Words of Wisdom on Health Care

There have been several opinion pieces in the Albuquerque Journal recently on the issue of health care (such as this one from New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman or this one). That is why it was so refreshing to see this article in today’s paper from a doctor who explains why nationalized health care is doomed [...]

Posted on June 24, 2009 at 10:44 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Sen. Bingaman: Flaws Need to be Addressed in the US Health System

New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman, the only member of the Senate who will have a seat on both committees that are dealing with President Obama’s health care reform plan (Finance and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions), had an article in Sunday’s Albuquerque Journal in which he laid out what he sees as some of [...]

Posted on June 22, 2009 at 4:05 pm by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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The Canadian Health Care Nightmare

Yesterday’s Windsor Star (Canada) had this article about a young man with cancer and his struggle to get treatment. Among other problems, the patient, Mark Hunt, had to travel four hours to Buffalo rather than Detroit which is right across the river from Canada. Notice, of course, that his only treatment options are in the [...]

Posted on June 18, 2009 at 11:01 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Health Care: A pro-life issue, part II

It looks more and more likely every day that Obama will make a serious push this summer and fall for his government-managed health care “reforms.” Recently, I blogged on health care as a pro-life issue. The powerpoint discussion I used during the presentation is now posted online.

Posted on May 16, 2009 at 10:26 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Health Care: A Majority of Americans Don’t Trust Federal Government

Despite the drumbeat out of Washington from the media and special interests, a recent poll conducted by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, shows that Americans don’t trust the federal government to improve America’s health care system. An article about the poll results can be accessed here.
The most important [...]

Posted on April 29, 2009 at 9:23 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Free Market Health Care: A Pro Life Issue

Recently, I discussed health care policy at the statewide New Mexico Right to Life Meeting. While the Rio Grande Foundation does not take positions on abortion or other “life” issues, we are supportive of life broadly-speaking in the sense that socialists tend to view the earth’s resources as being strictly limited with various groups battling [...]

Posted on April 13, 2009 at 5:04 pm by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Medicaid Recipients to Pay for Unnecessary Emergency Services

While some of Governor Richardson’s harmful health care proposals — guranteed issue and mandates that insurance companies spend 85 percent of their premiums on actual treatments — to name just a few went nowhere once during this legislative session.
Thankfully, legislation passed and the governor has signed HB 438, legislation that demands co-pays from Medicaid [...]

Posted on April 9, 2009 at 7:56 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Swiss Model for Health Care?

In today’s Albuquerque Journal, economist Micha Gisser (a senior fellow w/ RGF), discusses a few ways in which our health care system might be reformed with an emphasis on both free markets and “universal” health care. The basic idea of Swiss health care is to generally free Americans of some of the most absurd and [...]

Posted on April 6, 2009 at 11:03 am by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Will Socialism Attract Doctors to New Mexico?

One of the most frustrating aspects of working in public policy is the vast number of policy advocates out there who advocate undertaking policies on behalf of some public good (like attracting more doctors to New Mexico), but fail to realize that their preferred policies, if enacted, would have the exact opposite effect from what [...]

Posted on February 22, 2009 at 6:59 pm by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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Health Care Reform as Economic Stimulus?

It never ceases to amaze me how frequently articles get published in the Albuquerque Journal on particular issues with little or nothing in the way of empirical evidence for that particular point of view. You may disagree with the Rio Grande Foundation perspective, but at least we back up our arguments with facts and examples [...]

Posted on February 11, 2009 at 2:46 pm by Paul Gessing · Permalink · Leave a comment
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