The Heartland Institute

California Gov. Jerry Brown is seeking to revise Proposition 65, formally titled The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, to reduce instances of lawyers filing frivolous lawsuits under the Act for the purpose of monetary gain. Multiple Reforms Proposed The goal of Prop. 65 was to protect drinking water sources ...

Beginning in 2014, the effects of a new Health Insurance Tax under President Obama’s health care law could result in the loss of jobs and employer-provided health insurance for many employees in small businesses above the fifty employee threshold. HIT is a federal tax on health insurance firms based on the policies they sell ...

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy signed legislation allowing large-scale hydroelectric power to qualify under the Constitution State’s renewable power mandate. Both houses of Connecticut’s Democrat-dominated state legislature passed the legislation by comfortable margins before sending the legislation to Malloy. Democratic Governor Led the ...

Republican legislators in Texas pushed for the expansion of Medicaid under President Obama’s health care law, despite the opposition of Republican Governor Rick Perry. But their attempts to expand the state’s Medicaid system were defeated before the conclusion of the legislative session. Rep. John Zerwas (R-Richmond) failed to ...

A new insurance entity created under the auspices of President Obama’s health care law may have been allocated millions of taxpayer dollars it was not qualified to receive. At issue is the New York-based Freelancers Insurance Company (FIC), a company founded by a former associate of Obama, which received a $340 million federal ...

The Obama administration has announced a delay in implementing the insurance exchange designed for small businesses and their employees. The one-year delay in starting the new insurance marketplace specifically for small businesses means employers in many states will not be able to provide workers with a choice of health plans ...

As anti-chemical activists attempt to ban the safe but controversial chemical Bisphenol A from plastic products, a new study claims the most viable replacement chemical presents greater human health concerns than the exhaustively tested Bisphenol A. Studies Show BPA Is Safe Anti-chemical activists claim Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical ...

As a possible preview of what awaits us in the United States under President Obama’s health care law, Great Britain’s government-run health care system, the National Health Service, is slashing nearly $4.5 billion from its budget by eliminating appointments with a doctor and instead treating patients via computer. In addition ...

Montana Sen. Jim Keane (D-Butte) has filed legislation to define hydropower as a renewable power source for meeting Montana’s renewable power mandates. Keane’s bill follows similar legislation approved by the legislature in 2011 but vetoed by Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D). Bipartisan Support The Montana Senate approved Keane’s bill, SB ...

During the 2012 legislative session, Massachusetts passed its third law to address health care spending since the state’s landmark health insurance coverage reforms in 2006. The inability to curb the rising costs of insurance premiums and health care in the state whose system most resembles President Obama’s law could serve as ...

A new card program which combines the benefits of health savings accounts with health-focused incentives could provide consumers with new benefits for healthier living. In January, Medagate and MasterCard launched their new dual payment health incentives card, the first to combine a member account with a rules-based incentive rewards ...

As President Obama’s health care law goes into effect, restaurants across the country are preparing for the new expense of meeting informational requirements under the law which are likely to prove costly without any certainty of health benefits. Section 4205 of Obama’s law requires restaurants and similar retail food establishments ...

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe has embarked on an effort to reform the way his state pays for health care through a new initiative intended to rein in runaway costs by rewarding doctors with financial incentives to provide more efficient care. But in order to get there, his approach may incentivize rationing of health care. In ...

In a rare display of unified action among global science groups, six French science academies slammed a study by an anti-biotechnology activist claiming a link between genetically modified corn and tumors. The European Food Safety Authority and science groups in Germany, Australia, and New Zealand presented similar criticism of ...

Environmentalists are joining forces to oppose a planned wind farm in southern Wyoming that is planned include up to 1,000 large wind turbines. U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officials estimate the wind turbines will kill between 46 and 64 golden eagles each year, plus a larger number of bats and other birds. The American ...

In a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Texas Gov. Rick Perry confirmed his state has no intention of implementing an insurance exchange or expanding Medicaid, despite the reelection of President Obama. Echoing an earlier letter written in July, in his November letter Perry, a Republican, noted ...

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has amended his state’s lawsuit against President Obama’s health care law to address a legal problem with the Internal Revenue Service’s distribution of insurance exchange subsidies—an issue which could effectively bar implementation of the law in certain states. Pruitt’s new challenge focuses ...

President Obama’s health care law requires that the administration define essential health benefits for the nation, a task which federal and state officials have found more challenging than expected. As of October 2012, only eleven states have settled on essential health care benefits packages or are close to doing so, while ...

The Obama administration maintains that pushing hospitals and physicians to adopt electronic medical records will improve efficiency, increase patient safety, and reduce health care costs. But as more providers transition to EMRs, there has been an unexpected consequence: Billions of dollars in higher costs for Medicare, private ...

Even if you’ve been the nation’s leading job-creating state for the past four years, President Obama’s health care law is going to have an effect. Texas small businesses expect Obama’s law to impact them in a profoundly negative way. According to calculations by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), there will ...