Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
The good folks at the Kaiser Family Foundation have put together a really useful tool to compare all the Presidential candidates’ health care platform planks.
You can slice, dice, and choose which candidates you want to compare. And yes, it even includes Tom Tancredo and Mike Gravel. It includes details on cost, coverage, role of public v private insurance, tax implications, mandates…the works.
And primary source links are provided too. This is really great work.
On a family vacation in Colorado for the week, and assiduously avoiding anything remotely resembling work. See you next week.
The Democratic Presidential debate in New Hampshire earlier this week highlighted a bit of confusion about how many people in the US do not have health insurance.
The answer is 44.8 million, including 8 million kids. Read on for the details…
Some well-intentioned but really misguided legislators in California are proposing to force insurance companies to get regulatory approval before raising rates, copays, or deductibles.
Now that is one really bad idea, an idea that likely never would have come up if not for some really bad decisions by insurers.
If only it were that easy. I’m talking about the legislation proposed in Michigan to allow motorcyclists to ride without helmets. If they are dumb enough to do that, fine. Except we end up paying their health care bills, which is most definitely not fine.
When it is spending by the other party. Bob Laszewski points out the hypocrisy of Pres. Bush’s latest rant about the Democratic budget bill’s “excessive” discretionary spending.
Bob notes that Bush’s opposition to entitlement spending is a rather new thing, as he was not opposed to passing the Medicare Part D bill, one that saddled taxpayers with an $8 trillion debt.
Bob Laszewski brings his own expertise in the health policy world to bear on this edition of HWR. It’s heavy on policy and research, all of it solid and some of it surprising.
I’ve been engaged in a rather acrimonious email exchange with a gentleman who was upset that I edited one of his comments. To clarify, here is the comment policy for MCM (and the idea that I actually need to have a “policy” makes me crazy).
More evidence is emerging about the rather minimal impact medical malpractice has on medical costs.
In a move designed to reassert control over the mechanisms of government, Pres. Bush recently signed an executive order requiring all regulatory directives be approved by political appointees. (registration required)
This will have a significant impact on occupational health initiatives, regulations, and enforcement.