Calvin Harris
Calvin Harris blogs at ShowMeDaily.org, a publication of the Show Me Institute, an organization based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008HSAs in St. Louis Post-DispatchBy Calvin HarrisCategories: HSAs, etc., MissouriThere was an awesome article about health savings accounts in yesterday’sSt. Louis Post-Dispatch. This article outlined a very similar approach to the health care alternatives we study at the Show-Me Institute.A studyconducted by our very own Beverly Gossage emphasized the growing popularity in health savings accounts:
The articlein thePost-Dispatchputs it best when it states, “health savings accounts aren’t a use-it-lose-it proposition.”
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008Interesting Questions About Health InsuranceBy David StokesCategories: Insurance Regulation, MissouriThere is nothing more enjoyable when researching issues than coming across an article you think you are going to hate, and then discovering you’re completely wrong. I really don’t know why I assumed I’d dislike this column by Mary Jo Feldstein in the Post-Dispatch. Perhaps the opening line led me to make the wrong assumptions about it. But, anyway, it is an excellent article, and sort of a counter to the terrible piece by Bob Herbert that I blogged about the other day. This is not to say that Feldstein’s column is in full agreement with the health savings account approach favored here at the Show-Me Institute. In fact, she raises some very interesting questions about them:
There is simply no magic potion to take our health care system and make it perfect. Last night we cosponsored the Steven Levitt (coauthor of Freakonomics) lecture along with St. Louis University, where the event was held. Levitt, in response to a question from a lottery-winning audience member who regularly runs for office, talked about health care. He believes that market pricing has to be put back into the system, and consumers and insurers are going to have to make tough choices about what people can and can not afford. As Feldstein writes:
I see her point perfectly. It is one thing for parents not to take their teenager, who only has a simple cold, to the doctor. That choice allows for more important uses of limited resources. To go further, it is unfortunate — but probably necessary — that dying elderly people do not receive every single expensive treatment possible. Remember when Mickey Mantle got a liver transplant and died soon anyway, after potentially taking away a precious resource (a functioning liver) that someone else may have used to live much longer? (Note: there is no proven evidence that someone other than Mantle died because of that transplant, but the decision to give the liver to him was still very controversial.) It is another issue entirely for people with treatable conditions not to take their medicine because they are responsible for the first $2,000 of their costs before insurance kicks in, and they can’t afford it. I am not saying HSAs don’t work because of this issue, just that it is a reasonable possibility to consider. The great thing about Feldstein’s column is that it is a well-researched piece about a complicated issue, as opposed to Herbert’s uninformed broadside.
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008Bob Herbert’s Weak Attempt on Health CareBy David StokesCategories: MissouriIf Bob Herbert of the New York Times had read the Show-Me Institute’s primer on health savings accounts, perhaps he would not have written such a pathetic piece about health care, carried in today’s Post-Dispatch. Some of the problems Herbert decries — such as employees losing their health care, and young, healthy people choosing to go without — are already happening now. Increasing the options available for private insurance is an answer to those problems, not a way to make our health care system worse. As for the tax implications, we absolutely should level the playing field between the tax code’s treatment of employer-based plans and individual plans. Why should health care provided by a company be tax exempt as pretax income and individual insurance be classified as after-tax? Reducing the cost of individual plans via a tax credit will encourage insurance plan purchases by more healthy, young people — not fewer. I guess in the end, though, it comes down to a difference of outlook:
Herbert, and others like him, think that average people are too stupid to take care of themselves. Needless to say, I disagree.
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008The Future of Missouri Health CareBy Calvin HarrisCategories: Medicaid, MissouriNew Census Bureau statistics show that, from 2005 to 2007, the number of Missouri children without health insurance increased by 44 percent. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Anecdotal evidence suggests [that the percentage] has continued to grow this year as the economy softened and unemployment hit a 16-year high.” This is not too surprising. As the Missouri Governor’s race heats up, the future of our health care is taking center stage. Both candidates have outlined their own health care plans: No matter what happens come election time, both candidates have some major shoes to fill and issues to fix. Nonetheless, they would do well not to stray too far from the innovative free-market health care refrom that put Missouri on the policy map last year.
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