John Goodman
John C. Goodman, Ph.D. founded the NCPA in 1983 and has served as President since the center's inception. The Wall Street Journal called Dr. Goodman "the father of Health Savings Accounts," and National Journal declared him "winner of the devolution derby" because his ideas on ways to transfer power from government to the people have had a significant impact on Capitol Hill.
Dr. Goodman is the author of nine books, including Lives at Risk: Single-Payer National Health Insurance Around the World; Leaving Women Behind: Modern Families, Outdated Laws; Economics of Public Policy, a widely used college textbook, and Patient Power: Solving America's Health Care Crisis, the condensed version of which sold 300,000 copies and is credited with playing a pivotal role in the defeat of the Clinton administration's plan to overhaul the U.S. health care system.
He has authored numerous editorials in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor's Business Daily, Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and many others.
Dr. Goodman regularly appears on television, including PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CNN, CNBC and the Fox News Channel. He was a debater on several of William F. Buckley Jr.'s Firing Line shows, and has appeared on a number of two-hour prime time debates, including debates on the flat tax, welfare reform and Social Security privatization.
He regularly briefs members of Congress on economic policy issues and frequently testifies before congressional committees.
He is author/co-author of more than 50 published studies on such topics as health policy, tax reform and school choice.
Dr. Goodman has an active speaking schedule and has addressed more than 100 different organizations on public policy issues.
He received the prestigious Duncan Black award in 1988 for the best scholarly article on public choice economics.
Dr. Goodman received a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University. He has taught and done research at several colleges and universities including Columbia University, Stanford University, Dartmouth University, Southern Methodist University and the University of Dallas.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008Health Alert: Doctors VindicatedBy John GoodmanThere are two schools of thought about what's wrong with modern medicine:
Strangely, the first camp includes almost all researchers (read: other doctors) who write for medical journals as well as almost everyone in the health policy community. On this view, doctors (unlike lawyers, accountants, engineers, architects, etc.) are creatures of habit, stuck in their own (imperfect) ways of doing things. The public policy problem: how to get doctors to adopt the best practices, learn to use computers, work in teams, adopt safety protocols, etc. in the face of psychological resistance. The opposing camp consists of yours truly and a handful of others. Our view is that doctors are just like other professionals. They respond to economic incentives. The policy problem: how to change the incentives in the perverse way doctors are paid. So who is right? Continue Reading at the John Goodman Health Blog
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Monday, August 25, 2008Uninsurance Problem Solved by Executive OrderBy John GoodmanIn the next few days the Census Bureau will come out with new figures, probably showing that the number of uninsured has reached an all-time high. This will cause gnashing of teeth, crying and wailing….possibly driving some people to drink. It will cause apoplexy on the editorial pages of The New York Times. So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime. The next president of the United States should sign an Executive Order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American (even illegal aliens) as "uninsured." Instead, the Bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care. So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved. Continue reading at the John Goodman Health Blog.
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Friday, August 8, 2008Pay for Performance Doesn’t WorkBy John GoodmanThis is from an e-mail from Greg Scandlen: Health Affairs has published an important new study [gated but shows abstract] on Pay for Performance (P4P) that concludes it has had virtually no impact on physician practice. That is not to say physician practice isn't improving with time, but P4P programs have little to do with it. Continue Reading at John Goodman's Health Blog
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Monday, August 4, 2008Health Alert: The Universal Health Savings AccountBy John GoodmanSuppose you could make only one improvement in our health care system. What would it be? For me, the most valuable improvement we could make would be to create a universal health savings account (HSA). Continue reading at the John Goodman Health Blog
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Friday, August 1, 2008Health Alert: The Rest of the StoryBy John GoodmanFacts are such inconvenient things. What do you do when your own study produces answers that are the opposite of what you hoped for? The Center for Studying Health System Change (CSHSC) has a solution: spin the results your way anyway.
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Wednesday, July 30, 2008Health Alert: Is Medicaid Really Better than Private Insurance?By John GoodmanA study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) claims that Medicaid and SCHIP deliver the same care at a lower cost than private insurance (the study ignored marketing and enrollment costs). Policy conclusion: Enrolling low-income families in government programs is cheaper and better for all concerned than enrollment in private plans. As an aside, I've never heard anyone, anywhere say he would rather be in Medicaid than private insurance. People who say "Medicaid is better" always mean "for someone else." There are also other reasons to be highly skeptical, even without carefully examining how the study was done.
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Monday, July 28, 2008Health Alert: Medicaid Reform that WorksBy John GoodmanThe most radical Medicaid reform plan in the country is entering its second year. Initiated by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the program lets enrollees choose among competing private health plans, and they have incentives for healthy behavior in the form of credits to a special type of Health Savings Account. The results:
And for the technical folks, Florida Medicaid will avoid community rating, ala the federal employees’ plan (which liberals are increasingly coming to love) and instead risk rate their premiums, ala the Medicare advantage program (which many liberals hate). As a result, health plans will compete to attract the sick instead of trying to avoid them. NCPA Senior Fellow Michael Bond (who helped create this program) has a summary (of his larger study), which I am attaching as a comment. [Click Here]
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Thursday, June 19, 2008Worst Study AwardBy John GoodmanOne of these days I'm going to announce the winners of my "worst study award" contest. In the meantime, the Commonwealth Fund submitted another entry. The study is an update of a previous entry, this time claiming there are 25 million "underinsured" Americans. After reeling from the sheer size of that number, my first question was: How many Americans are overinsured?…. Overinsured?…. Yes, overinsured. Since CWF claims that the primary reason for underinsurance is high deductibles and since the primary reason for a high deductible is to reduce the degree of overinsurance, one can't adequately study one problem without studying the other.
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Monday, June 16, 2008Race and ReasonBy John GoodmanRacial disparities in the use of the health care system and in health care outcomes have been well documented, including a new study by researchers at Dartmouth. Less well known is that this is a worldwide phenomenon. The Inuits and the Cree in Canada, the Maori of New Zealand, the Aborigines in Australia-all get less care and have worse health outcomes than the majority white populations. [See Lives at Risk.] Continue Reading at John Goodman's Health Blog.
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Monday, June 9, 2008Goodman on DrugsBy John GoodmanThere is a new book out on pharmaceuticals with a chapter by yours truly. Is it the chapter worth reading? That depends on how much you already know. What follows is a list of seven deadly sins. In each case the sin has one of two causes. See if you can identify them:
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