It is amazing what the Obama administration and its Department of Health and Human Services are willing to do to avoid dealing with the politically difficult areas of America’s health needs. The Affordable Care Act is rightfully impugned for extending health coverage without any reasonable means to keep premiums down, keep quality up, or keep … Continue reading
Latest Entries
Slowly but Surely, or Fast and Furiously? A crossroads for House Republicans and the DOJ…
“Fast and Furious? You mean those terrible Vin Diesel movies, right?” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten this response from friends and family as I grumble on about bureaucratic incompetence and negligent homicide. Frustrating, yes, but I usually just chuckle and think sarcastically to myself “Oh wait, that’s right…you’re not supposed to … Continue reading
How Government Money Can Do A Lot More Good Than Solyndra
What do the Boeing 707, the internet and nuclear fission all have in common? They are some of the triumphs of government-funded research. Public-private partnerships have led to breakthroughs across America’s wide range of industries and maintained our lead in several key fields including medicine, aerospace and computer technology. Despite past success in innovation, we … Continue reading
Regulate First, Find [No] Evidence Later
Al Armendariz, the EPA regional director for Texas and the surrounding states, resigned last month after a video surfaced of his proclamation to “crucify” businesses. Mr. Armendariz was caught on video stating, as he described it, a “crude analogy” to his philosophy of enforcement. “It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, … Continue reading
For Hispanic-Americans, Education a Top Priority
Recent reports suggest that Hispanic-Americans, in contrast to Non-Hispanics, list education as a major policy concern when ranking the issues. Right behind jobs and the economy, most Hispanic-Americans indicate that they are concerned about the state and quality of their children’s education. This should not be surprising, as various studies illustrate that a rather large … Continue reading
America / Culture / Foreign Policy / Politics
Not for the Faint of Heart: Wading into the Politics of Cuban Exile Florida
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
Latin American Elections or South Eastern Conference Football?
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
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
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