The New York Times, in an op-ed column, describes how former insurance executive Wendell Potter is now championing universal health care, a “reform” he worked hard to oppose while he was employed by the industry. Potter feels remorse for some of the practices his former industry uses to cut costs, and he wants universal health care to solve these problems.

Potter notes the following unsavory, though legal, tactics used by insurance companies:
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Even in a free market, sometimes there’s buyer’s remorse. That Louis Vuitton handbag that cost two mortgage payments doesn’t seem nearly so attractive when the credit card bill arrives. Right after you buy a hamburger, you walk past a shop selling macaroni and cheese and wish you’d ordered that instead. You love your new cashmere sweater, but you wish you could have bought it for $50 less.

In a free market, there are multiple possibilities Read more

With liberals trying to smear opponents of healthcare reform as “crazy” and “the angry mob,” it’s refreshing to read a news report — from the New York Times, no less — about the many Americans who cannot be called crazy by any stretch of the imagination, and who nonetheless have serious misgivings about the Democrats’ healthcare push.

Bob Collier, a 62-year-old Georgia salesman quoted extensively in the article, questioned his representative Read more

You know, the ones that went like this:

People who come from Truthylvania only tell the truth. People who come from Falsaria only tell lies. Joe says, “I am from Truthylvania.” Jim says, “Joe is lying.” You know that one of them is from Truthylvania and one is from Falsaria. Which is which?

Yes, I know that you can’t tell from the information I’ve given you. I’m simply reminded of such logic problems by President Obama’s cries Read more

I finished Economics in One Lesson last night. It’s justly called a classic; Hazlitt uses simple examples that don’t need actual statistics to prove their point. In fact, statistics can show only correlation, not causal connection; Hazlitt, instead, shows why government intervention must lead to consequences beyond what the brains behind it intended (that is, if we give them credit for making honest mistakes rather than willfully proceeding with their Read more

I’m currently reading Henry Hazlitt’s classic, Economics in One Lesson.

This ought to be required reading — I would especially like to put it in front of every liberal I’m friends with on Facebook. Hazlitt does make a purely practical argument against government intervention, and therefore leaves himself open to attacks from socialists who think it’s morally better than everyone have $10,000 than that some people have $20,000, some people Read more

My husband and I are fans of House, M.D., the popular Sherlock Holmes-based medical drama starring ornery but brilliant Dr. House, the doctor with a painkiller addiction who can solve nearly everyone’s medical problems but his own.

Today, Time magazine features a Q&A with Dr. Lisa Sanders, medical adviser to the show. I was fascinated by her insights:
Being a great diagnostician is less about IQ and more about a certain kind of intelligence Read more

This week, the White House launched its Reality Check page, which is supposed to “debunk” popular “myths” about healthcare “reform.

For example: “Reality Check: Reform will eliminate insurance discrimination against the disabled.” And: “Reform will stop ‘rationing’ – not increase it.” And: “Reform will benefit small business – not burden it.”

Note all those quotation marks I used…because reality says that forcing insurance Read more

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal contained an op-ed by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey on how to reform health care in America. It’s truly refreshing to be able to present something positive about health care, and in this case, the positive is what Whole Foods is doing right. Rather than pay for comprehensive (and expensive) coverage for its employees, the firm instead pays the premiums for a high-deductible ($2,500) insurance plan, and puts additional Read more

The New York Times reports today that healthcare providers can bill huge amounts for their services — sometimes many, many more times than Medicare or an insurance provider will pay. Patients who are uninsured or who go out of their insurers’ networks for coverage are stuck with the cost, and they’re not happy about it.

The implication in the article is clear: that healthcare providers are the cause of the high charges, and that this is Read more