The only way to fix health care in Canada is to put patients at the center of the system, says Dr. Brian Day...

FRASER

LOW TECH CARE IN A HIGH TECH WORLD

Canadians are often unable to access the latest advances in health care -- even from the technologies that are available to them, says Nadeem Esmail...

FRASER INSTITUTE

THE WHO'S SICK MANIFESTO

Many of the World Health Organization's recent recommendations on ways to improve global health seem to be specifically designed to undermine economic growth, say experts...

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION/FRASER INSTITUTE

BAUCUS HEALTH PLAN IS FATALLY FLAWED

Sen. Max Baucus' (D-Mont.) proposal is a blueprint for economic disaster in health care coverage for Americans, says Devon Herrick, a health economist...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS

HEALTH CARE EXPENDITURES IN 2040

By 2040, the United States will spend 29 percent of gross domestic product, or $9.07 trillion, on health care, according to Robert Fogel...

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH/HEALTH CARE ECONOMIST

LOOK PAST PRICE FOR HEALTH CARE VALUE

Access to new drugs has slowed the growth in America's disability rates, according to report...

MANHATTAN INSTITUTE/NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH/INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

The Medicare prescription drug program cost $44 billion in the fiscal year ended September 30, $6 billion less than in 2007...

USA TODAY

WILL WE VOTE AGAINST A CANDIDATE'S DNA?

Office seekers may one day be pressured to disclose genetic test results, say observers...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

UTAH TRIES CHEAPER COBRA ALTERNATIVE FOR HEALTH INSURANCE

A new plan from Utah insurers aims to make between-jobs insurance more palatable by offering coverage that's less comprehensive but cheaper...

WALL STREET JOURNAL/DESERET NEWS

SCIENCE AND SAFETY

The use of irradiation to eliminate bacteria can significantly reduce food-borne illnesses, says Diane Katz...

FRASER INSTITUTE

HAVING GOOD TEETH CAN PAY OFF

Women who resided in communities with fluoridated water during childhood earn approximately 4 percent more than women who did not, but (there is) no effect of fluoridation for men, say researchers...

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH

Some 750,000 Americans traveled abroad for medical care in 2007, according to a new report by the Deloitte Center for Health...

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN

CLARIFYING THE McCAIN HEALTH PLAN

McCain's health tax credit is larger than the current tax subsidy for insurance...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

MENTAL HEALTH PARITY PROVISION OPENS A PANDORA'S BOX

The mental health parity provision in the Wall Street/bank bailout bill should be reversed or modified to apply to severe disorders, say two psychologists...

BALTIMORE SUN

ARE YOU PAYING TOO MUCH FOR HEALTH INSURANCE?

The average premium for family coverage has increased 119 percent since 1999...

FORBES

AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE

One-in-three Canadian physicians sends a patient to the United States for treatment each year...

TOWNHALL.COM/FRASER INSTITUTE/CATO INSTITUTE

WOMEN BUYING HEALTH POLICIES PAY A PENALTY

Women pay more for the same health insurance coverage than men do, but the higher cost is because women use more health care services than men do, say insurers...

NEW YORK TIMES

An end to employer-based health insurance is exactly what the American health care market needs, say observers...

BOSTON GLOBE

HOW OBAMA WOULD STIFLE DRUG INNOVATION

The high price of developing specialty drugs distorts future investment decisions, says Dr. Scott Gottlieb...

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE/WALL STREET JOURNAL

ADVANCING HEALTH CARE

Liability is a big reason that an estimated 93 percent of doctors are engaging in $210 billion worth of defensive medicine per year, says R. Bruce Josten...

U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE/POLITICO.COM

GOOD HEALTH EQUALS BETTER GRADES

There is a clear connection between student health and academic success, say researchers...

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA/MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

DEBUNKING MYTHS OF ERS

A higher proportion of patients with public insurance, such as Medicaid and Medicare, use emergency departments more than the uninsured, say researchers...

