Young Invincibles Health Care Policy The cover story of the April 2 New York Magazine is a long and sympathetic look at "young invincibles" in New York City - young and healthy people who can't afford or don't wish to buy health insurance. Artists, bike messengers and carpenters all go on record with their strategies for getting by in the big city without the financial safety net provided by insurance. Certainly, health insurance in New York is all but unaffordable for young people just starting out and paying sky-high Gotham rents. However, the author of the piece only makes a cursory attempt to explain why this is the case: The common assumption is that the exorbitant rates are schemed up by the politically influential executives governing the trillion-dollar insurance industry. But if insurers could target cheaper plans at younger New Yorkers, they would: Every business thrives by exploiting untapped markets. State law, however, requires insurers to follow a "community rating" system that throws everyone - young, old, sick, healthy - into one risk pool. In 1993, the New York legislature essentially destroyed the market for individual and small group insurance by imposing "community rating" and "guaranteed issue" mandates. Community rating means that everyone in the same risk pool is charged the same. Guaranteed issue means that no one can be turned away - or charged more - for pre-existing conditions. This means that people can wait until after they've developed a chronic condition to get insurance. The result of these new mandates was skyrocketing insurance premiums for individuals. The annual premium for a policy covering a single male aged 30 before the imposition of mandates was $1,200. Afterwards: $3,240! And now - according to the New York Times, Hillary Clinton wants to impose community rating and guaranteed issue mandates nationally: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York assailed the health insurance industry and said she would prohibit insurers from denying coverage or charging much higher premiums to people with medical problems. Posted by Stuart Browning 30 Mar 2007 @ 8:47am Indoctrinate U Update Film Buzz The Indoctrinate U trailer has gotten a lot of attention. As of this morning, 7,878 Americans have signed up to have the full feature-length film screened in their home town. If you haven't seen the trailer or signed up, go to www.indoctrinateu.com. Posted by Stuart Browning 29 Mar 2007 @ 9:25am Oh, Canada! Health Care Policy Try as I might, I just can't find stories about the U.S. health care system that compare with the continuing stream of socialized medicine outrage that flows from the Canadian press: Woman has surgery without anesthesiologist When Carolyn Moss went into the Lakeshore General Hospital (LGH) for a pre-operation procedure Feb. 20, two weeks before she was scheduled to have orthopedic surgery, she never dreamed there wouldn't be an anesthesiologist available for her operation. But when Moss arrived at the LGH March 6, the day of her operation, she was stunned to discover there were no anesthesiologists on call for her procedure. [...] After discussing her options with her doctor, Moss decided on the spot to have the operation with local anesthetic and an Ativan - an anti-anxiety drug - rather than wait a month or two for her surgery to be re-scheduled. Vital surgery was suddenly cancelled For four long years, I have been on the waiting list for duodenal switch surgery. For me, this surgery is a necessity. Simply put, it cuts the size of your stomach in half and reroutes part of your lower intestine, aiding in faster weight loss. Because of many medical problems, undertaking a large amount of exercise to lose weight is medically out of the question for me. A specialist told me I needed surgery, so I went onto the waiting list. [...] Earlier this year, though, I was informed that this surgery is no longer being done in Saskatchewan. I got this news in a newspaper, not from a doctor, and was given no alternative. "Go away, don't make any noise, just suffer somewhere else" -- that's what it feels like we were told. Posted by Stuart Browning 28 Mar 2007 @ 9:10am Take a Stand for the Rights of Physicians Health Care Policy Richard Ralston of Americans for Free Choice in Medicine is one of my favorite health care policy writers as he emphasizes both the impracticality - and the immorality - of socialized medicine. He's written a fantastic new short editorial defending the rights of the biggest victims of government-run health care: doctors. While Governor Schwarzenegger and California legislators are busy putting forward proposals to socialize health care, one element is profoundly missing: none of these politicians know or care what physicians think of the proposals. It should have occurred to them that physicians are, to say the least, rather