Gasoline prices last year never reached the inflation-adjusted peak of the 1980s, but due to a variety of factors they were much higher than Americans have become accustomed to recently. These included strong demand in the United States and several developing nations, production and refining decisions by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and political instability in a number of oil exporting countries.
Consumers may soon be able to shop for health care the way they shop for groceries. But in order for patients to become savvy shoppers in the medical marketplace, they must be able to discover what things cost and to compare prices as well as value. Today, that's not easy.
Subsidized agriculture in the developed world is one of the greatest obstacles to economic growth in the developing world. In 2002, industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) spent a total of $300 billion on crop price supports, production payments and other farm programs. These subsidies encourage overproduction.
As 77 million members of the Baby Boom generation begin to retire, America is about to experience one of the most dramatic economic, sociological and demographic changes in its history. The institutions we have relied upon in the past are completely unprepared for what lies ahead.
Critics of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) have a litany of complaints. They are essentially the same complaints critics made a decade ago, at the dawn of the consumer-driven health care revolution. We now have evidence that consumer-driven health care works.
Consumer-driven health care (CDHC) allows patients to manage some of the dollars they spend on health care. Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are a mechanism for them to do so.
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) allow patients to manage some of the dollars spent on their health care. Critics say that giving health care consumers the ability to control their own spending will have dire consequences. The evidence shows otherwise.
Medicaid, the joint federal-state health care program for the poor and near poor, is the largest single expenditure by state governments today. At the rate the program is growing, it is on a course to consume the entire budgets of state governments in just a few decades.
Will consumers some day be able to shop for health care the way they shop for groceries? As farfetched as that idea may seem, some believe it will become a reality.
The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) will host a special briefing highlighting three new technologies that solve three key medical transparency issues which empower patients to be informed consumers of health care.
In his State of the Union address, President Bush devoted only a few sentences to health policy. But as the president was speaking, the administration released a five-page document describing health policy proposals so sweeping and bold, they are comparable in scope to Hillary Clinton's proposals of a decade ago. If the White House devotes the energy and political capital necessary to see them through, these reforms will leave a lasting mark on social policy in this country.
One of the peculiarities of the U.S. health care system is that the health plan most of us have is not a plan that we chose; rather, it was selected by our employer. Even if we like our health plan, we could easily lose coverage because of the loss of a job, a change in employment or a decision by our employer. These problems affect all Americans, but have the greatest impact on older workers, who are more likely to have health problems.
Special Correspondent for CBS, journalist, and former anchorman and managing editor of the CBS Evening News
Early 2006 reports on the kinds of health plans Americans are purchasing signal a shift away from comprehensive health insurance with first-dollar coverage toward plans more tailored to individual or family needs.