Comments on: Guide to the Republican Candidates

By: Making Sense of the Candidates On Health Care Reform | Making Perfect Sense

Making Sense of the Candidates On Health Care Reform | Making Perfect Sense — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:08:11 +0000

[...] On the Republican side, I tip my hat to John McCain. Some characterize him as a âmoderateâ? Repbulican, others as a âconservativeâ? Democrat. I believe he is an honorable American hero who has spent time thinking through his answers to issues and has enough time in the trenches of politics in Washington to know what works and what does not. He is not a âJohnny-come-latelyâ? to the political process, nor is he merely a rehash of the same-old-thing. On healthcare, he supports importation of cheaper prescriptions from outside the USA breaking the monopolistic strangle hold big pharma has on the drug market. McCain is also a champion of healthcare delivery initiatives designed to lower the cost and increase availability of healthcare to Americans of all socio-economic strata. Last, he has proposed a tax-break to address the current bias toward employer sponsored healthcare plans. You can read an excellent article detailing the major candidateâs stances here. [...]

By: Making Sense of the Candidates on Health Care Reform | MAKING PERFECT SENSE

Making Sense of the Candidates on Health Care Reform | MAKING PERFECT SENSE — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:57:45 +0000

[...] On healthcare, he supports importation of cheaper prescriptions from outside the USA breaking the monopolistic strangle hold big pharma has on the drug market. McCain is also a champion of healthcare delivery initiatives designed to lower the cost and increase availability of healthcare to Americans of all socio-economic strata. Last, he has proposed a tax-break to address the current bias toward employer sponsored healthcare plans. You can read an excellent article detailing the major candidate’s stances here. [...]

By: Jee

Jee — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 05:22:40 +0000

I don’t think your criticism regarding Dr. Paul is accurate when you mentioned that he is in support of “expanding the government for alternative meds”. As matter of fact, if you listen to the video through the link you provided carefully, he explicitly mentions government regulation of alternative meds as one of the problems of todays healthcare system. He believes allowing nurses to be licensed to do simple checkups, and letting the patient to negotiate prices with doctors to bring prices down. the problem of universal health care is just a simple matter of supply and demand. If you tax the people to provide government health insurance, demand will far exceed supply since the government is paying for it. I’m not even going to get into the issue with quality. Just look at the VA hospitals. Another problem is that the government will hold a monopsony over all physicians. Not to mention a monopsony over all the medical equipment too, coupled with monopoly control over health care. Thus, the government will tell you which medicine to take and which procedures you need. Similar to the corporate medicine system we have today, except Americans will not have choices and will be paying for it whether they like it or not. So, if you think the solution is Socialized medicine, you will be sacrificing quality, efficiency, and last but not least, your PRIVACY! Think about it.

By: Making Sense of the Candidates on Healthcare | Making Perfect Sense

Making Sense of the Candidates on Healthcare | Making Perfect Sense — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:54:35 +0000

[...] On healthcare, he supports importation of cheaper prescriptions from outside the USA breaking the monopolistic strangle-hold big pharma has on the drug market. McCain is also a champion of healthcare delivery initiatives designed to lower the cost and increase availability of healthcare to Americans of all socio-economic strata. Last, he has proposed a tax-break to address the current bias toward employer sponsored healthcare plans. You can read an excellent article detailing the major candidate’s stances here. [...]

By: Jim Evans

Jim Evans — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:45:39 +0000

This is both helpful and discouraging. It shows that the things that are on the table are economic rationalizations of the current healthcare system, nothing more.

I will become interested when the checklist includes items like “Payment reform: reimbursed disease monitoring and increased primary care payment” or “HIPAA rewrite to ensure that patients own their own medical records” or “Significant reimbursement differences for different care quality”. Until that point, this debate is of little consequence.

By: Healthcare Economist · Guide to the Democratic Candidates

Healthcare Economist · Guide to the Democratic Candidates — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:13:06 +0000

[...] Study in Quality: Ambulatory Surgery Centers vs. Hospital Outpatient Departments • Guide to the Republican Candidates [...]

By: Atheendar

Atheendar — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:10:49 +0000

Great post! I was looking for something like this to pass on to my students and friends. Thanks for doing this.

BTW, great summary of the Basu, Heckman, et al, local IV paper in health econ.