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The Non-Problem that ObamaCare Didn't Fix: Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions

"HIPAA -- which most people think of as a law about medical records -- in fact had rules about exclusions for pre-existing conditions.... [T]he problem is that it's complicated to find, and expensive to buy, not that you are uninsurable.... [I]nsurance being expensive -- it is, even at group rates -- is a very different problem from people being uninsurable. They imply very different solutions."

Can the Cleveland Clinic Save American Health Care?

"[W]hat if we actually did take money out of the equation? What if we put doctors on salary and substituted relentless cost-control for 'anything goes'? ... [T]here are places where it works. One of them is the Cleveland Clinic, one of the nation's leading hospital centers. Along with other landmark institutions like Mayo, it was a model for the Accountable Care Organizations provisions in Obamacare -- provisions which, it was hoped, would help simultaneously control costs and improve care."

Shocker: Oregon Health Study Shows No Significant Health Impacts from Joining Medicaid

"Either people with insurance are doing an okay job of getting treatment for all the major chronic diseases -- which is startling, because as you may recall one of the main reasons that we needed Obamacare was all the poor uninsured people who can't control their blood pressure or diabetes. Or that the treatment Medicaid patients get for their chronic diseases doesn't do them much good."

HHS Secretary Doesn't Understand What Insurance Is

"[HHS] Secretary Kathleen Sebelius [recently] said some of what passes for health insurance today is so skimpy it can't be compared to the comprehensive coverage available under the law. 'Some of these folks have very high catastrophic plans that don't pay for anything unless you get hit by a bus,' she said. 'They're really mortgage protection, not health insurance.' ... Sebelius' response is apparently that catastrophic insurance isn't really insurance at all -- which is exactly backwards. Catastrophic coverage is 'true insurance'. Coverage of routine, predictable services is not insurance at all; it's a spectacularly inefficient prepayment plan."

A Founding Father Profit Sharing Fix for Inequality

"Using Washington's cod fishery legislation as a model and Madison's ideas as a guide, we can explore a restructuring of the tax code to condition any business tax incentive on having some type of share plan for all employees -- whether it's broad-based profit sharing or an [ESOP].... Another proposal could involve a tax credit for any corporation that provides broad-based stock options or grants of stock to all of its workers. Silicon Valley would jump at such a proposal."