I’ve shared many videos (here, here, here, here, here, and here) explaining how government has made America’s health system expensive and inefficient. I especially recommend my 2019 speech to the European Resource Bank. Now let’s add this video to our collection. One lesson to take from all these videos is that the main problem with America’s […]
Search Results for 'third-party payer'
Third-Party Payer Hurts American Healthcare
Posted in Economics, Government intervention, Health Care, Third party payer, tagged Economics, Government intervention, Health Care, Third party payer on September 23, 2020| 19 Comments »
In a Single Graph, Everything You Need to Know about Third-Party Payer
Posted in Government intervention, Health Care, Third party payer, tagged Government intervention, Health Care, Third party payer on February 17, 2020| 4 Comments »
The main problem with America’s health care system is government intervention (Medicare, Medicaid, the tax code’s healthcare exclusion, etc). The main symptom of all that intervention is pervasive “third-party payer,” which is the term for a system where people buy goods and services with other people’s money. And pervasive is no exaggeration. According to government […]
Screwing Up Healthcare with Government-Created Third-Party Payer
Posted in Economics, Health Care, Health Reform, Third party payer, tagged Economics, Health Care, Health Reform, Third party payer on June 7, 2019| 22 Comments »
In addition to speaking on tax competition at the European Resource Bank in Moldova, I also appeared on a panel about healthcare. I used the opportunity to explain how government-created “third-party payer” has crippled market forces in the United States and produced inefficiency and needlessly high costs. There are two visuals from my presentation I […]
Government-Subsidized Third-Party Payer Is a Great Recipe to Make a Sector of the Economy More Expensive and Less Efficient
Posted in Economics, Education, Health Care, Subsidies, Third party payer, tagged Economics, Education, Health Care, Subsidies, Third party payer on May 24, 2015| 34 Comments »
What’s the most effective way of screwing up a sector of the economy? Since I’m a fiscal policy economist, I’m tempted to say that bad tax policy is the fastest way of causing damage. And France might be my top example. But other forms of government intervention also can have a poisonous effect. Regulation, for […]
Subsidies and Third-Party Payer = Inefficiency and Higher Prices
Posted in Economics, Education, Health Care, Housing, Third party payer, tagged Economics, Education, Health Care, Housing, Third party payer on September 18, 2014| 43 Comments »
People sometimes think I’m strange for being so focused on the economic harm that results from third-party payer. But bear with me and we’ll see why it’s a very important issue. If you’re not already familiar with the term, third-party payer exists when someone other than the consumer is paying for something. And it’s a […]
Birth Control, Third-Party Payer, and the Politicization of Health Care
Posted in Economics, Health Care, Health Reform, Third party payer, tagged Birth Control, Economics, Health Care, Health Reform, Third party payer on September 13, 2014| 6 Comments »
America’s health care system is a mess, and we can assign almost all the blame on government. Simply stated, we don’t have functioning and efficient markets because Medicaid, Medicare, tax-code distortions, and other forms of regulation and intervention have created a system that is crippled by a third-party payer crisis. There’s no logical reason to […]
The Higher-Education Bubble and Third-Party Payer
Posted in Economics, Education, Government intervention, Health Care, Health Reform, Housing, Regulation, Third party payer, tagged Education Bubble, Government intervention, Health Care, Health Reform, Housing Bubble, Regulation, Third party payer on February 21, 2012| 44 Comments »
Taxes and spending are two of the most obvious burdens imposed by government, and I’m glad that many people are fighting against a political class that seems to have a limitless appetite for a bigger public sector. But politicians also can do great damage to an economy with mandates, regulations, and other forms of intervention. […]
Government-Created Third-Party Payer Is the Number One Problem in America’s Health Care System
Posted in Economics, Free Markets, Government intervention, Health Care, Health Reform, Obama, Third party payer, tagged Free Markets, Government-run healthcare, Health Care, Health Reform, Obamacare, Third party payer on August 10, 2010| 43 Comments »
John Goodman of the NCPA has a great article about how the current healthcare system is heavily distorted by government policies that result in people making decision with other people’s money (or at least what they perceive as other people’s money). The excerpt below is a good summary of John’s key points, but I’ll add […]
Abortion, Third-Party Payer, and the Cost of Health Care
Posted in Economics, Free Markets, Health Care, Health Reform, Obama, Third party payer, tagged Abortion, Economics, Free Markets, Government-run healthcare, Health Care, Health Reform, Obamacare, Third party payer on July 20, 2010| 31 Comments »