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION/USA TODAY

HEALTH CARE FIXES: PLAN VS. PLAN

Under Sen. John McCain's health care plan, among families making between $100,000 and $149,000 annually, 38 percent would save more than $2,500 a year on health costs...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

By discouraging inappropriate medical procedures, evidence-based reimbursement strategies could save billions of dollars annually while simultaneously improving the overall quality of care, say cardiologists George Diamond and Sanjay Kaul...

FORBES

DEATH RATE 70 PERCENT LOWER AT TOP U.S. HOSPITALS

If all U.S. hospitals performed at the level of top-rated five-star hospitals, 237,420 Medicare patient deaths could potentially have been prevented from 2005 to 2007, according to study...

HEALTHGRADES/MSN.COM

HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS' LAST CHANCE?

Consumer power has gained some ground during the Bush administration; now voters have a decision to make -- whether to extend that progress or roll it back, say observers...

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

AS HOME IVs GROW, MEDICARE PATIENTS MISS OUT

Administering medications at home generally costs $150 to $200 a day, compared to $1,500 to $2,000 a day at a hospital...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

WHO WILL PAY FOR BARACK OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE PLAN?

The cost of Barack Obama's health care plan will be almost completely borne by workers in the form of lower wages, say experts...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS/AMERICAN SPECTATOR

OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE PLAN: MORE POWER TO WASHINGTON

Barack Obama insists that his health care proposal will save American families $2,500, but the costs are truly unknown, say observers...

HERITAGE FOUNDATION

Why doesn't Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) support Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) health plan?...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

MCCAIN IS THE REAL HEALTH-CARE REFORMER

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) does not want to scrap employer-based insurance all together; he would keep part of the tax deduction in place...

MANHATTAN INSTITUTE/WALL STREET JOURNAL

WAITING YOUR TURN: HOSPITAL WAITING LISTS IN CANADA

Surgical wait times are down but Canadians still wait more than 17 weeks for treatment, according to study...

FRASER INSTITUE

MEDICAL LICENSING: AN OBSTACLE TO AFFORDABLE CARE

State licensing laws unnecessarily restrict the supply of medical care, because they require physicians to perform tasks that could be performed ably and less expensively by less-skilled professionals, say economists...

CATO INSTITUE

DEFINING DEATH

As demand for organs increase, doctors are under pressure to shift the line that divides life from death, say observers...

THE ECONOMIST

Just as autism is being found more often, so are dubious explanations for the source, says Paul A. Offit...

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS/WALL STREET JOURNAL

RETIREES' DISABILITY EPIDEMIC

Virtually every career employee with the Long Island Rail Road -- as many as 97 percent in one recent year -- applies for and gets disability payments soon after retirement, say observers...

NEW YORK TIMES

MEDICARE PAID BILLIONS IN SUSPECT CLAIMS

At least $1 billion of the roughly $10 billion in Medicare payments over 2007 were improper, say investigators...

ASSOCIATED PRESS/WALL STREET JOURNAL

PRIVATE EQUITY INVESTMENT AND NURSING HOME CARE

Private equity investment in nursing homes have not adversely affected the quality of care to date, say researchers...

HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL/HEALTH AFFAIRS

REFORMING THE U.S. HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) health care plan would completely replace the current system with a fairer, more efficient one, providing a much better chance of insuring the uninsured and controlling health costs, says John Goodman...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS/FRASER INSTITUTE

To reform Medicare, three fundamental reforms need to occur, says John C. Goodman...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS

INSURING THE UNINSURED

Employers should be encouraged to automatically enroll their employees in a health savings account, says John C. Goodman...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS

E.R. PATIENTS OFTEN LEFT CONFUSED AFTER VISITS

Many emergency room patients are discharged without understanding how to care for themselves once they get home, say researchers...

ANNALS OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE/NEW YORK TIMES

ANOTHER BENEFIT OF HEALTH: WEALTH

Obese people spend a third more than fit people on health services and three-quarters more on medications, say observers...

TIME MAGAZINE

CANDIDATES' HEALTH PLANS UNLIKELY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS

The health reforms of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama will not solve the current and future problems of the health care system, say analysts...