central to maintaining good health care. But physicians and their views are obviously considered to be unimportant - an individual's need for healthcare entitles him to the knowledge, ability, careers and lives of physicians. Apparently, physicians are nothing more than a natural resource, like oil reserves - and are to be allocated by the government. Read it all ... and if you agree with it, please forward it to your personal physician. Posted by Stuart Browning 27 Mar 2007 @ 9:49am Overstating the Number of Uninsured Americans Health Care Policy The U.S. Census Bureau now says that it has overstated the number of uninsured Americans: The government's estimate of the number of Americans without health insurance fell by nearly 2 million Friday, but not because anyone got health coverage. The Census Bureau said it has been overstating the number of people without health insurance since 1995. The bureau blamed the inflated numbers on a 12-year-old computer programming error. [...] The revised estimates show that 44.8 million people, or 15.3 percent of the population, were without health insurance in 2005. The original estimate was 46.6 million, or about 15.9 percent of the population. But what's a little 1.8 million person error compared with the Census Bureau's counting of 12 million illegal immigrants and 14 million Medicaid-eligible people as "Uninsured Americans"? Update: David Hogberg over at the National Center Blog weighs in. Posted by Stuart Browning 26 Mar 2007 @ 8:55am Socialized Medicine in New Zealand Health Care Policy Still Waiting After 20 YearsFunny how the proponents of single-payer health care always laud the French and Italian systems but never mention government-run health care successes in English speaking countries. Why could that be? Here's a recent sampling of stories from the English language press about the health care hell that Kiwis endure: Still waiting for surgery after 20 years It is more than 20 years since Colin Marchant missed out on an operation to have varicose veins removed from his left leg, because the anaesthetist was unavailable. He's still waiting. Woman waits months for therapy, then gets burns Breast cancer patient Louise MacKenzie waited three months for vital radiotherapy - and when she got it she also got burned. The lecturer at Auckland's Unitec business school was meant to start radiotherapy within four weeks of having a partial mastectomy. She had her surgery in the first week of July, but radiotherapy started only in the first week of October. She is among the thousands of New Zealanders whose health is affected by growing waiting lists for non-urgent treatment. The general trend in elective treatment is causing surgery such as varicose vein treatment to become almost impossible unless patients are in pain. Patient objects to hospital's 'spin' A woman waiting for radiotherapy is outraged that health chiefs say patients like her will wait 12 weeks for treatment, even though she received a letter indicating 14 to 16 weeks. Posted by Stuart Browning 22 Mar 2007 @ 12:08pm New Film: Two Women Health Care Policy Our new film, Two Women (run time 4:32), shows that having the government determine health care access and priorities can have truly unfortunate consequences for some people. Set in Ontario, Canada - this powerful video serves as a cautionary example of where single-payer health care reform will lead if adopted in the United States. Watch it now Posted by Stuart Browning 21 Mar 2007 @ 5:49am Indoctrinate U Trailer and Website Up Education Speech codes. Censorship. Sensitivity training. Political conformity and rehabilitation. Intolerance. Hostility to religion. Violations of freedom of speech and conscience. Kangaroo courts. We usually associate such things with the repressive regimes of North Korea, China, Cuba, and the former Soviet Union. But instead, this assault on free thought is taking place all over America--right now--on our nation's campuses. Our new documentary film, Indoctrinate U, directed by Evan Coyne Maloney, reveals the ugly truths about academia that you won't see in their glossy admissions brochures. A Few Questions for Administrators A production of On The Fence Films with the support of the Moving Picture Institute, the film's trailer and website have just gone live. Maloney spent two and a half years investigating jaw-dropping incidents of political persecution--of students and professors alike--at over a dozen schools all over the country. From elite Ivy League campuses to the largest state universities and the tiniest community colleges, Indoctrinate U points a critical lens at every level of the academic establishment. The film was produced by a team headed by software entrepreneur and filmmaker Stuart Browning, entertainment attorney Blaine Greenberg, and Thor Halvorssen, former CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Go