A major problem with America’s healthcare system, both before and after Obamacare, is the fact that consumers very rarely spend their own money when obtaining healthcare. Known as third-party payer, this problem exists in part because government directly finances almost 50 percent of healthcare expenditures. But even a majority of supposedly private healthcare spending is […]
Don’t Copy the United Kingdom’s Government-Run, Single-Payer Health System
Posted in Big Government, England, Health Care, United Kingdom, tagged Big Government, England, Government-Run Health Care, Health Care, United Kingdom on December 15, 2019| 13 Comments »
I’m on my way back to the United States from England. My election-week coverage (starting here and ending here) is finished, but I’m still in the mood to write about the United Kingdom. Yesterday, I shared some “Great Moments in British Government” and today I want to look at the U.K.’s single-payer health scheme. The […]
Taxpayers Are Getting Drowned by Government-Subsidized Flood Insurance
Posted in Boondoggle, Economics, Government intervention, Government stupidity, Subsidies, tagged Boondoggle, Economics, Government intervention, Government stupidity, Subsidies on September 2, 2017| 10 Comments »
Government subsidies have an unfortunate habit of causing widespread economic damage and often result in huge burdens for taxpayers (though sometimes consumers are the ones getting pillaged). Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac subsidies contributed to a massive housing bubble that destabilized the entire financial system. Means-tested subsidies have undermined progress on poverty by trapping people […]
Clinton and Trump (Clump?) vs. Taxpayers and Free Enterprise
Posted in Big Government, Donald Trump, Election, Government intervention, Government Spending, Hillary Clinton, Politics, Statism, tagged Big Government, Donald Trump, Elections, Government intervention, Government Spending, Hillary Clinton, Politics, Statism on September 15, 2016| 18 Comments »
When Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton agree on things, it’s always bad news for taxpayers. They both want to boost the capital gains tax rate on private equity investment. They both want to let the entitlement problem fester and worsen. They both want more federally financed pork-barrel spending on infrastructure. Now they both agree that […]
Instead of Fighting to Protect Taxpayers, Politicians Are Enabling Medicare Fraud
Posted in Big Government, Corruption, Entitlements, Government Spending, Government stupidity, Medicare, Waste, tagged Big Government, Corruption, Entitlements, Government Spending, Government stupidity, Medicare, Waste on November 5, 2015| 6 Comments »
Yesterday, I shared several stories that exposed the festering corruption of Washington. Today, let’s look at one issue that symbolizes the pervasive waste of Washington. Medicare is the federal government’s one-size-fits-all health program for the elderly. Because of its poor design, it bears considerable responsibility for two massive problems. It contributes to the systemic third-party […]
The Left’s Pro-Single Payer Health Care Graphic: Right Diagnosis, Wrong Prescription
Posted in Canada, Entitlements, Health Care, Health Reform, Third party payer, tagged Canada, Entitlements, Health Care, Health Reform, Third party payer on April 10, 2014| 22 Comments »
The new leftist website, Vox, has an article by Sarah Kliff on Vermont’s experiment with a single-payer healthcare system. But I don’t really have much to say about what’s happening in the Green Mountain State, other than to declare that I much prefer healthcare experiments to occur at the state level. Indeed, we should reform […]
The Economics of Unholy Alliances: Bootleggers and Baptists
Posted in Economics, Public Choice, tagged Economics, Public Choice on March 2, 2021| 5 Comments »
The class-warfare crowd and tax lawyers don’t have a lot in common, but both groups oppose the flat tax. An even stranger unholy alliance involves the War on Drugs, which has the support of both the activists who despise drugs and the criminals who get rich selling drugs in the black market. Professor Bruce Yandle […]
The “Public Option” and the Future of Employer-Provided Health Insurance
Posted in Donald Trump, Government intervention, Government Spending, Health Care, Health Reform, Joe Biden, tagged Donald Trump, Government intervention, Government Spending, Government-Run Health Care, Health Reform, Joe Biden, Public Option on September 30, 2020| 4 Comments »
Last night’s train-wreck debate reinforced my disdain for politicians. But let’s ignore the immature theatrics from Trump and Biden and focus on one of their policy disagreements. The two candidates squabbled over whether creating a government-administered health plan (see page 31 for a description of Biden’s so-called “public option“) would lead to the demise of […]
The Case Against the Public Option
Posted in Health Care, Health Reform, tagged Health Care, Health Reform, Public Option on August 5, 2020| 11 Comments »
Even though Joe Biden has embraced a very left-wing agenda, I suspect many of the items on his wish list are designed to placate Bernie-type activists who have considerable influence in the Democratic Party. As such, I don’t think Biden will push “Medicare for All” if he’s elected. But I fear he may support a […]
Dealing with Coronavirus: What Can Be Learned from Germany and the United Kingdom?
