So many narratives about healthcare abound, it is hard to understand why no one seems able to fix healthcare. Here are nine examples of commonly accepted wisdom: eight are false; one is true. Washington must stabilize insurance market The latest talk in Washington is a need to stabilize the insurance market with additional, cost-sharing subsidies. The market...
Remember when President Barack Obama said that passage of the Affordable Care Act would save middle class families $2,500 a year on their health insurance premiums? Obama claimed much of that savings would come from taxing so-called “Cadillac Plans” that gave the rich “overly generous” benefits, and using that windfall to help fund Obamacare....
You’ve got to be tough to live in Texas. Twenty years ago this year, after a long history of persistent drought and damaging floods, the Texas legislature passed Senate Bill 1, the first landmark water bill to create the regional and state water planning processes we know and use today. This 20th anniversary marks...
Residential electricity prices have steadily increased for years, up more than 15 percent in the United States (not including Texas) since 2004. A newly released U.S. Department of Energy report on electricity markets and reliability makes it clear that renewable energy subsidies are contributing significantly to the increasing cost—and the decreasing reliability—of the national electric grid. Yet the...
As the long recovery from Hurricane Harvey’s devastation begins in Texas and along the Gulf Coast, the debate over when and how to provide disaster relief is just getting started in Congress. Sadly, the type of bravery and selflessness on display in Houston and East Texas — with Americans rushing to help those in...
For the past seven years, Gallup, commissioned by Inside Higher Ed, has polled the opinions of the country’s college and university business officers. This year’s results are out. They are not optimistic, nor should they be. According to the respondents, a growing number of their schools face not only financial decline but also an inability/unwillingness to deal...
The 85th Texas Legislature’s special session ended Aug. 16. While there were several topics in Gov. Greg Abbott’s call that improved economic freedom and opportunity, which are the basis of greater prosperity for Texans, there was much left desired to strengthen the Texas model. Texans already enjoy more freedom than most other states. For example, Texas...
For many years, Louisiana has relied on local jails and detention centers to house large numbers of state prisoners. State prisoners are almost exclusively all felons who are intended to serve their time in state correction facilities. According to the Louisiana Department of Corrections, there are presently more than 36,000 offenders serving time for...
Do American doctors want single-payer? Two 2017 surveys — by Merritt Hawkins and LinkedIn — asked U.S. doctors whether they support or oppose a Canadian-style single-payer health-care system. Both studies indicate that a large number — 42 to 56 percent — of practicing physicians say yes. Some claim this was a “change of heart,” comparing a 2008 Merritt Hawkins survey...
As a Policy Intern in the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, I have been astounded by the positive results our nation’s students have experienced in career and technical education (CTE) programs. I have discussed these benefits on this blog before and noted how CTE students tend to perform better on...
This commentary was originally featured in Forbes on August 29, 2017. If you thought Texas was immune to the campus madness spreading near-daily across America, consider the case of Southern Methodist University (SMU). This summer, the Dallas university seemed ready to leap aboard the bandwagon of censorship and intolerance. That it ultimately retreated from this...
This commentary was originally featured in the Washington Examiner on August 29, 2017. The Affordable Care Act has made health insurance even raise rates an average of 19 percent. To make the situation worse, payment schedules to doctors continue to go down, making care even less accessible. Washington has two drastically different answers to these problems. Congress...