Publications -- Health

Dec 05, 2005

Time, Money and the Market for Drugs

Americans spend more than $234 billion a year on legally purchased chemical entities. Although the expense is a small part of our nation's $1.8 trillion health care bill, the dollars involved are substantial, amounting to more than $2,000 per household per year.

Oct 25, 2005

BA #536 – Patients' Right to Choose

These are turbulent times for the Food and Drug Administration. The almost daily barrage of headlines questioning the safety of marketed drugs is probably depleting regulators' personal stocks of aspirin and antacids. But as they try to soothe their own pain, regulators must not forget their mission: to ease the plight of patients who need new medicines.

Oct 06, 2005

BA #532 – Health Care for Hurricane Victims

People displaced by hurricanes and floods in the Gulf Coast region will need health care. How will they get it? Right now, their options are limited.

Sep 22, 2005

BA #528 – Crisis of the Uninsured: 2005 Update

Despite claims that there is a health insurance crisis in the United States, the proportion of Americans without health coverage has changed little in the past decade. The increase in the number of uninsured is largely due to immigration and population growth.

Aug 22, 2005

BA #524 – Patient Power: Over-the-Counter Drugs

Today's health consumers are taking a more active role in diagnosing and treating themselves. With new tools to assist them - from Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) that allow patients to control some their health care dollars to an unprecedented wealth of information on Internet Web sites - consumers are more empowered than ever to understand their health condition(s) and participate in decisions about their treatment.

Jul 27, 2005

BA #523 – Health Insurance Choice

A citizen who lives in any one state can buy a toaster produced in any other state. The same citizen can also buy a lawnmower, a sofa, an automobile or virtually any other product — regardless of the state where the product is made.

This same freedom does not exist in the market for health insurance, however. 

Jul 12, 2005

BA #521 – The Legal Responsibility of Adult Children to Care for Indigent Parents

Currently, 30 states have filial responsibility statutes that establish a duty for adult children to care for their indigent elderly parents. When enforced, the statutes can require the adult child to reimburse state programs or institutions that have cared for the indigent parent with either a one-time contribution or installment payments. Today, there is no uniform federal filial responsibility statute, and indeed, it may be difficult to enact one; but if even a few states began to more systematically enforce their laws, their action could help reduce the explosive growth of Medicaid's long-term care benefit.

Jun 30, 2005

BA #518 – Making HSAs Better

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are having an enormously beneficial effect on the design of health insurance in this country. Instead of an employer or insurer paying medical bills, more than one million people are managing some of their own health care dollars. Instead of relying solely on third-party insurance, people can now partly self-insure through these accounts. Yet despite their many advantages, HSAs can be made even better.

May 13, 2005

BA #515 – Reforming Medicaid: More Flexibility for the States

Medicaid is the largest single expenditure state governments face today. The country as a whole spends more on Medicaid than it spends on primary and secondary education. We also spend more on Medicaid (for the poor) than we spend on Medicare (for the elderly). And at the rate the program is growing, it is on a course to consume the entire budgets of state governments in just a few decades.

May 10, 2005

ST #276 – Consumer Driven Health Care: The Changing Role of the Patient

The latest trend in health care? Patients are managing their own care. New technologies make it possible. Legislative changes facilitate it. And financial pressures all but require it.