Posted in England, Germany, Health Care, Health Reform, tagged Coronavirus, England, Germany, Health Care, Health Reform on April 4, 2020| 7 Comments »
Near the beginning of the croronavirus crisis, I observed that “government-run health systems have not done a good job” of dealing with the pandemic. And I’ve repeatedly noted the failure of government bureaucracies to respond effectively in the United States. Is there, perhaps, a lesson to be learned about what happens when politicians get more […]
The Worst Coronavirus Policy Proposal: Restoring the Deduction for State and Local Tax Payments
Posted in Big Government, Economics, States, stimulus, Taxation, tagged Big Government, Economics, State and Local Taxes, States, stimulus, Tax Deduction, Tax Loophole, Taxation on April 1, 2020| 13 Comments »
The crowd in Washington has responded to the coronavirus crisis with an orgy of borrowing and spending. The good news is that the legislation isn’t based on the failed notion of Keynesian economics (i.e., the belief that you get more prosperity when the government borrows money from the economy’s left pocket and then puts it […]
Best and Worst of 2019
Posted in Brexit, China, Government Spending, TABOR, Trade, tagged Brexit, China, Government Spending, TABOR, Trade on December 31, 2019| 7 Comments »
Time for my annual column highlighting the “Best” and “Worst” policy developments of the year, a tradition I sort of started in 2012 and definitely did in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. I’m trying to be a glass-half-full kind of guy, so we’ll start with the best policy developments for 2019. Boris Johnson’s […]
Education Week, Part III: How Subsidies from Washington Are Making Colleges More Expensive and Bureaucratic
Posted in Education, Government intervention, Subsidies, Third party payer, tagged Education, Government intervention, Subsidies, Third party payer on November 20, 2019| 7 Comments »
As part of National Education Week, I’ve looked at the deterioration of K-12 government schools and also explained why a market-based choice system would be a better alternative. The good news is that we have a choice system for higher education. Students can choose from thousands of colleges and universities. The bad news is that […]
Buttigieg’s Greek-Style Fiscal Policy
Posted in Big Government, Buttigieg, Capital Gains Tax, Government Spending, Higher Taxes, Tax Increase, Taxation, tagged Big Government, Buttigieg, Capital Gains Tax, Government Spending, Higher Taxes, Tax Increase, Taxation on November 11, 2019| 5 Comments »
Candidates such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders supposedly are competing for hard-left voters, while candidates such as Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg are going after moderate voters. But a review of Buttigieg’s fiscal policy suggests he may belong in the first category. In the interview, I focused on Buttigieg’s plan to subsidize colleges. Hopefully, […]
Senator Warren’s Looney Medicare-for-All Scheme
Posted in Big Government, Elizabeth Warren, Government Spending, Health Care, Health Reform, Higher Taxes, Medicare, Tax Increase, tagged Big Government, Elizabeth Warren, Government Spending, Health Care, Health Reform, Higher Taxes, Medicare, Tax Increase on November 2, 2019| 14 Comments »
I’ve always considered Senator Bernie Sanders to be the most clueless and misguided of all presidential candidates. But I also think “Crazy Bernie” is actually sincere. He really believes in socialism. Elizabeth Warren, by contrast, seems more calculating. Her positions (on issues such as Social Security, corporate governance, federal spending, taxation, Wall Street, etc).) are radical, but it’s an […]
Taxes Are Unpleasant and Obamacare Is Awful, but there’s a Strong Case for the Cadillac Tax
Posted in Economics, Fiscal Policy, Health Reform, tagged Economics, Fiscal Policy, Health Reform, Healthcare Exclusion, Obamacare on July 18, 2019| 4 Comments »
