NCPA | Daily Policy Digest

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Daily Policy Digest

REFORM CAN HELP CONSUMERS AVOID HEALTH CARE MANDATES

11 Mar 2010 08:19:58 CDT -

If restrictions on buying insurance across state lines are lifted, Blue Cross of Texas would not "go" anywhere.  However, it would have the ability to obtain a license in all 50 states.  It will use the same physician network it now has.  But you, as a consumer, would be able to get lower premiums in return for less onerous regulations, says John C. Goodman, President, CEO and the Kellye Wright Fellow of the National Center for Policy Analysis. 

Texas, by the way, is one of the worst states as far as mandated benefits are concerned: 

• With 57 mandated benefits, only four states have more mandates than Texas.
• Rhode Island is the worst with 70, while Alabama has only 21 and Idaho ranks lowest with 13. 

If you want all these mandates and are willing to pay for them, you will always be able to buy insurance under each state's rules, says Goodman. 

But do you really want a plan that requires you to pay for in vitro fertilization?  Acupuncture?  Drug and alcohol abuse?  Contraceptives?  Hearing aids for minors?  Marriage counseling?  Or would you be willing to give up some of those benefits in order to pay less for coverage best suited to you and your family? 

Source: John C. Goodman, "Reform can help consumers avoid health care mandates," Dallas Morning News, March 10, 2010. 

For text:

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/03/reform-can-help.html

For more on Health Issues:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=16

NEARLY $3 TRILLION IN TAX INCREASES

11 Mar 2010 08:19:57 CDT -

When he released his new budget proposal on February 1, President Barack Obama asserted that the government "simply cannot continue to spend as if deficits don't have consequences; as if waste doesn't matter; as if the hard-earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like Monopoly money; as if we can ignore this challenge for another generation." 

Yet the President's new budget does exactly that -- raising taxes by $3 trillion and federal spending by $1.6 trillion over the next ten years.  If enacted, this budget would increase the 2010 deficit to more than $1.5 trillion, and leave a deficit of more than $1 trillion even after an assumed return to peace and prosperity.  Overall, the President's budget would double the national debt over the next decade, says Brian M. Riedl, an economist with the Heritage Foundation. 

President Obama's budget would: 

• Permanently expand the federal government by 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) over 2007 pre-recession levels.
• Raise taxes on all Americans by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade.
• Raise taxes for 3.2 million small businesses and upper-income taxpayers by an average of $300,000 over the next decade.
• Borrow 42 cents for each dollar spent in 2010.
• Run a $1.6 trillion deficit in 2010--$143 billion higher than the recession-driven 2009 deficit.
• Leave permanent deficits that top $1 trillion as late as 2020.
• Dump an additional $74,000 per household of debt into the laps of our children and grandchildren.
• Double the publicly held national debt to over $18 trillion. 

A nearly $1 trillion tax increase is reserved for couples earning more than $250,000 and individuals earning more than $200,000, says Riedl.  Beginning in 2011, the President's budget will increase these Americans' taxes by: 

• Raising the top two income tax brackets from 33 percent to 36 percent, and from 35 percent 39.6 percent ($364 billion).
• Raising capital gains and dividends tax rates from 15 percent to 20 percent ($105 billion).
• Phasing out personal exemptions and limiting itemized deductions ($208 billion).
• Reducing the value of tax deductions by approximately one-fourth ($291 billion).  

Source: Brian M. Riedl, "Obama's $3,000,000,000,000 Tax Hike," Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2010. 

For text:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703976804575114151637806636.html 

For more on Taxes:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=20

ENTITLEMENT APOCALYPSE

11 Mar 2010 08:19:56 CDT -

Our long-term budget challenge can be summarized in one word: entitlements.  Without Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the budget would be roughly in balance over the coming decades.  But with these programs, and without reform, a fiscal crisis is inevitable.  To balance the budget over the next 25 years would require an immediate and permanent 30 percent increase in all federal taxes.  That is the future we face, and it is a future of our own making, says Andrew G. Biggs, a resident scholar with the American Enterprise Institute. 

