What's wrong with "cherry picking"?
Yowza. This is Jerry Pournelle on education and ”cherry picking”.
On education, the usual critique of charter schools is that they are guilty of ”cherry picking” which is to say, they accept only students who want to learn something and are willing to be disciplined. Thus an academically accomplished charter school in DC was …
The problem with health insurance "exchanges"
In today’s New York Times, David Leonhardt talks about the problem of health care choice. Specifically, the fact that most people don’t have any choice. He starts out making a lot of sense.
Health insurers often act like monopolies — like a cable company or the Department of Motor Vehicles — because they resemble …
Health care without bureaucrats
Any bureaucracy — public or private — is going to make pointless decisions and complicate your life. This applies to health ”insurance” as much as it applies to anything else. It’s easy to find stories of people who were heartlessly treated by their health bureaucracy. In Britain, the bureaucracy is the government run NHS. In …
An example of private property helping the poor
I finished listening to an old EconTalk podcast, during my commute this morning. Russ Roberts was talking to Karol Boudreaux about her fieldwork on property rights and economic reforms in Rwanda and South Africa. They spent the first half of the conversation talking about Rwandan reforms and the second half talking about South African reforms. …
"Are second knee replacements worth it?" panels
Health care will be rationed. The only question is ”who will do the rationing?”. Will you make the decisions or will someone else? Megan McArdle illustrates this with a great quote.
Fears of ”death panels” are way overblown. Fears of ”Are second knee replacements worth it?” panels are not.
Health care requires error free tax returns
This morning, the Wall Street Journal reported on another one of the goodies that’s buried in the House healthcare ”reform” bill. If the bill passes, the IRS will fine you for any mistakes you make on your tax returns.
Under current law, taxpayers who lose an argument with the IRS can generally avoid penalties …
Safeway's Employees Take Responsibility
The Safeway grocery store chain created its own health plan for its employees. That’s not unique — many employers do that. Over the past four years, the average U.S. company has seen per-capita health care costs rise by 38%. Over the past four years, Safeway’s per-capita health care costs have remained flat. That’s a tremendous …
Healthcare Reform Would Raise Prices
Shawn Tully, at Fortune, details 4 reasons why the current healthcare ”reform” bill will do more to raise costs than lower them.
First, they will impose rich, standard packages of benefits, with low deductibles, for all Americans. Those policies, typically containing everything from in-vitro fertilization to mental health benefits, are usually far more expensive …
President Obama Ignores Physician Assistants
Earlier today, the American Academy of Physician Assistants issued an urgent Action Alert:
In a speech before the American Medical Association today, President Obama once again restated his commitment to building America’s primary care workforce of ”physicians and nurse practitioners” – omitting PAs from the discussion.
Please contact President Obama today. …