Watch the Trailer >> Update: Michelle Malkin has the video from last night's "Hannity's America: Posted by site admin 18 Mar 2007 @ 7:34pm Indoctrinate U preview on Fox News Tonight Announcements Director Evan Maloney will be appearing on Sean Hannity's television show tonight to discuss our upcoming film Indoctrinate U. We will be showing clips from the film as well as the trailer, which will be released online this weekend. Hannity's America airs on Fox News Channel at 9PM and again at midnight (Eastern time). Posted by Stuart Browning 18 Mar 2007 @ 7:29am A Right To Dental Care? Health Care Policy The lefties over at young collectivist Ezra Klein's website had a lot to say recently about an alleged "right" to dental care in the wake of the tragic death of a Maryland youth with a neglected abscessed tooth. It turns out that an irresponsible mother is a danger no state can truly guard against. Children in the U.K. supposedly have a right to dental care. However, health insurance is not the same as health care: A WORRIED mum has hit out because her young daughter has been waiting more than seven months to have a tooth removed. Despite being in terrible pain and her tooth starting to fall out, Jasmine Maddox Dodd, seven, of Aberderfyn Road, Ponciau, has been put on numerous waiting lists to have an abscess on her tooth treated. Mum Jacqui is furious at how long it is taking to end her daughter's agony. She said: "Jasmine has been waiting to have her tooth removed since September of last year. I think it's absolutely disgraceful she should have to wait this long for something which, according to our dentist, should be relatively straightforward." Posted by Stuart Browning 16 Mar 2007 @ 10:42am And The Beat Goes On ... Health Care Policy While Connecticut lawmakers flirt with single-payer health care, the results of government-run medicine are published daily around the world like a laboratory experiment for all to see: U.K.: Shocking state of our waiting lists The Belfast Telegraph revealed recently that nearly 7,000 patients across Northern Ireland are waiting for desperately needed scans to find out if they have potentially life-threatening conditions such as cancer. It is understood some patients are waiting up to 12 months for an MRI scan. U.K.: Shocking wait for Ulster hip patients Ulster patients with severe hip problems are being forced to wait more than three years simply to be assessed for surgery by specialists at an overstretched Belfast hospital, the Telegraph can reveal today. Those found to require hip replacements at Musgrave Park Hospital also face a wait of more than three years for their actual operations, according to extraordinary new figures. South Africa: Surgeon reveals 18-year waiting list for patients Anger is mounting over proposed R30 million budget cuts at Groote Schuur and Tygerberg hospitals, with a senior surgeon at Groote Schuur revealing he has patients who face a wait of more than 18 years for operations. Canada: INCREASED HEALTH CARE SPENDING NOT HELPING The federal government has provided provinces with an extra $36 billion in transfers for health care since 1997, yet Canada's health care system is in worse shape now than it was 10 years ago, according to a new report by the Fraser Institute. Posted by Stuart Browning 15 Mar 2007 @ 8:22am New York Times: All The Propaganda That's Fit To Print Health Care Policy Rhiannon NothIn a fine example (registration required) of advocacy journalism, the New York Times, in an article on page A1 entitled "Lacking Papers, Citizens Are Cut From Medicaid", yesterday deplored an unconscionable hurdle that the Bush administration has heartlessly placed in the path of Americans seeking free health care: proving that they are indeed Americans. Predictably, the Times reporter profiles a child in need of heart surgery whose mother is unable to readily prove citizenship. Rhiannon M. Noth, 28, of Cincinnati applied for Medicaid in early December. When her 3-year-old son, Landen, had heart surgery on Feb. 22, she said, "he did not have any insurance" because she had been unable to obtain the necessary documents. For the same reason, she said, she paid out of pocket for his medications, and eye surgery was delayed for her 2-year-old daughter, Adrianna. The children eventually got Medicaid, but the process took 78 days, rather than the 30 specified in Ohio Medicaid rules. It's hard for me to see the problem here. The health care was free and the child obviously did not wait for the surgery - as the citizens of countries with national health insurance do. However, in case the reader missed the point, the Times followed up on the opinion page with an editorial (registration required) railing against the Bush administration's efforts to "promote its free-market philosophy" in health care: At a time when the nation is pondering