Entitlements traditionally have paid generous benefits -- financed by affordable taxes -- to rich and poor alike, because the ratio of workers to beneficiaries has been high.  Those days are gone and will not return, says Biggs: 

• Maintaining entitlements in their current form will require either crippling taxes or crippling debt.
• Alternatively, we can rethink the entitlement philosophy, focusing resources where they're needed most, empowering individuals to make choices and giving them incentives to reduce waste, and buttressing personal retirement savings. 

We spend 9.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on entitlements today and by 2030 we will spend around 14.4 percent. Two forces bear primary responsibility for pushing entitlement spending upward: population aging and health care-cost growth. 

Population aging is easily understood: 

• The baby boom generation is retiring, seniors are living longer and families are having fewer children.
• The ratio of workers to beneficiaries, which is now over three to one, will fall to around two to one by 2030.
• Aging alone will ultimately raise entitlement costs by nearly 50 percent. 

As for health care costs, they are rising for three reasons: 

• As incomes rise, the value of health increases relative to that of other goods (as you make more money, the marginal value of new goods falls, and you would rather live longer with the stuff you have than buy more stuff and die sooner).
• Technology generates treatments we gladly would have purchased in the past but couldn't, because they didn't exist; today they do, and we buy them.
• The falling share of health care that is paid out-of-pocket -- 47 percent in 1960, 12 percent today -- encourages patients to purchase even marginally useful treatments. 

Source: Andrew G. Biggs, "Entitlement Apocalypse: What We Must Do to Avoid It," National Review, March 2010. 

For text:

http://ow.ly/1gCWs 

For more on Federal Spending & Budget Issues:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=25

PATIENTS’ MEDICAL RECORDS GO ONLINE WITHOUT CONSENT

11 Mar 2010 08:19:55 CDT -

British patients' confidential medical records are being placed on a controversial National Health System (NHS) database without their knowledge, doctors' leaders have warned.  Those who do not wish to have their details on the £11 billion (about US$16.45 billion) computer system are supposed to be able to opt out by informing health authorities.  But doctors have accused the government of rushing the project through, meaning that patients have had their details uploaded to the database before they have had a chance to object. 

The scheme, one of the largest of its kind in the world, will eventually hold the private records of more than 50 million patients, says the Telegraph.  But it has been dogged by accusations that the private information held on it will not be safe from hackers, says the Telegraph: 

• The British Medical Association (BMA) claims that records have been placed on the system without patients' knowledge or consent.
• It follows allegations that the government wanted to complete the project before the Conservatives had a chance to cancel it.  

In a letter to ministers published yesterday, the BMA urges the government to suspend the scheme. 

Hamish Meldrum, its chairman, writes: "The breakneck speed with which this program is being implemented is of huge concern.  Patients' right to opt out is crucial, and it is extremely alarming that records are apparently being created without them being aware of it.  If the process continues to be rushed, not only will the rights of patients be damaged, but the limited confidence of the public and the medical profession in NHS IT will be further eroded." 

• At present 1.29 million people have had their details placed on the system.
• A further 8.9 million records are due to be added by June.
• By the end of next year, the NHS hopes to have more than 50 million uploaded.  

The "summary" records contain basic medical information including illnesses, vaccination history, and could include medication patients have been given.  Ages and addresses are also included.  Patients are supposed to be notified by letter at least 12 weeks before their details go live on the system and given the chance to opt out, says the Telegraph.  

Source: Kate Devlin, "Patients' medical records go online without consent," Telegraph, March 9, 2010. 

For text:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7408379/Patients-medical-records-go-online-without-consent.html

For more on Health Issues:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=16

HOT FLASHES, DEAD BUGS AND COCAINE FOR MONKEYS: THE 10 WORST FEDERAL STIMULUS PROJECTS IN NORTH CAROLINA

11 Mar 2010 08:19:54 CDT -

Prior to signing his federal "stimulus" bill in early 2009, President Obama warned, "If we do not move swiftly to sign (the act) into law, an economy that is already in crisis will be faced with catastrophe." 

One year later, the debate over the stimulus bill's effectiveness rages on.  A close inspection of stimulus grants and contracts awarded to North Carolina reveals a rather questionable strategy for the disbursement of stimulus funds.  Many projects seem completely unrelated to avoiding an economic "catastrophe," but rather an ad hoc satisfaction of countless dubious wish lists, says the John W. Pope Civitas Institute. 

