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We are extremely sad to learn of the death of our valued colleague Johnny Munkhammar, a member of the Swedish parliament who was a wonderful friend of freedom and free markets. Johnny had a rare form of cancer that he had been battling for several years.  He died on Monday just short of his 38th birthday.  We grieve for his dear wife and two young daughters, ages 3 and 6. He was a shining star … [Read more...] about Rest in Peace

Governor Mitt Romney’s selection of Representative Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate is revealing on a couple of levels. First, it shows that Governor Romney has a keen eye for talent (which probably explains his success as a CEO). Representative Ryan has become an intellectual leader, perhaps the intellectual leader, of the House GOP, and that didn’t just happen by accident. He … [Read more...] about Jim Capretta: President Obama’s $700 Billion Medicare Problem

With one to two weeks left before most schools begin their fall semester, there’s still time left to squeeze in a bit more summer reading. So if healthcare policy is your idea of a beach read, grab a copy of Why Obamacare is Wrong for America. Authored by former OMB associate director Jim Capretta, American Enterprise Institute resident fellow Tom Miller, Heritage Foundation senior fellow Bob … [Read more...] about How the Affordable Care Act Reduces Our Liberty

In July 2010, at National Review Online’s Critical Condition blog, I wrote about a University of Virginia study, published in Annals of Surgery, finding that surgical patients on Medicaid endured a 97 percent higher likelihood of in-hospital death than patients with private insurance, and a 13 percent greater chance of death than those with no insurance at all. I noted several other clinical … [Read more...] about Avik Roy: Medicaid, America’s Worst Health-Care Program

Massachusetts’ health care reform substantially decreased the percentage of uninsured residents. However, less is known about how reform affected access to care, especially according to insurance type. Patients with Commonwealth Care and Medicaid, the two forms of insurance most often newly-acquired under the reform, reported similar or higher utilization of and access to outpatient visits … [Read more...] about JGIM: Access to Care After Massachusetts’ Health Care Reform: A Safety Net Hospital Patient Survey

A year ago, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) changed the rules governing the schedules of medical residents. The new work hours were intended to curb resident fatigue, which the Institute of Medicine (IOM) had previously concluded was contributing to medical errors and accidents. But the new duty hours have actually exacerbated fatigue, jeopardized resident … [Read more...] about Jason D. Fodeman: The New Resident Duty Hours Fail

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s hairsplitting decision to uphold Obamacare, Republicans in Congress have redoubled our efforts to get this monstrosity off the books. If the court won’t do it, we must. The rationale for such a vote is obvious. When Obamacare first passed, no one knew what its full impact would be. Even Nancy Pelosi famously said we’d have to pass the bill to find out what was … [Read more...] about Sen. Mitch McConnell: The Road to Repealing ObamaCare

In this election year, U.S. national spending on health care will reach $2.8 trillion, or about 18% of total spending on all goods and services. This high level of spending reduces our ability to invest in other important parts of the economy and also adds to our unsustainable national debt. There is wide agreement that we must find ways to bend the health care cost curve. Taking different … [Read more...] about Antos, Pauly, and Wilensky: Bending the Cost Curve through Market-Based Incentives