In 1997, George Zeliotis, a Quebec citizen, learned that he needed hip-replacement surgery. But his troubles were just beginning.As is standard in Canada for non-emergency surgery, Zeliotis was put on a waiting list behind everyone else in Quebec who needed the same...
Healthcare
California’s Socialized Medicine Rising
This month, in a 73-page position paper, California's insurance commissioner, John Garamendi, proposed a government takeover of medicine. That the bureaucrat who would be governor prescribed more government intervention is not surprising. But, because the culture is...
Socialized Medicine: A Symbol of Canadian National Identity?
What if your doctor told you that you had to wait a year to replace your painful, arthritic hip? If you're an American with health insurance you wouldn't stand for such a delay; you'd switch doctors or hospitals and get the operation done quickly. If, on the other...
Shoving Government Health Care Down Your Throat
One of the few bright spots in paying for health care today has been the introduction of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), in conjunction with low-premium, high-deductible insurance policies. In what is perhaps the most popular medical insurance reform in history, more...
The Eradication of Polio and the Conspiracy-Theory Mentality
A worldwide campaign begun in 1988 to eradicate the polio infection was on the verge of success when, early in 2003, a conspiracy theory took hold of the Muslim population in northern Nigeria.
Healthcare Nightmare: Controlling the Cost of Cost Control
The cost of health care will continue to rise for a number of good reasons. We are living longer, and the retirement of the baby boom generation will increase demand on health care. Cutting-edge technology and new drugs will improve the quality and length of life--but...
Prescription Drug Advertising is Good for All of Us
When you see a commercial for a new car, a new movie, or a new brand of breakfast cereal it's because the manufacturers of those products want to incur as much advertising expense as possible so they can pass the cost along to you. Then you can't afford to buy their...
Social Security and Forced Government Health Care
When politicians proclaim that you have a "right" to health care, they actually mean many other things. First, that they want unlimited power to force others to provide you with health care--whatever the cost. They also mean that you have no right to manage and...
Finding Alternatives to the Food and Drug Administration
Since the Federal Food and Drug Act came into law in 1906, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has had a century to develop their methodology for insuring drug safety. After expanding to an annual budget of $1.5 billion and a staff of 10,000, they continue to seek...
Health Care on April 15: How Taxes and Government Damage Your Health
As you raise a pen to sign your tax return this year, you will undoubtedly regret that the United States Treasury is taking so much of your income. You should also ask why so much of the income you have left is spent on health care and health insurance. The two...
President Bush’s Prescription Drug Benefit Program
The prescription drug benefit is a monster that should be killed before it is hatched.
Healthcare To Die For in Britain?
In "Die in Britain, survive in U.S.," the cover article of the February 2005 issue of The Spectator, a British magazine, James Bartholomew details the downside of Britain's universal healthcare system. Among women with breast cancer, for example, there's a 46 percent...
Drug Safety vs. the FDA
As studies continue to be released that explore the cardiovascular risks of Vioxx, Celebrex, Bextra, and other pharmaceuticals, the FDA has come under widespread criticism for failing to protect the public from "unsafe" drugs. The lesson commonly drawn from the...
AFCM Interviews HSA Bank President Kirk Hoewisch
The year was 1901 and someone in Howards Grove, Wisconsin, observed that the first automobile to appear in town was driven by a man from nearby Sheboygan. A century later, the town is making its mark on another new vehicle--which has the potential to revolutionize how...
Report From the Future: Health Care In the Year 2024
The Presidential Election in 2024 might hinge on the present health care crisis, but none of the candidates have been able to propose any solutions. The band-aid since the last Democratic Administration (2016) has been three increases in the "temporary" health care...
The Real Debate in Healthcare: Bush and Kerry versus Free Market Medicine
To many it appears the Bush and Kerry healthcare plans are as different as an antibiotic and a placebo. However, in fundamental terms, both are prescribing the same "cure" to our healthcare system that has been offered for decades: greater doses of socialized...
Bill Clinton and Socialized Medicine
The choice facing Americans is stark: the rights-respecting free market of capitalism, where goods and services are produced in abundance, including health care–or the chronic disasters of socialism, where thousands die because of continuous shortages.
Health Care in John Kerry’s World
Americans of all political parties need to give close attention to health care issues in this election year. Regardless of how they intend to vote, they need to understand that health care is the primary cause of increased government spending. It confronts Americans...
Republican Health Care Contradictions
At their National Convention, Republicans will complain of John Kerry's habit of complicating complex issues with even more complex and mutually exclusive solutions. On the issue of health care, however, the Democratic Platform has clear and straight-forward...
Do We Want Socialized Medicine?
Problems with our health care system are leading some to fall prey to proposals calling for a nationalized single-payer health care system like Canada's or Britain's. There are a few things that we might take into consideration before falling for these proposals....
Democratic Health Care Fantasies
Americans who care about their health care need to pay close attention in an election year to politicians of all parties who seem bent on becoming much more involved in the details of what health care will be allowed and at what cost. Neither the Democratic nor...
Health Care Independence on the Fourth of July
Two hundred years ago Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore the vast spaces of North America from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean. Jefferson understood the enormous challenges for the growth of knowledge and liberty on a continental scale. These were the...
Socialist Bush Busted
When George W. Bush further socializes medical care, he not only harms patients; he also harms the case for capitalism.
Get Ready for the Vitamin Police
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now seeking to expand its considerable powers into the regulation of vitamins and nutritional supplements. The FDA has evidently discovered that Americans, after centuries of experience doing so, cannot now be counted on to...
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