower the federal government to forbid insurers from increasing their premiums more than the authorities allow.  Two reactions to this part of the president's health care proposal: Don Boudreaux, Cafe Hayek on price controls: What cool adventures await us if Mr. Obama succeeds in giving Uncle ...

Joe Lieberman on the public health plan

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

"It doesn't help one poor person get insurance who doesn't have it now. It doesn't compel one insurance company to provide insurance to somebody who has an illness.  And . . . it doesn't do anything to reduce the cost of insurance." -- Joe Lieberman, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5 ...

Harvard Medical School Dean: Health “reform” a failure

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Some choice words from Jeffrey S. Flier, Dean of Harvard's Medical School.  Some excerpts from his Wall Street Journal article: Our health-care system suffers from problems of cost, access and quality, and needs major reform. Tax policy drives employment-based insurance; this begets overinsurance and drives costs upward while creating inequities for ...

Obama vs. his economic advisors, Part II

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

In a previous post I discussed how Obama's advisor Jason Furman is critical of employer-sponsored insurance, even though Obama wants to "strengthen it."   In this Cato Institute podcast Michael Cannon talks about how other advisors have been critical of Obama's health care policy proposals. For example, Larry Summers will be head ...

Obama vs. his economic advisors, Part I

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Barack Obama says his health care reform "strengthens employer–based coverage."  But the government's favoring employer-based coverage has had terrible consequences.  Just ask Jason Furman, one of Obama's economic advisors.  In an article published in Health Affairs he wrote: The tax exclusion effectively reduces the price of employer-sponsored insurance relative to insurance ...