Galen Institute

New data show that health spending over the past several years has been normalizing toward the rate of general inflation, rather than growing higher and higher, as had been the case almost continuously since the 1970s. This moderation in the growth rate of spending predates the national recession. And it puts the lie to the claim that we need government to put the brakes on an "out-of-control" … [Read more...] about J.D. Kleinke in The Wall Street Journal: The Myth of Runaway Health Spending

Today, Sens. Burr and Coburn have put forth a new Medicare reform proposal, the Seniors’ Choice Act, which combines the ideas behind the best two bipartisan plans that came out last year. If Wyden-Ryan and Lieberman-Coburn got together to do what many people did on Valentine’s Day, Burr-Coburn would be the result. Continue reading on Forbes... … [Read more...] about Avik Roy in Forbes: Burr-Coburn: The Best Medicare Reform Proposal Yet

This study from the RAND Corporation finds that the elimination of the individual mandate leads to a 12.5-million–person reduction in the number of newly insured individuals and increases government spending per newly insured individual by a factor of more than two. While we ind that average exchange premiums increase by approximately 9.3 percent when the individual mandate is eliminated, this … [Read more...] about RAND Corporation: The Effect of the Affordable Care Act on Enrollment and Premiums, With and Without the Individual Mandate

Offended by President Obama's decision to force health insurers to pay for contraception and surgical sterilization? It gets worse: In the future, thanks to ObamaCare, the government will issue such health edicts on a routine basis—and largely insulated from public view. This goes beyond contraception to cancer screenings, the use of common drugs like aspirin, and much more. Under ObamaCare, a … [Read more...] about Scott Gottlieb in The Wall Street Journal: Meet the ObamaCare Mandate Committee

Give him points for cleverness. President Obama’s birth control “accommodation” was as politically successful as it was morally meaningless. It was nothing but an accounting trick that still forces Catholic (and other religious) institutions to provide medical insurance that guarantees free birth control, tubal ligation and morning-after abortifacients — all of whichviolate church doctrine on the … [Read more...] about Charles Krauthammer: Overreach: Obamacare vs. the Constitution

Senators Richard Burr (R–NC) and Tom Coburn (R–OK) have just unveiled a bold Medicare reform proposalbased on the free-market forces of choice and competition. The Senators’ proposal adds further momentum to the effort to reform and improve America’s largest and most challenging entitlement program. The Burr–Coburn proposal is a welcome addition to the emerging consensus on Medicare reform. Baby … [Read more...] about Bob Moffit on The Foundry: Building a Better Medicare Program: The Burr–Coburn Proposal

In 2010, Congress passed a tax on medical devices to offset a portion of the $1 trillion cost of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act(ACA). Beginning in 2013, a 2.3 percent tax will be imposed on the manufacture and importation of medical devices. Devices typically sold by retailers to consumers — including toothbrushes and bandages — are exempt from the tax, whereas devices purchased … [Read more...] about Devon Herrick: The Job-Killing Medical Device Tax