The ongoing drama in South Florida surrounding the issuing of a visa to Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban dictator Raul Castro, may not be on the radar of most Americans, but to overlook its political ramifications in this must-win, critical swing state in an election year would be naive at best. The other day, a … Continue reading
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
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
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
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
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 (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
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
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
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
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