Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

President Obama's Plan Will Control Every Aspect of the Medical Transaction

Health care plan will tell patients when, what and how much coverage they must buy

September 11, 2009

Shikha Dalmia

Obama lambasted the critics who claim his reform plan amounts to a government takeover of the health care system. But the plan he laid out Wednesday night will control every aspect of the medical transaction. It will tell patients when, what and how much coverage they must buy; it will tell sellers when, what and how much coverage they must sell. This is not a government takeover of health care?

That's a Lie, Mr. President

September 11, 2009, 10:28am

Shikha Dalmia

What About the Patient In Health Care Debate?

Health care reform isn't serious until the patient is at the center of the picture

September 11, 2009

Nick Gillespie

Doctors and other health professionals, who assiduously work to limit the number of health care providers in a given field, moan all the time about how Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers are driving down reimbursements for basic procedures. Yet somehow the overall cost of health care goes up, up, up. It's because the system, including the vague reforms being championed by Barack Obama in a speech designed to lay out his plan in detail, really don't do anything to empower the person at the center of the drama—the patient, the customer—with the sort of choices that might actually trigger changes that will either curtail costs or, same thing, improve the range and quality of services so that we are happy with the money we're shoveling out. Until that discussion gets underway, any so-called reform will fail to deliver on anything other than empty promises.

BaucusCare = TaxoCare

September 9, 2009, 5:01pm

Shikha Dalmia

The French Patient

August 29, 2009, 12:28am

Shikha Dalmia

Breaking the AMA Monopoly

August 26, 2009, 6:07pm

Shikha Dalmia

Milton Friedman warned back in 1961 that the American Medical Association was a government-sanctioned guild or trade cartel that would raise health care costs and diminish quality. Today, most economists agree with him. That's because the costs of AMA's aggressive tacticts to keep physician wages up by, among other things, imposing onerous licensure rules, capping the number of new doctors, and harassing nurses, midwives etc. who can treat certain routine conditions more cheaply than doctors have become painfully obvious.

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