The Heartland Institute

A revolution is underway in American health care, but you won t read about it in newspapers or see it on TV. The revolution involves a growing number of Americans who are reclaiming their right to buy health care goods and services that they decide are beneficial. They are shrugging off the heavy hand of regulation by Washington ...

With President Barack Obama and the Congressional Democrats twisting themselves like pretzels to get something -- anything -- passed on health reform with no Republican support, it's instructive to review what might have been. During the campaign, Obama promised to work in a bipartisan fashion to solve problems. He told one interviewer ...

With President Barack Obama and the Congressional Democrats twisting themselves like pretzels to get something anything passed on health reform with no Republican support, it s instructive to review what might have been. During the campaign Obama promised to work in a bipartisan fashion to solve problems. He told one interviewer ...

The lust to score a political win on health care is making Tiger Woods look like a saint. Congressional Democrats are willing to throw all common sense overboard in their frenzy for a conquest. Of all the desperate ideas in the current health care proposals before Congress, the absolute worst is the " Medicare buy-in" slipped ...

Hoo, boy. Every day brings more surprises. Reading the House bill I came across a peculiar provision I haven't seen mentioned anywhere. As part of Title II, Subtitle C, " Standards Guaranteeing Access to Essential Benefits" there is this:" In establishing cost-sharing levels for basic, enhanced, and premium plans under this subsection ...

With every iteration the health care " reform" proposals in Congress get worse. The Wall Street Journal calls the current Pelosi proposal the " worst bill ever." That's pretty accurate. There never has been a piece of legislation introduced in the United States Congress that is more intrusive on the lives of each and every American ...

FOR THE PAST YEAR key special-interest groups in Washington have been trying to cooperate with health-reform proposals. Their strategy has been to get a seat at the table so they wouldn t be on the menu, and so they could protect their privileged positions in health care. It amounted to a powerful coalition in support of ...

Making a rare appearance on a policy issue, first lady Michelle Obama weighed in on health care the other day. She said she viewed health reform as a women s rights issue, saying the status quo is just unacceptable. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made a similar pitch, arguing that health insurance discriminates against women ...

The President's speech to a joint session of Congress failed to move the health reform ball closer to the goalposts. Instead of bringing much-needed clarity to the issues, it was yet another laundry list of platitudes and generalities, just a listing of the provisions already in the bills in Congress. This is exactly what ...

The biggest news of the week was without doubt the march on Washington on Saturday. Heartland's John O'Hara was one of the speakers and I was in the crowd. Our write-ups and some pictures I took are available at the Heartland Institute Web site. There is something profound going on in the country. Several people have called ...

When you boil off all the frothy rhetoric, what health reform is really all about is a power grab. It is 16 percent of the national economy and $2.7 trillion in annual spending. It is the biggest opportunity politicians and their cronies have ever seen for enriching themselves. For a sneak peak at what lies ahead, look ...

As virtually everybody in America now knows, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin recently posted the following on her FaceBook page:" The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective ...

Having been in health care policy for a very long time, I have read literally hundreds of six-point plans, eight-point plans, and 10-point plans all developed by very sincere and earnest people who think if only the world would do as they say, it would be a better place. No doubt they are right. If only the world would ...

One of the most interesting aspects of the current health reform debate has been the bumbling role of the special interests. The major Washington trade associations all are torn between cutting the best deal they can while hoping to maintain some degree of independence from regulations, taxes and mandates. They need to placate ...

It is remarkable in the debate over health care reform how policymakers are ignoring the one thing that has been proven to work: consumer-driven health care. President Barack Obama keeps repeating that we must lower health care costs, and budget director Peter Orszag argues we can save $700 billion a year by cutting out unnecessary ...

As part of the federal government s economic stimulus package, Congress has authorized spending about $20 billion on health information technology (health IT) and another $1 billion on comparative effectiveness research. These provisions achieved wide bipartisan support in Congress and in the health care industry, based on the hope ...

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence, clamorous to be led to safety--by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. --H. L. Mencken The headlines are alarming! 98,000 Deaths from Medical Errors Each Year Key Findings from the Institute of Medicine ...

We lost a giant this week. J. Patrick Rooney passed away on September 15 in Indianapolis. More than anyone else, Mr. Rooney was responsible for moving the political agenda in favor of consumer-driven health care, first by working with Andy Jacobs (D-IN), chairman of the Health Subcommittee on Ways and Means, and then with ...

The latest fad among Republicans is enforcing personal responsibility by requiring individuals to buy health insurance. It was enshrined in the recent Massachusetts health reform law, proudly signed by Gov. Mitt Romney and endorsed by a number of conservative, and even libertarian, organizations. Sounds like a good solution ...

Massachusetts is being celebrated in the press and in some health policy circles for being the first state to pass a law requiring all of its citizens to have health insurance coverage. However, this mandate will likely be more hype than help. The real impact of the Massachusetts law will be a major expansion of costly ...