Tag Archives: free our health care now

Return of the Jedi

This is from the White House Bulletin:

An early September round of public protests [will be] hitting Washington. The first is set to occur on September 9 when more than 1 million signatures on a petition will be delivered to Congress. The "Free Our Health Care Now" petition, initiated by the Salem Radio Network and drawn up by the National Center for Policy Analysis, has already been signed by over 1.1 million. GOP leaders expect to have 1.5 million on September 9 when it will be presented to the media by Reps. Mike Pence, Paul Ryan and Minority Whip Eric Cantor.

The Great Disconnect

All across the country, Members of Congress are facing very angry constituents over the issue of health care. So ferocious has been the response that an estimated two-thirds of the Members are not even going to hold town hall meetings. Reportedly, our elected representatives are shocked.

I don’t know why. At least a month earlier, my colleagues and I at the National Center for Policy Analysis became aware of their anger as we collected more than 1.1 million signatures on the petition http://www.freeourhealthcarenow.com/ and read all their e-mail responses. Where, you wonder, were the politicians as this anger was boiling over? Don’t they have staffers who answer their telephones and open their mail?

Anyway, a great disconnect has emerged. It may be serious enough to cause the Democrats to lose control of the Congress in the next election. How did this happen? I think there are three causes.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL9xOLpwI0I

You know you make me want to
Shout…..(come on now)…..
Shout…..(come on now)…..
Shout…..(come on now)…..
SHOUT!

Continue reading The Great Disconnect

Our Darkest Hour

Despite apparent stumbles by the White House and Congress on health reform, just about every special interest group in the country stands ready to sell out to a very bad bill. I can’t think of a single one that isn’t ready to cut a deal.

Inside the Washington, D.C. beltway there are only a few good soldiers left standing. Everyone else has sold out or been bought out or bullied out. The Republicans are in disarray. Many conservatives are even helping promote an “Obama lite” plan.

Yet there is one group that was not invited to participate in the behind-closed-door sessions. Their voices are beginning to be heard — on talk radio and over the Internet. 970,000 of them have signed the petition at http://www.freeourhealthcarenow.com/. These are the people. And throughout the country they are telling politicians what they think. 

Continue reading Our Darkest Hour

Chronic Care

By some estimates, more than half of US health care spending is for patients with chronic conditions. As I have previously reported, this money is spent very wastefully. Care is often delivered in discrete, disjointed and disconnected ways. The most efficient form of therapy (drugs) is substantially underutilized. And many chronic patients are not receiving care at all.

Fundamentally, there are two ways to deal with chronic care. The current approach is a nonmarket approach, and it has the following 10 characteristics:

  • Completely suppressing the market for every facet of medical care and every type of health insurance — so that no one ever faces a real price for anything;
  • forcing health plans to take enrollees they don’t want at premiums well below the cost of their care;
  • forcing doctors to treat patients with complicated conditions for the same fees as easy-to-diagnose-and-treat patients;
  • paying doctors in a way that encourages uncoordinated and unintegrated care;
  • denying providers the opportunity to repackage and reprice their services in ways that would lower cost and raise quality;

Petition Signers: 170,000 and rising Continue reading Chronic Care

In the News

Steve Forbes' latest commentary calls on consumers to sign the new "Free Our Health Care NOW!" petition launched by radio host Mike Gallagher and the NCPA. 

Also, the new issue of Vital Speeches of the Day includes my recent Congressional testimony on exactly how we can resolve the health care crisis with consumer-driven health care reform.

On Monday, June 8th, NCPA Senior Fellow Laurence J. Kotlikoff will join me at a Cato Institute Policy Forum to present our plan to radically reform the financial system. The event will be streamed online. Details at Cato's Web site.