The Dominican Republic just had the opportunity to show its citizens and its neighbors in the region the beauty of democracy during its 2012 presidential election. In an election-heavy year across the globe, I have been monitoring those occurring in the Americas. Many Latin American elections end in allegations of voter fraud, corruption or foreign … Continue reading
Latest Entries
Aligning the Incentives of Patients and Insurers
A cause of increasing health care costs is the three-player game between patients, providers, and insurers. Patients interact with providers at the time of service, deciding which service to provide. Insurers interact with providers after the service has been performed to supply payment. Patients interact with insurers regularly to pay premiums. Thus, patients do not … Continue reading
Adverse Selection: The Next Generation
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
Electric Cars Are Saving the Environment…But Killing the Roads
Yesterday I attended a briefing on MAP-21, a bill addressing the issues facing the federally funded highway system put on by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), Independent Institute and Reason Foundation. The hot topic of the briefing was the gas tax, which according to Randal O’Toole and Gabriel Roth, bigwigs of the Cato Institute and … Continue reading
How much will the US-Mexico Relationship Change After July 1?
The Washington Post ran an article on May 14 by Nick Miroff and William Booth about Enrique Peña Nieto, the front-runner in Mexico’s upcoming presidential election. The article centers on the fact that few Mexican voters and political analysts on both sides of the US-Mexico border have much of a sense about the man known … Continue reading
Physician Owned Hospitals: Specialization Breeds Efficiency, Regulation Stifles Innovation
Physician owned hospitals (POHs) are an innovative solution to inefficient, clunky, expensive hospitals that plague the health care system today. The idea behind POHs is essentially the specialization argument: why not have people familiar with an industry manage the details of that industry? POHs are known for their top-notch quality and patient satisfaction, and they … Continue reading
The Gandalf-Yoda Problem: Afghanistan
If Gandalf told you to do X and Homer Simpson told you to do Y, you would likely do X. But what if Yoda agreed with Homer? What would you do? This is the situation we face with respect to Afghanistan. Hank Crumpton, a career CIA operations officer who led paramilitary teams in-country after September … Continue reading
Building Innovative Health Care
Last Wednesday I attended the Galen Institute’s 4th annual conference entitled, “The Value of Innovation in Health Care.” One of most striking messages I took away from the conference was that the past must be built upon, not rested on. The essence of innovation seems to be trying to improve the situation given to us … Continue reading
UNASUR Moving Forward with Its Integration Efforts
According to reports from a ceremony in Quito, Ecuador, the 12 countries that make up the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) are moving forward with their plans to create an alternative to the “Organization of American States and any other group lobbied from North America.” One of the main goals of UNASUR is to … Continue reading
Challenges Facing the ABC/Univision Hispanic Programming Venture
In Melissa Pitts’ recent Huffington Post article “Here Are Five Ways to Turn Off Latinos,” regarding the recently announced partnership between ABC News and Univision to create a news channel targeting Hispanics, the author outlines her thoughts on what would make for a successful English language television channel for Latinos. I believe her opinions are … Continue reading
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