When I followed public policy in my younger days, I periodically would see stories about legislation that was approved by the House of Representatives with only one dissenting vote. My memory isn’t perfect, I’m sure, but it seems that Ron Paul was always that lonely member. And my recollection is that he was (as usual) […]
The Middle Class in America Is Benefiting from “Almost Capitalism”
Posted in Economics, Free Markets, Mobility, tagged Economics, Free Markets, Middle Class, Mobility on June 17, 2019| 10 Comments »
The candidates for the 2020 Democratic nomination are competing to offer the most statist agenda, with Crazy Bernie, Elizabeth Sanders, and Kamala Harris being obvious examples. But let’s not overlook Mayor Pete Buttigieg. He has a moderate demeanor, but he’s been advocating hard-left policies. And he justifies his class-warfare agenda by arguing against Reaganomics and […]
“Medicare for All” Would Copy the Bad Features of the U.K.’s Government-Run System
Posted in England, Health Care, Health Reform, Medicare, United Kingdom, tagged England, Government-Run Health Care, Health Care, Health Reform, Medicare, United Kingdom on April 5, 2019| 25 Comments »
The so-called Green New Deal is only tangentially related to climate issues. It’s best to think of it as the left’s wish list, and it includes a paid leave entitlement, government jobs, infrastructure boondoggles, and an expansion of the already bankrupt Social Security system. But the most expensive item on the list is “Medicare for […]
Subsidies for Higher Education Are Emptying the Pockets of Students and Lining the Pockets of Bureaucrats
Posted in Economics, Education, Third party payer, tagged Economics, Education, Third party payer on December 21, 2018| 12 Comments »
I’m not as eloquent on the issue as Professor Daniel Lin, but I recently explained on Fox Business that government subsidies for higher education have enabled big increases in tuition, an outcome that has been good for bureaucrats and bad for students. In effect, this is simply a story of “third-party payer,” which happens when […]
Trump and the Economy
Posted in Donald Trump, Economics, Obama, tagged Donald Trump, Economics, Obama on August 31, 2018| 8 Comments »
In a recent interview, I got a chance to pontificate about the recipe for growth and prosperity. Free market capitalism revolutionized the western world, creating prosperity where there used to be deprivation. But that observation is the easy part. Later in the interview, I was asked to give my two cents on whether Trump’s policies […]
The Pernicious Impact of Government Intervention in Healthcare, Captured in a Chart
Posted in Health Care, Health Reform, Third party payer, tagged Health Care, Health Reform, Third party payer on August 18, 2018| 13 Comments »
America’s healthcare system is a mess, largely because government intervention (Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, and the tax code’s healthcare exclusion) have produced a system where consumers almost never directly pay for their medical services. This “third-party payer” system basically means market forces are absent. Consumers have very little reason to focus on cost, after all, if […]
The Upside-Down Logic of Subsidized Birth Control
Posted in Economics, Government intervention, Health Care, Health Reform, Regulation, tagged Birth Control, Birth Control Mandate, Economics, Government intervention, Health Care, Health Reform, Obamacare, Regulation on October 12, 2017| 6 Comments »
When writing about the Obamacare and its birth-control mandate, I’ve made a handful of observations. First, it is very bureaucratic and inefficient to use insurance for routine medical expenses. Sort of like using auto insurance to cover the cost of getting an oil change. Second, insurance coverage means third-party payer, which means birth control will […]