[August 5, 2007 @ 7:29 pm] David Gratzer

It’s a lazy Sunday evening, and you’re looking for some interesting reading.

Here are my recommendations.

1) Allan Hubbard’s essay in the Wall Street Journal

In “A Tax Cure for Health Care”, Hubbard — assistant to the president for economic policy and director of the National Economic Council — makes a coherent case against expanding government programs like SCHIP and argues for tax reform as a way to truly reform American health care.

Unfortunately, little is made of the President’s domestic proposals, either on the Hill or on Mainstreet.

But, with health care, the President now has a sweeping vision, one that offers a robust alternative to the Democratic ideas. This essay will have little impact on today’s debate, but that may not be true in a couple of years.

A summary can be found here.

The essay, available to WSJ subscribers, is here.

2) Regina Herzlinger in the Washington Post

What do you do if you’re a powerful professional association, rich with cash and influential, while your membership has been battered and bruised in recent rounds of health care battles? If you’re the AMA leadership, argues Prof. Herzlinger, you ignore the big issues and go after small innovative companies.

Herzlinger, who is also a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute (as I am), takes the AMA to task for its recent decision to legally attack RediClinics and other primary care chains.

The essay can be found here.

3) Goodman in the Wall Street Journal

SCHIP is a hot topic – and John Goodman weighs in, with the single most concise attack of the Democrats plan you’ll find.

As Goodman observes, even under the current system, children’s health insurance is increasingly a ruse to cover adults, for example, Minnesota spends 61 percent of SCHIP funds on adults while Wisconsin spends 75 percent.

A summary can be found here.

The essay, available to WSJ subscribers, is here.

Add a comment

To prevent spam, you will need to enter the two words below before your post is accepted: