The Michigan Legislature is this morning taking up House Bill 5275, a bill that authorizes a Michigan Economic Growth Authority business tax credit deal for a battery cell manufacturing facility. The new MEGA credit is intended to help convert a closed Ford Motor Co. property into what House Speaker Andy Dillon calls a “cutting-edge 21st Century energy park.”
The state has until the end of the month to pass a budget and a key figure, Mich. Speaker of the House Andy Dillon just stated that an agreement is "very close". While a number of the Mackinac Center's reform ideas are being discussed for this budget, the speaker is looking at more.
If we’re going to make health care more affordable, we need innovative business models. One such model is the retail health clinic, businesses that offer a limited menu of services with prices established up front, often provided by a nurse practitioner.
You’ve heard of the third-party problem in health care? Actually, it’s worse, say Charles Kroncke and Ronald F. White, who write in the journal of the Independent Institute. We’ve got a four-party system:
The authors argue that America’s “awkward flirtation with the marketplace” “more closely resembles corporate welfare than an experiment in free-market medicine.” The Independent Institute offers the following tease:
When can a raise mean a big pay cut? The Cato Institute passes along this information:
The current issue of Cato Journal contains an article by Craig J. Richardson looking at how Massachusetts’s mandates and subsidies have created perverse incentives for employers and employees. A $1,000 raise can actually cost workers more than $3,000, while employers face disincentives to expand and hire new workers. The current mess in Massachusetts “offers cautionary lessons for the United States.”
Where’s a separation-of-church-and-state crowd Democrat when you need one?
Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada) recently appeared at an event designed to gin up support for congressional plans to further inject government into medicine. “Health care is a moral issue,” he said.
In the September 1 Wall Street Journal, center-left columnist Thomas Franks sets up some straw-man caricatures of “the right’s” arguments against a federal government takeover of the health care market. One of them is this:
Consider the assertion, repeated often in different forms, that health insurance is a form of property, a matter of pure personal responsibility. Those who have insurance, the argument goes, have it because they’ve played by the rules. Sure, insurance is expensive, but being prudent people, they recognized that they needed it, and so they worked hard, chose good employers, and got insurance privately, the way you’re supposed to.
Give Gov. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) partial credit for his understanding of what health care reform needs, and doesn’t.
He’s against Medicaid expansion, saying “We have a hard time living within our parameters now,” and “If it’s one-size-fits-all, then we’ve created an incentive not to be productive, not to contribute to society.” He has also expressed some sympathy for getting a grip on medical malpractice lawsuits, which contribute to the costs of defensive medicine.
A “public option,” according to one of its advocates, “is a free market choice.“
Bzzt! Thanks for playing “Free Markets 101.”
A “public option” [read: government owned health insurance company] will require, as any insurance company does, huge financial reserves just to get going. Where will those reserves come from? The taxpayer. If government decides to compete against a local McDonalds by spending a few million to buy the equipment for and set up a Burger King, the BK isn’t simply another a “free market choice.” It’s playing on an unlevel playing field, tilted in its favor.
The Freep this morning says Wal-Mart is adding stores to Michigan. Super-grocery competitor Meijer is doing the same thing…
That makes price-chopping Wal-Mart one of the few national retailers taking a chance on Michigan as the economy has worsened. Its main competitor here, Grand Rapids-based Meijer, also continues to expand in the state.
Is it possible for government to run health care, long-term, without resorting to either rationing or tax hikes? In some alternate world perhaps, but not likely here and now.
Consider Arizona. One in five citizens in the state are on Medicaid, a program that depends on both federal and state funding.
That’s Marta Mossburg, of the Maryland Public Policy Institute, on the use of language in the current debate on health care policy.
Cross-posted from State House Call.
Sally Pipes, speaking at the Cato Institute in July, told just some of the stories there are to tell about Canadian health care. You can watch her talk here.
Here’s an excellent video titled “Why we don’t need socialized medicine.”
It rebuts, claim-by-claim, a recent cartoon recently popular on YouTube.
Cross-posted from State House Call.
Howard Dean, ex-"of Vermont" and former head of the Democratic National Committee, recently spoke in Vermont to stump for the Democrats health care plans.
It’s not an argument about single payer versus insurance, the fundamental question is, who gets to choose. And the genius behind the Obama plan is that we believe instead of having the Congress and bureaucrats and the insurance companies and employers and politicians make this choice, the American people ought to be able to make this choice for themselves. … We’re not saying you have to be in it. There are a lot of people who like their employer-based system. But we are saying we ought to make that a choice,” he said.
John Goodman reports on a new poll on public opinion towards health care reform (not any specific reform, but the bill in general). The results show that Americans can see when they’re being led with a carrot on a stick.
Q: If the health care system is changed, do you think ….. will get better, worse, or remain the same?
The legislation outlining House Speaker Dillon’s state health insurance plan was tabled on Friday, a 13-page bill that finally outlines the details of the controversial concept.
In short, what Dillon, D-Redford Twp, proposes is a statewide insurance system that would pool all Michigan state and school employees into a broad set of health plans in an effort to save money on Michigan’s employee insurance expenses — $1 billion a year, according to Dillon.
Voices around the state and prominent education officials are calling for Michigan to lengthen its school year and increase the amount of time students spend in class. Unfortunately, this type of reform is misguided since there is no correlation between the amount of time students spend in school and their level of achievement. Michigan instead should focus on implementing reforms that have track records of improving student achievement.
It’s probably a good idea for you to talk with your loved ones about your views on what sort of health care you, or they want, as death draws near. And it may even be a good idea for a public program that pays for medical care to pay, as one service among many, physicians who provide a counseling session on such matters to patients who request it.
One accomplishment of American health care is the development of vaccines for a number of diseases. The Washington Policy Center sends along this announcement about vaccinations and public policy:
In 1965, the United States government assured that all children would receive access to vaccines for common childhood diseases through the passage of the Vaccination Assistance Act. The law created a program that provides federal grants to local authorities for preventive health services, including immunizations.
From the “Friday Facts” of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation:
(Cross-posted from State House Call.)
The State of Minnesota will spend $47 million to “focus on individual behavior change” and “creating sustainable, systemic changes that make it easier for individuals to make healthy choices in their daily lives.”
The 14-page list of grant recipients (PDF) mentions “tobacco free” 14 times. No smoking in a public park or in your condo! (Don’t worry: The “smoke-free policies in multi-unit housing” will be “voluntary,” except that they’re a nudge from the hand of government.) I think that smoking is stupid, but this has gone beyond claims of damage from second-hand smoke; it’s meant to protect you from yourself.
Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board points out that the U.S. has the highest spending on health care per person and has lower life expectancies than some other countries, but that the former might have little to do with the latter.
Life expectancy in the U.S. is affected by other factors, like the homocide rate and automobile accidents, than simply the health care system.
The Daily Mail online reports that over 4,000 babies were born outside of maternity wards last year in the UK due to a shortage of hospital beds.
When hospitals are paid on a yearly basis rather than by procedure, there is an incentive to provide less care than is optimal — such as not having enough beds.
Two groups are filing a suit against the Executive Office of the President, among other parties, over its “Flag” e-mail campaign that asked people to forward “fishy” e-mails.
The suit alleges that the campaign was part of an effort to chill free speech. It has been filed by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education.
