Hundreds of Unnecessary Deaths in One NHS Hospital

A new public inquiry into abuses at the Mid Staffordshire National Health Service Trust's hospital has found a years-long pattern of fatal mistakes and abuses. The report makes for damning reading. From the BBC report: Years of abuse and neglect at the hospital led to the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of patients. But inquiry chairman, …

Occupational Licensing as an Implicit Barrier to High Skill Migration

That's the subtitle of a new working paper from Peterson, Pandya, and Leblang. Here's the abstract: Skills are often occupation-specific, a fact missing from existing research on the political economy of immigration. Although analyses of survey data suggest broad support for skilled migration occupational licensing regulations persist as formidable barriers to skilled migrants’ labor market …

Munger on Single-Payer

Mike Munger, Duke political scientist and sometime Libertarian Party of North Carolina gubernatorial candidate, explains his support for single-payer health insurance: I would prefer personal responsibility, and a competitive market in health care. Modeled after the very successful, constantly cheaper, constantly better quality, service in Lasik surgery and other "elective" surgeries. If someone, anyone, would …

Less Economic Freedom, Less Personal Freedom

This proposal in the UK to tax "fatties" highlights once again how once government gets deeply involved in funding health care, the pressures to control people's lifestyles become significant. This is the same argument we hear from supporters of sky-high cigarette taxes, smoking bans, seat-belt and helmet laws, ad nauseam. "We all pay for it." …

Welcome Aboard – Elizabeth Price Foley

I am quite pleased to announce that Elizabeth Price Foley will be joining Pileus as one of our Authors.  Elizabeth is sure to be a great addition to our lineup, especially given that she has an expertise in health care and constitutional law.  Here is her impressive bio:      Elizabeth Price Foley is Professor of Law at Florida International …

ObamaCare’s Canary in the Coal Mine?

An interesting and scary fact from David Brooks' interesting column on the future of ObamaCare: More seriously, cost projections are way off. For example, New Hampshire’s plan has only about 80 members, but the state has already burned through nearly double the $650,000 that the federal government allotted to help run the program. If other …

Individual Mandate Unconstitutional

Breaking news from Virginia federal district court. Consider this an open thread on the topic. I will try to update with reaction from around the web. UPDATE: Here's a link to the decision (PDF). SCOTUSblog has a summary. Orin Kerr says Judge Hudson's decision contains a significant, possibly fatal error.  

Barnett on the Supreme Court on the Individual Mandate

While my fellow Pilei debate the role that moderate Republicans can play in a future return to fiscal sobriety, libertarian law prof Randy Barnett considers whether, with respect to the PPACA, it even matters. What are the chances that the Supreme Court strikes down the individual mandate, including potentially the entire bill, which lacks a …

Health Care Reform in a Dynamic Environment: Any Surprises?

The health care reforms were designed to expand coverage and “bend the cost curve.” Did no one suspect that insurers would muster a proactive response to changes in policy? In Connecticut: “Health insurers are asking for immediate rate hikes of more than 20 percent in Connecticut for some plans, citing rising medical costs and federal …

Oregon to Opt out of Parts of Obamacare?

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) had an interesting bipartisan health care bill with the now-ousted Bob Bennett of Utah that, unfortunately, never got anywhere. But apparently he sneaked into the bill that did pass a provision that will allow states to set up their own universal insurance systems. While conservative states are backing a legal challenge …

Randy Barnett on Obamacare – and a Note on Conscription

Barnett is one of the most interesting voices on the law out there.  I wonder what my fellow blogger Marcus Cole thinks about his work.... Here is a discussion with Barnett about Obamacare from the Wall Street Journal.   It includes an interesting discussion of the mandate as a "commandeering of the people": "What is the …

Is Obesity Immoral?

In his recent column, Michael Medved raises the interesting question of whether America's increasing rotundity implies, given the ethic that our political leaders should "look like us," that more of them should be obese. Indeed, Medved suggests the amusing implication that in that case some 30 senators would have to be obese, and most of …

Experiments, Health Care, and Federalism

As the New York Times reported: Esther Duflo, a development economist at M.I.T., has been awarded the John Bates Clark Medal. The award is given to “that American economist under the age of 40 who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.”  Professor Duflo, 37, helped found the …

Peter Suderman on Health Care Developments in Massachusetts

Obamacare Romneycare at work in Massachusetts. Update: My wife and I are laughing out loud at a couple of the comments on Suderman's post.  An example or two given how serious Pileus has been today: "Or The Great Barack will mount his magic unicorn and sign an executive order abolishing the laws of economics. Done, and …

Rights and Duties

The test of whether one has a “right” to something is whether someone else has a duty to provide it. The two—a right and its correlative duty—are logically inseparable; like mountain and valley or ebb and flow, one exists only with the other. Hence if no one has a duty to provide you something, you …

Is the Personal Health Insurance Mandate Constitutional?

Randy Barnett at the Volokh Conspiracy has an excellent post on whether the personal health insurance mandate is constitutional in any of three senses of the term.  His last point is dead on - if we don't take the Constitution or the Court's past rulings seriously when thinking about what the Court will do, we …

The Left’s Misdiagnosis of U.S. Health Care

Obamacare makes no economic sense. It should be repealed and replaced with true, consumer-powered reform that will force doctors and hospitals to reduce their prices.