HEALTH AFFAIRS/DALLAS MORNING NEWS

BEATING THE GERM INSURGENCY

Drug resistance is due in large part to antimicrobial drug misuse, say researchers...

RAND CORPORATION

With interstate competition, consumers would be more likely to find a health policy that fits their budget, giving more people access to affordable insurance, say Devon Herrick and Ariel House...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS

OUTSOURCING THE DRUG INDUSTRY

U.S. drug giants are rushing to partner with Indian and Chinese companies where the cost of labor and testing are much cheaper, say observers...

BUSINESSWEEK

YOUR MARRIAGE LICENSE, PLEASE

Employers often find themselves footing health care costs for employees' ex-spouses and adult children who are not in school, say observers...

FORBES MAGAZINE

MCCAIN ON HEALTH CARE

Under Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) health plan, the federal government would provide tax incentives for people to buy health insurance...

NATIONAL JOURNAL

OBAMA ON HEALTH CARE

Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) health plan would require parents to insure their children and would allow children up to age 25 to stay on their parents' plans...

NATIONAL JOURNAL

GETTING REAL ABOUT HEALTH CARE

Health care, no matter how lavishly provided, can only partially compensate for individual differences, says columnist Robert J. Samuelson...

NEWSWEEK

Nearly 12 million -- out of the estimated 47 million Americans who are uninsured at some point during the year -- could receive public health coverage, but fail to do so, according to report...

HEARTLAND INSTITUTE/NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT

CURBING ANTIBIOTIC USE IN WAR ON SUPERBUGS

Monitoring hospitals' use of antibiotics and restricting prescriptions of specific drugs when they become less effective at fighting infections will prevent bacterial infections, say observers...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

ELEVATED RATE OF TEEN SUICIDE STIRS CONCERN

Researchers are concerned that warnings about antidepressants are scaring people away from medicines that could help them...

U.S. CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION/WALL STREET JOURNAL

THE JOHN MCCAIN HEALTH PLAN

Under Sen. John McCain's health care plan, employers could no longer buy insurance with pretax dollars; such payments would be taxable to the employee, just like wages, says John C. Goodman...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS

THE BARACK OBAMA HEALTH PLAN

Sen. Barack Obama's health plan would impose a "pay-or-play" mandate on all employers -- taxing those who do not provide health insurance for their employees, says John C. Goodman...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS

MEDICARE PART D SAVES MONEY FOR MANY PARTICIPANTS

A first year review of Medicare Part D's performance shows that the program is quite successful, according to researchers...

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH

To reform health care, we should make it more affordable and give Americans more choice, says Jay Khosla, Health Policy Advisor for John McCain 2008...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

UNINSURED TO SPEND $30 BILLION, STUDY SAYS

Medicaid and Medicare pays 75 percent, or $42.9 billion, of the amount uninsured patients can't pay...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

MAINE RESIDENTS ANGERED BY EXPANSION OF UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE PROGRAM

"Free" universal health care has cost the Maine's taxpayers nearly $164 million in the four years since its inception...

EMAXHEALTH.COM

INDIA'S POOR GET HEALTH CARE IN A CARD

A new government credit plan gives India's neediest families the funding for medical treatment -- and a tool for charging it, say observers...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

CRISIS OF THE UNINSURED: 2008

About 32 million people, or 70 percent of the uninsured, could easily obtain coverage but have chosen to forgo insurance, says Devon Herrick, a health economist...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS/U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

WE NEED A NATIONAL MARKET FOR HEALTH INSURANCE

The complex problems in our health sector are best cured by a bigger dose of market competition, not more government intervention, says Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute...

WALL STREET JOURNAL/U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

John McCain's health care proposal would help rein in the nation's ballooning health care costs, says John Goodman...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS/DALLAS MORNING NEWS

CONSUMERS KNOW THE TIME IS RIGHT FOR MARKET-BASED HEALTH CARE REFORM

A market-based solution to the health care crisis is a win/win/win, says Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute...