For example: 

• Study of monkeys using cocaine: $71,623; Wake Forest University was granted money to "study the effects of self-administering cocaine on the glutamate system on monkeys."
• North Carolina Dance Theatre: $50,000; this grant is used to retain four professional dancers from the North Carolina Dance Theatre's second company.
• Reducing hot flashes through yoga: $147,694; funds granted to Wake Forest University to study "preliminary data on the efficacy of integral yoga for reducing menopausal hot flashes."
• Collecting, researching and reporting on the stimulus act: $115,000; $150,000; $227,940 (total: $492,940); nearly half a million taxpayer dollars will go toward funding more propaganda selling the "benefits" of the stimulus plan.
• Create interactive dance performance technology: $762,372; this grant to UNC-Charlotte will fund the development of computer technology to digitally record the dance moves of performers so the recorded movements can then be reviewed and manipulated by a computer program. 

Also: 

• American Dance Festival, Inc.: $50,000; a graphic designer and archivist will retain their jobs thanks to this grant.
• Construction of a new town hall in Bladenboro: $200,000; $100,000 (Total: $300,000); why are taxpayers from across the country forced to finance construction of a local government office?
• North Carolina Folk Life Institute: $25,000; with the help of this grant, the Institute was able to retain its executive director.
• Preservation of an insect collection at North Carolina State University: $253,123; we were promised that the stimulus was going to "save jobs"; we were never told it would also help preserve dead bugs.
• Greensboro Symphony Orchestra: $50,000; these funds are used to retain the GSO's director of marketing and education manager.  

Source: Brian Balfour, "Hot Flashes, Dead Bugs, and Cocaine for Monkeys: The 10 Worst Federal Stimulus Projects in North Carolina," John W. Pope Civitas Institute, February 25, 2010. 

For text:

http://www.jwpcivitasinstitute.org/media/publication-archive/policy-brief/hot-flashes-dead-bugs-and-cocaine-monkeys-10-worst-federal-st

For more on Federal Spending & Budget Issues:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=25

PUBLIC PENSION FUNDS ARE ADDING RISK TO RAISE RETURNS

11 Mar 2010 08:19:53 CDT -

States and companies have started investing very differently when it comes to the billions of dollars they are safeguarding for workers' retirement.  Companies are quietly and gradually moving their pension funds out of stocks.  They want to reduce their investment risk and are buying more long-term bonds. But states and other bodies of government are seeking higher returns for their pension funds to make up for ground lost in the last couple of years, and to pay all the benefits promised to present and future retirees.  Higher returns come with more risk, says the New York Times. 

Though they generally say that their strategies are aimed at diversification and are not riskier, public pension funds are trying a wide range of investments: commodity futures, junk bonds, foreign stocks, deeply discounted mortgage-backed securities and margin investing.  And some states that previously shunned hedge funds are trying them now, says the Times: 

• The Texas teachers' pension fund recently paid Chicago to receive a stream of payments from the money going into the city's parking meters in the coming years.
• The deal gave Chicago an upfront payment that it could use to help balance its budget.
• Alas, Chicago did not have enough money to contribute to its own pension fund, which has been stung by real estate deals that fizzled when the city lost out in the bidding for the 2016 Olympics.
• A spokeswoman for the Texas teachers' fund said plan administrators believed that such alternative investments were the likeliest way to earn 8 percent average annual returns over time.  

Pension funds rarely trumpet their intentions, partly to keep other big investors from trading against them.  But some big corporations are unloading the stocks that have dominated pension portfolios for decades.  General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, J. C. Penney, Boeing, Federal Express and Ashland are among those that have been shifting significant amounts of pension money out of stocks, says the Times. 

Other companies say they plan to follow suit, though more slowly.  A poll of pension funds conducted by Pyramis Global Advisors last November found that more than half of corporate funds were reducing the portion they invested in U.S. equities. 

Source: Mary Williams Walsh, "Public Pension Funds Are Adding Risk to Raise Returns," New York Times, March 8, 2010. 

For text:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/business/09pension.html 

For more on State and Local Issues:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=40

CDHC - Weekly Health Policy Digest

Provided courtesy of: http://healthcare.ncpa.org/

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