The future of health care in America is threatened by the trend of steadily increasing health spending. Costs in the health care market have increased at about double the rate of inflation for decades. If the trend continues, individuals and employers will struggle to afford coverage and Medicare and Medicaid will face fiscal unsustainability. There … Continue reading →

Here’s a riddle: Why does Burger King always build a new restaurant right across the street from a McDonalds? Anyone who drives past that particular street corner craving a cheeseburger can only choose to eat at one or the other. At first glance it seems like Burger King will only attract half the customers, sell … Continue reading →

A recently produced New York Times video documented the alarming day-to-day operations of an inner-city Oakland hospital emergency room. The un-narrated short film is a montage of clips of patients waiting in long lines to receive care and hospital employees juggling patients from bed to bed and directing ambulance and waiting room traffic. This hospital … Continue reading →

Two recent headlines have created a political stir in the Republican party that has left more than the average voter scratching his head. The first was that the American Legislative Exchange Council and the CATO institute are actively discouraging republican state legislators from implementing health insurance exchanges as required by Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA). The … Continue reading →

Although  a “death spiral” sounds more like the subject of a Star Trek episode than a description of an insurance market, several states in the past 20 years have experienced catastrophic collapses of their health insurance markets that would have left Captain Kirk reeling. A report issued earlier this year by America’s Health Insurance Plans … Continue reading →