Health Care Reform: A Bibliography For Those Really Interested In The Facts (And Not Just Some Ideologue’s Unsupportable Opinion)
Health Care Reform: A Bibliography For Those Really Interested In The Facts (And Not Just Some Ideologue’s Unsupportable Opinion)
By
Ken Eliasberg
As most of my readers have discerned by now, I have an abiding interest in the truth, a goal that, while frequently illusive, cannot possibly be reached withouta concern for facts, logic, reflection, and scholarship. Thus, I always admonish my readers to either (1) never take anything on faith, no matter how seemingly reliable the source, and (2) to always do your own homework, carefully independently checking out any conclusion delivered to you by any pundit (again, no matter how much you may hold him or her in regard). You have to make up your own mind; pundits, experts, activists, and assorted other “experts” may assist you in this undertaking, but you are the one to make your determinations, relying, in the final analysis, on your own sound judgment (which, in turn, is based on your personal experience and a given source’s track record in inspiring confidence in you). Since my objective is to guide you in this undertaking; since Health Care Reform is a matter of monumental importance; and since much of the dialogue engendered by consideration of this topic has generated more heat than light, I offer the following bibliography (which is hardly exhaustive) to assist you in this undertaking.
Columns & Articles
1. Kill the Bills. Do Health Reform Right, Charles Krauthammer,
realclearpolitics.com, November 27, 2009
2. You Will Lose Your Private Health Insurance, Robert Tracinski, realclearpolitics.com, December 10, 2009
3. How stupid is the Medicare buy-in idea?, Rich Moran, americanthinker.com, December 10, 2009
4. Medicare sausage? The emerging buy-in proposal could have costly unintended consequences, washingtonpost.com, December 10, 2009
5. Health Costs and History — Government programs always exceed their spending estimates, Review & Outlook, online.wsj.com, October 20, 2009
6. A Closer Look at the Uninsured — Why the ’46 million’ figure is profoundlymisleading, Duncan Currie, article.nationalreview.com, October 26, 2009
7. The Worst Bill Ever — Epic new spending and taxes, pricier insurance, rationed care, dishonest accounting: The Pelosi health bill has it all. Review and Outlook, online.wsj.com, November 1, 2009
8. The Heritage Foundation — an absolutely superb think tank that I commend to your attention on this and almost any other topic of interest — has put out a number of columns and studies on this topic, and I offer a few of them here:
a. The Obama Health Care Plan: A Closer Look at Cost and Coverage by Greg D’Angelo and Paul Winfree, WebMemo No. 2114, 10/24/08
b. A Principled Path to Rational Health Care Reform by Nina Owcharenko, WebMemo No.2448, 5/15/09
c. Entitlement Reform Should Precede Health Care Expansion by James C. Capretta. WebMemo No. 2734, 12/15/09
d. The Senate Health Bill: Cost of the Insurance Premium Tax to Individuals and Families by Edmund F. Haislmaier, Backgrounder No. 2350, 12/9/09
e. Morning Bell: Obamacare is Seriously Unconstitutional, 12/10/009
These are but a few of the many items that the Heritage Foundation has published on the topic; again, I commend their website in its entirety.
9. Commonsense Health-Care Reforms — Why are the Democrats ignoring them? by Scott W. Atlas, nationalreview.com, 12/14/09
10. A Savings Mirage on Health Care by Robert Samuelson, realclearpolitics.com 12/14/09
11. U.S. health plans have history of cost overruns by David M. Dickson, washtingtontimes.com, 11/18/09
12. The Worst Bill Ever — Epic new spending and taxes, pricier insurance, rationed care, dishonest accounting: The Pelosi health bill has it all., online.wsj.com, 11/1/09
13. The ‘true’ cost of health care reform; $2.6 trillion by Rich Moran, americanthinker.com, 11/08/09
14.World Should Catch Up With Our Health Care by Jay Ambrose, realclearpolitics.com, 10/12/09
15. Government Medicine Kills — Let’s compare America’s system with Canada’s and Great Britain’s, Deroy Murdock, article.nationalreview.com, 10/7/09
16. The Lesson of State Health-Care Reforms — The major provisions of ObamaCare already have been tried. They’ve led to increased costs and reduced access to care by Peter Suderman, online.wsj.com, 10/6/09
17. The absolute dead certainty of rising health care costs under Obamacare by Rick Moran, americanthinker.com, 10/20/09
18. The $1.9 Trillion Gimmick — The Democrats’ ‘doc fix’ for Medicare payments would shock Madoff, online.wsj.com, 11/18/09
19. Practice on Malpractice — Malpractice liltigation is a clumsy, vastly expensive, self-feeding system. Want to reform health care? Start here by Richard A. Epstein, Hoover Digest 2009 No. 4
20. A Year of Magical Thinking The Democrats’ health care dream is everyone else’s nightmare by Matthew Continetti, weeklystandard.com 12/7/09
21. Obamacare Is Bad Medicine — The current health-care bills do nothing to help doctors, and much to hurt them. by Soumi Eachempati, article.natiionalreview.com
22, US health care still tops, Betsy McCaughy, nypost.com, 12/14/09
23. Healthcare access better overseas? Linda Halderman, MD, americanthinker.com, 12/12/09
24. The Medicaid Nuclear Option — Think Medicaid is wasteful? Wait till you see what comes next, courtesy the House bill by Michael G. Franc, article.nationalreview, 12/9/09
24. Health Reform Could Harm Medicaid Patients — A vast expansion of the program will impose unsustainable costs on treatment centers by Edward Miller, online.wsj.com, 12/4/09
25. Health Care: How to Cure Health Care by Milton Friedman, Hoover Digest 2001 No. 3. An excellent, thorough, and comprehensive treatment of the subject; I whole heartedly commend this article to your attention.
I selected these articles and columns for your consideration at random; there are hundreds of others of equal value, but these should suffice to provide the interested reader with enough homework to get up to speed on this topic.
Books & Monographs
The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care — A Citizen’s Guide by Sally Pipes, Pacific Research Institute (PRI), 2008
Miracle Cure: How to Solve America’s Health Care Crisis And Why Canada Isn’t the Answer by Sally Pipes PRI and The Fraser Institute, Vancouver (2004)
P C M.D. — How Political Correctness is Corrupting Medicine, Sally Satel, M.D., Basic Books (2000)
The Health Disparities Myth — Diagnosing the Treatment Gap, Jonathan Klick and Sally Satel, MD, The AEI Press (2006)
The Cure — How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care by David Gratzer, Encounter Books (2006)
Code Blue — Reviving Canada’s Health Care System by David Gratzer,
RCW Press (1999)
Why Obama’s Government Takeover of Health Care Will Be A Disaster byDavid Gratzer, encounter Broadside No. 1, Encounter Books (2009)
Trillion Dollar Scam — Exploding Health Care Fraud by Saul William Seidman, MD, FACS
Life Without Lawyers — Liberating Americans From Too Much Law by
Philip K. Howard, W.W. Norton & Co. (2009)
10. Crisis of Abundance — Rethinking How We Pay For Health Care by Arnold
Kling, Cato Institute (2006)
There are hundreds of wonderful efforts that have been advanced in this regard; the preceding represent my effort to cull those I have found of particular value and offer them up for your perusal and evaluation. And that is the point here — your evaluation. I am not looking for disciples, acolytes, camp followers or any other kind of loyal supporter. My only goal in reporting is an enlighetened America. Be your own Guru — the stakes that we are currently playing for are just too high to place total confidence in anyone but yourself. Always do your own homework: Don’t rely on any “experts” (even those who come bearing facts).