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Category Archives: Reform BS

DR. OBAMA’S MODERNIZATION CURE

Today promises much toil for a blogger dedicated to cleaning the Augean Stables of the health care reform dabate. I guess a good place to begin shoveling is the steaming pile of BS deposited by David Cutler and Brad DeLong in the WSJ.
An important part of their argument for the superiority of Barack Obama’s health care plan involves the claim that Obama will cure U.S. […]

Posted 16 September 2008 † Catron § IT BS § Obama BS ‡ Comments (2)

KEVIN CALLS THE CANDIDATES OUT

Kevin, MD has written an open letter to John McCain and Barack Obama challenging them on the primary care crisis. He correctly points out that neither has a plan to deal with the problem:
I do not hear any solutions addressing this issue on the campaign trail. No suggestions to, i) reform the dysfunctional physician payment system which […]

Posted 10 September 2008 † Catron § McCain BS § Obama BS § Physician BS ‡ Comments (4)

CON LAWS & PROGRESSIVE DEBATE TACTICS

Joe Paduda took umbrage with my recent AmSpec article about Alaska’s CON law and sent a letter to the editor. Joe’s missive (several letters down under the title “BAD CON-NOTATIONS) is a comical mixture of irrelevancies and Lefty talking points.
My full response follows Paduda’s observations at the AmSpec web site, but I wanted to highlight one portion of the letter here at HCBS […]

Posted 10 September 2008 † Catron § Progressive BS ‡ Comments (2)

NO INEQUALITY IN U.S. HEALTH SPENDING

That’s right. Progressive tut-tutting about “health care disparities” notwithstanding, it turns out that we spend almost exactly the same amount of money on health care for the poor as we do for the rich. Robert Samuelson reports the following in Newsweek: 
On average, annual health spending per person—from all private and government sources—is equal for the poorest […]

Posted 07 September 2008 † Catron § Statistical BS § Uninsured BS ‡ Comments (1)

MORE ON GOV. PALIN’S HEALTH CARE RECORD

It would appear that some of the media are paying a price for their outrageous treatment of Sarah Palin and her family.  Their continuing loss of viewers and readers is richly deserved.
Meanwhile, for people interested in her actual record, I’ve done a piece on Governor Palin’s effort to repeal Alaska’s burdensome and counterproductive CON statute for […]

Posted 05 September 2008 † Catron § ‡ Comments (3)

MCCAIN’S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH: HEALTH CARE

Because a nomination acceptance speech requires a candidate to cover so much policy ground in a short space of time, McCain didn’t dwell on health care last night. Nonetheless, he laid out the McCain/Obama choice pretty clearly:
My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance. His plan will […]

Posted 05 September 2008 † Catron § McCain BS § Obama BS ‡ Comments (0)

KRUGMAN, GOODMAN & THE UNINSURED

As I have noted before, I have a rule of thumb that has served me well in assessing public figures and policy ideas: Anyone or anything Paul Krugman dislikes can’t be all bad.
So, when I saw that Krugman had trashed John Goodman about a (somewhat) tongue-in-cheek post he had written about abolishing the term “uninsured,” I knew Goodman must have made […]

Posted 02 September 2008 † Catron § Journalistic BS § Statistical BS ‡ Comments (13)

MEDICARE-FOR-ALL: STILL A BAD IDEA

I’m continually amazed by the inability of “progressive” health care reformers to learn from experience. The latest example of this phenomenon can be found at the Health Affairs Blog:
Medicare-for-All is the most practical reform option. It would greatly reduce non-benefit outlays …
What BS! Even if we accept (for the sake of argument) the myth of Medicare’s lower admin costs, […]

Posted 31 August 2008 † Catron § Medicare BS ‡ Comments (2)

SARAH PALIN IS SOLID ON HEALTH CARE

I think John McCain has hit the ball out of the park with his VP choice.
Among the many assets the Alaska governor brings to the Republican ticket is a bias in favor of free market health care reform. Here’s a quote that captures her general position:
I support flexibility in government regulations that allow competition in health care that is needed, and […]

Posted 29 August 2008 † Catron § McCain BS § Political BS ‡ Comments (7)

UNINSURED DIP MEANS WE NEED MORE GOV’T?

According to the Census Bureau, the number of uninsured Americans declined significantly in 2007. As David Hogberg reports in Investor’s Business Daily:
The number of uninsured fell to 45.7 million last year from 47 million in 2006, largely due to expanded government coverage. That’s 15.3% of the population, down from 15.8%.
But the advocates of government-run health care […]

Posted 27 August 2008 † Catron § Uninsured BS ‡ Comments (7)