how to provide medical coverage to some 47 million uninsured Americans, it is logical and right to start with the country's nine million uninsured children. The Bush administration, unfortunately, is going in exactly the opposite direction. Apparently, "All The News That's Fit To Print" doesn't include the fact that the number of truly uninsured - after subtracting illegal immigrants, the Medicaid-eligible and households with more than $50K in annual income - is closer to 8 million. Certainly, The New York Times is not letting facts get in the way of the effort to "promote its socialist philosophy" in health care. Also: Here's one story we probably won't be hearing about in the NY Times. (Hat tip: David Hogberg) Posted by Stuart Browning 13 Mar 2007 @ 12:24pm National Health Scam Health Care Policy More news from the world of socialized medicine ... UK: National Health Scam: EMERGENCY patients are being DUMPED in corridors in a phoney bid to beat NHS waiting targets ... They are whisked from A&E departments - making it look as if an official four-hour deadline for treatment has been met. Canada: Weight loss surgery ending More than 300 morbidly obese people waiting for weight loss surgery in Saskatoon have been told the program is being cancelled. Patients have been told to seek other options after learning that as of mid-June, no more bariatric surgeries will be performed in Saskatoon - the main centre for the procedure in Saskatchewan. The cancellation has left many people like Kathy Glasgow - who's been waiting four years for her operation - wondering what they will do now. "I feel hurt because this is the one thing I looked forward to," she said. "We've been waiting ... it's like a waiting game with my life." Canada: Day-of-surgery cancellation changes piano teacher's tune Marion Rodger is quick to stress she's not a complainer. But the 74-year-old retired piano teacher has decided it's time to do some serious complaining about the state of Ontario's health care. On Thursday, Rodger was driven from her Ipperwash home for scheduled hip replacement surgery in London -- only to learn at the last minute the surgery was cancelled because of a lack of beds. She was one of five patients sent home that day from University Hospital without having their scheduled operations. "I just broke down in tears," Rodger said of the moment when she, her husband and daughter were informed the surgery scheduled seven months ago was off. Posted by Stuart Browning 12 Mar 2007 @ 7:16am A Tax on Vanity? Health Care Policy For decades, federal and state governments have driven up the cost of health care and insurance with thousands of ill-advised interventions into the medical marketplace. One bright spot, however, has been cosmetic surgery. Over the years, cosmetic procedures have become cheaper while quality has greatly improved. The cosmetic surgery market is mostly unburdened with government and third-party payer distortions resulting in medical deflation as opposed to the inflation that we see elsewhere. Democratic lawmakers in several states are now attempting to change that with a new "vanity tax" on cosmetic surgery beginning in New Jersey: A new precedent has been set in the cosmetic surgery industry, but it has nothing to do with surgical results. In September, New Jersey became the first state to enact a vanity tax on cosmetic surgery and Botox injections - a move that lawmakers elsewhere are now seeking to emulate, potentially leaving physicians and their patients at a loss. and continuing in Connecticut and other states: A coalition of Democratic lawmakers Tuesday unveiled a $900 million universal health care plan that would be financed in part by raising taxes on cigarettes and health care providers and initiating a new tax on elective cosmetic surgery. The so-called vanity tax is particularly offensive. Productive individuals who have taken responsibility for their own lives and have made the decision to use their money to improve themselves aesthetically are to be punished for their vanity by a rapacious state eager for tax revenues. Posted by Stuart Browning 9 Mar 2007 @ 10:16am 47 Million Without Health Care? (Continued) Health Care Policy As a followup to my posting last week, it should be pointed out that over 18 million of the uninsured are people between the ages of 18 and 34. According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, people between 25 and 34 spend more than four times as much on alcohol, tobacco, entertainment and dining out as they do for out-of-pocket spending on health care. If we infer that spending for people in their early-20s is similar to their mid-20s and early-30s, then the graph below tells us something about the "crisis" of 47 million uninsured. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey Posted by Stuart Browning 8 Mar 2007 @ 9:19am Code Blue for Socialized Medicine in the UK Health Care Policy While the single-payer left blathers on about evil insurance companies and life expectancies in countries with socialized medicine, the reality of government-run health care in the mother country has been laid bare in an article just published in the UK press: More than a million people are waiting for a first hospital appointment. 160,000 waiting from 8 to 13 weeks to see a specialist. 775,000 waiting for operations. At one hospital, 1 in 4 patients waiting for rescheduled surgery after a month. On average, 962 operations cancelled each day. There's much more. Read the whole thing. Posted by Stuart Browning 6 Mar 2007 @ 6:46pm Mandate Universal Health Insurance? Health Care Policy Dave RacerToday we present a guest editorial from author and health care commentator Dave Racer: Mandate universal health insurance? Because the uninsured rate has soared? The "I" Word Recently, I proposed to a broad coalition of health insurance agents that any legislative remedy for what ails health care had to start with a factual assessment of the data. When confronted by how immigration affects uninsurance, however, they protested. "Immigration is the third rail of modern politics." Here is the reality-check: The U.S. Census Bureau claims there are 46 million uninsured Americans. They insist that the number of uninsured is swelling each year. This, we are told, is a "crisis" so grave that it requires overhauling our health care system. Many governors assert that the only way to solve this crisis is to mandate health insurance for everyone. Many others demand that the government take over all of health care. The uninsured "crisis" is so bad that there just are no other wise choices. Ordinary people, we are told, can not be trusted nor afford to insure themselves. Giving government the authority to mandate anything is a serious issue. Such a critical decision, then, had better be made based on sound data. While picking through the minutiae of a Minnesota report about the increase in uninsured people, I found an astonishing fact: The 64 percent increase (from 4.5 to 7.4 percent) in the number of uninsured in Minnesota from 2001-2004 is almost entirely attributable to people who are " ...Hispanic/Latino and born in a Hispanic nation..." and who work as temporary or seasonal workers. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in 2003, more than 11 million immigrants were uninsured - they gave no indication whether this total included legal or illegal immigrants. The Pew Hispanic Center estimated that during March 2006, the illegal immigrant population had swelled to 12 million. The truth is that we really do not know how many of the uninsured are illegal immigrants. Here is where it really gets interesting. Continued ... Posted by Stuart Browning 6 Mar 2007 @ 7:02am Ambulance Chaser Details Health Plan Health Care Policy After performing walletectomies on North Carolina obstetricians with the aid of junk science about cerebral palsy, John Edwards is now outlining his proposal for government-run health care in a new video: Posted by Stuart Browning 5 Mar 2007 @ 9:34am 47 Million Americans Without Health Care? Health Care Policy Apparently, a majority of Americans have bought into the myth - endlessly perpetuated in the media - of 47 million people without health insurance - and hence, without health care - as evidenced by a new CBS News/New York Times poll: However, the 2005 U.S.Census Bureau Current Population Survey report on Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States (Table 8 on page 22), shows that over 17 million - more than one third - of the uninsured reside in households with annual incomes in excess of $50K. I've created a piechart to illustrate: 2005: The Uninsured By Income Also, an April 26, 2005 article in the LA Times estimated that from 10 to 14 million of the uninsured are eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP, but have not enrolled. Indeed, the actual number of Americans who can't get health insurance is much less than half of what is consistently reported. Various health care "reformers" don't feel the need to be honest about just who is uninsured while they strongly imply that health insurance equals medical care in order to press for total government health care financing - and the mainstream media is their dependable ally. Posted by Stuart Browning 2 Mar 2007 @ 10:00am Indoctrinate U Health Care Policy On The Fence Film's Evan Maloney will be in Washington, D.C. tonight for a screening of the trailer of our upcoming film on higher education "Indoctrinate U" at CPAC. This appearance is part of an event hosted by the Moving Picture Institute. Stop by and say hello if you're in the area of the Omni Shoreham hotel around 8:30PM. More information is available here. Posted by Stuart Browning 2 Mar 2007 @ 9:33am