Category: Policy Updates

Dallas-based think tank, NCPA, closes its doors after 34 years

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Reagan Stewart at 214-891-3340 or reagan_stewart@sbcglobal.net

DALLAS, TX — The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), a 501c3 public policy research organization, announced this week that its Board of Directors has voted to dissolve the organization effective immediately. The thirty-four year old free market think tank has made significant contributions to free-market public policy research and implementation, including Health Savings Accounts, Roth IRAs, automatic enrollment in 401ks, and ongoing work in the areas of taxes, healthcare, entitlements, economic development, energy and national security.

The decision to leave the world of think tanks comes after the organization has faced significant financial challenges over the last three years. The incident is not isolated, according to a June 29 Article in Exempt Magazine. The article mentions a recent survey from The Bridgespan Group, which examined the financial health of nearly 300 grantees and cites, “More than half of surveyed nonprofits have frequent or chronic budget deficits; 40 percent have fewer than three months of operating reserves; and, 10 percent showed no reserves.”

NCPA wants to honor the people who have served this organization and fulfilled its mission in recent years despite significant challenges. NCPA has been blessed with a tremendously talented group of policy experts, communications managers, development professionals and administrative staff who continued to persevere for the sake of empowering Americans and advancing liberty through free market public policy. The spirit of free enterprise, free markets and free people will continue as these individuals move on to the next stage in their careers.

The organization is also grateful for the individual donors, foundations, companies, research fellows and volunteers who have contributed significantly and loyally with their time, energy and resources throughout the organization’s thirty-four year history.

NCPA plans to sell its proprietary analytical models, intellectual property, research archives and other assets. For additional information or to express interest in acquiring assets, contact Reagan Stewart at 214-891-3340 or reagan_stewart@sbcglobal.net

 

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Jul 07, 2017 | 15 comments | by

California Money No Good in Georgia’s Special Election

moneyThe special election for Georgia’s Sixth District to fill the seat vacated by Secretary Price was heated. Jon Ossoff was the Democrat who ran for the seat with considerable outside support. He lost, nonetheless. A precinct captain supposedly complained that many of Jon Ossoff’s potential voters were hard to reach because they live with their parents. Democrats purportedly spent $200 per democratic vote, but I guess it wasn’t enough.

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Jun 21, 2017 | 2 comments | by

New Harris/HealthDay Poll Finds Americans are Fickle; Uninformed.

Capture53A New Harris / HealthDay Poll came out that finds many Americans do not really understand how insurance works.  Ok, what it officially found is rising support for the Affordable Care Act. About 41% want to improve the Affordable Care Act (ACA) rather than replace it. One-quarter (25%) want to repeal the ACA, while 21% want to leave it “as is”.

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May 04, 2017 | 4 comments | by

Graham to Testify at House Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee January 24

NCPA Senior Fellow John R. Graham has been invited to testify in person to the U.S. House of Representatives Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee on January 24 at 2 p.m. The topic is Obamacare’s individual mandate to buy health insurance, which Graham concludes is a burden without benefit.

Learn more at this link. Come in person, or watch online.

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Jan 18, 2017 | 5 comments | by

Puzder Pick a Second Win on Health Reform

puzderSoon after announcing his intention to nominate Tom Price, MD as U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services, Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Andrew Puzder Secretary of Labor. This is yet another good sign for the repeal of Obamacare.

Since the election, the media have asserted repealing Obamacare will yank health insurance from over 20 million people. This refers to Obamacare’s having increased welfare dependency (via expanding Medicaid) and the expensive individual policies offered in its exchanges, subsidized by tax credits.

This has sucked oxygen out of another important part of the debate, which is Obamacare’s regulations on employment. The Congressional Budget Office projects Obamacare will shrink the workforce by 2 million full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs in 2025.

The CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns the Carl’s Junior and Hardee’s brands, Mr. Puzder warned of the harm to jobs in chain restaurants from Obamacare’s mandate to offer employees overpriced health insurance as far back as July 2013:

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Dec 12, 2016 | 46 comments | by

The Regulatory State Reaches The Wellness Industry

Women joggingThe Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has finalized rules on how employers can use wellness programs. By current federal standards, the rules are concise: 19 pages pertaining to the Americans with Disabilities Act and 17 pages pertaining to the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. Both laws are extremely popular. The ADA (1990) passed by 91-6 in the U.S. Senate and 377-28 in the U.S. House of Representatives. The GINA (2008) passed by 95-0 in the Senate and 414-1 in the House.

These laws are meant to prevent discrimination. However this bumps against the real world where health insurers cannot charge different premiums to individuals who are sick. The Accordable Care Act (2010) allows employers to offer incentives to workers who participate in wellness programs, and can offer financial incentives up to 30 percent of premium (or up to 50 percent for anti-smoking programs). However, participation in a wellness program also necessitates surrendering personal health information to an employer who would otherwise be barred from having it (under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, 1996).

Because employers cannot use underwriting for medical risk to charge different premiums to different employees, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that wellness programs are less designed to make or keep employees well, as to ensure healthy people are attracted to the employer and sick people are not. Evidence suggests this is the real consequence of workplace wellness programs.

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Jun 30, 2016 | 2 comments | by

Fast Track to Nowhere? Biologic Intellectual Property in the Trans-Pacific Partnership

TPPThe Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement is in deep trouble. It has taken nine years to finalize this extremely important multilateral deal among the United States and 11 other countries committed to overcoming domestic political obstacles to expand the benefits of free trade.

The final text was released publicly November 5, 2015, starting a legally required 90-day countdown before the president could sign it. This waiting period ended with the U.S. delegation joining representatives of the other countries in New Zealand on February 4 to ink the deal.

The deal had bipartisan (but not unanimous) support in Congress. Unfortunately, President Obama did not insist on adequate protection of intellectual property in biologic medicines, alienating Congressional allies and likely dooming the deal to failure, according to an analysis published today by NCPA.

Read the two-page Brief Analysis here.

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Feb 24, 2016 | 1 comment | by

The Benefits of Intellectual Property Protection

GIPCIf there is one thing about which libertarians are never likely to agree, it is whether intellectual property – patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets – should receive the same legal protection as physical property.

Without wading too deep into the philosophical debate, but showing my colors as an IP advocate, let me share some new research published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) illustrating the benefits of legal protection of intellectual property.

Published on February 10, Infinite Possibilities ranks 38 countries by 30 indicators of strength of IP protection. The indicators measure both law and enforcement: Countries which do not enforce IP rights, despite the letter lf the law, are marked down. Most of the indicators are straight forward: Longer patent, copyright, or trademark terms are better; strong enforcement mechanisms are better; and treaty obligations protecting intellectual property invented in other countries is better.

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Feb 12, 2016 | 3 comments | by

Will Congress Fix Its Electronic Health Records Fiasco?

electronic-medical-recordThere is some hope that Congress will fix – at least partially – the largely bungled Electronic Health Records (EHRs) deployment on which it spent $30 billion since 2009. Doctors are very frustrated by EHRS, which interfere with their practice of medicine. The current government program to have them installed nationwide should be abandoned.

Today, the Senate Health, Education, & Labor Committee marks up a number of bills to remove the regulatory burden in health care. One of them will address EHRs. Will it help? Maybe a little. First, it would force the federal government to reduce the administrative burdens associated with EHRs. Second, it would force the federal government to defer to the private sector on interoperability.

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Feb 09, 2016 | Leave a Comment | by

Ted Cruz and Health Reform

CruzSenator Ted Cruz has won the Iowa Republican caucuses. Over the weekend, Chris Wallace of Fox News challenged Mr. Cruz on his proposal “to sell health insurance across state lines,” citing research published by NCPA that concludes federal action to mandate this would be ineffective. The research in question is on this blog, here and here.

We got quite a bit of feedback yesterday on this topic. As a think tank, we endorse policies, not politicians. Nevertheless, some of our audience took Mr. Wallace’s question to reflect opposition to Senator Cruz.

In fact, Senator Cruz’ proposal to sell health insurance across state lines does not appear in his presidential campaign platform. It is in a Senate bill he proposed last March, in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s decision in King v. Burwell.

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Feb 02, 2016 | 31 comments | by
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