HEARTLAND INSTITUTE

HOSPITAL DEATH RATES UNVEILED

Knowing a hospital's death rates give consumers more power to influence the quality of their medical care, says Lisa Iezzoni, associate director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Health Policy...

U.S. CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES/USA TODAY

MEDICAID IN FLORIDA

Florida's "Empowered Care" pilot program might provide valuable lessons to reform other state Medicaid programs, say observers...

CAROLINA JOURNAL

IMPORTING COMPETITION

The coming boom in medical travel could help both rich and poor, say observers...

THE ECONOMIST

BENEFITS OF TELEMEDICINE

TelaDoc Medical Services allows patients who are away from home to obtain less expensive and time-consuming treatment by contacting a local physician, rather than visiting an emergency room or expensive urgent care center, says health economist Devon Herrick...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS

The rationale for adopting health savings accounts by individuals continues to be savings on premiums and retirement options, according to report...

INFORMATION STRATEGIES, INC.

MEDICAL TOURISM: HEALTH CARE FREE TRADE

As more insured patients begin to travel abroad for low-cost medical procedures, medical tourism will result in sorely needed competition in the American health care industry, says policy analyst Devon Herrick...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS

MASSACHUSETTS'S HEALTH CARE

Allowing consumers to choose a consumer-driven health plan that meets their needs is better than forcing people into expensive plans with low cost-sharing, says policy analyst Devon Herrick...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS/EMAXHEALTH

HEALTH CARE DEBATE MAY HINGE ON POOLING

Pooling may be the solution to the small business health care gap, say observers...

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS/REUTERS

CHANGE IN THE AIR

A federal ban on ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) will affect 22.9 million people in the United States who suffer from asthma, say observers...

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

WHY SAFE KIDS ARE BECOMING FAT KIDS

America has stripped all the fun out of playtime, says Philip Howard, chairman of Common Good...

CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL/USA TODAY

Health savings accounts are too restrictive, says John C. Goodman...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS/DALLAS BUSINESS JOURNAL

THE GERMS ARE POTENT, BUT SO IS A KISS

There are 1.7 million hospital infections a year, resulting in nearly 90,000 deaths, costing the health system more than $11 billion, estimates the Centers for Disease Control...

NEW YORK TIMES

LOS ANGELES BARS HOSPITALS FROM DUMPING HOMELESS PATIENTS

Los Angeles hospitals are worried that a new ordinance may put an undue burden on them...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

A FORK IN THE ROAD: OBAMA, MCCAIN AND HEALTH CARE

Sen. Obama's health plan, with its heavy reliance on government, leads to the same problems that bedevil universal health care systems all over the world: limited patient choices and rationed care, says Michael Tanner...

CATO INSTITUTE

OPTIONS FOR AVOIDING CROWDED EMERGENCY ROOMS

Urgent-care clinics are staffed by physicians, offer wait times as little as a few minutes and charge $60 to $200 depending on the procedure...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

MARKET-BASED HEALTH INSURANCE IS PREDOMINANT FORM OF COVERAGE

For most Americans, market-based health insurance remains the predominant form of health coverage, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures...

HEARTLAND INSTITUTE

There are good reasons why an internationally competitive pharmaceutical industry has not emerged spontaneously in Africa, say observers...

FRASER INSTITUTE

THE PRICE OF ROMNEYCARE

"Free" insurance is getting very expensive in Massachusetts, say observers...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

MCCAIN ON HEALTH CARE REFORM

The McCain health plan does not raise taxes or lower them. Instead, it takes the existing system of tax subsidies and treats everyone alike, regardless of income or job status, says John C. Goodman...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS/WALL STREET JOURNAL

WHY HAVEN'T HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS CAUGHT ON?

Only 5 percent of the 114 million Americans covered by employer-provided health insurance have opted for health savings accounts...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS/DALLAS MORNING NEWS

AMERICANS LOOKING NEAR, FAR TO SAVE ON HEALTH CARE

About 750,000 Americans headed abroad for major health care last year and an estimated 1.5 million will do so this year, according to report...

DELOITTE CENTER FOR HEALTH SOLUTIONS/CNN.COM