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| Issue #8, May 9, 2006 |
Cato Releases Study by Canadian Revolutionary Dr. Jacques Chaoulli
On June 6, 2005, Canada’s Supreme Court handed down a ruling that dealt a body blow to that country’s state-run health care monopoly. The court ruled that when the Quebec government forces Canadian patients to endure unreasonable delays for medical care and denies patients the ability to purchase private health insurance that would allow them to obtain medical care on their own, the government violates its citizens’ fundamental human rights to life, liberty, and personal security. The ruling in Chaoulli v. Quebec is a stern indictment of Canada’s single-payer health care system.
Yesterday, the Cato Institute released a study authored by Jacques Chaoulli, the French-born Canadian doctor who successfully litigated that case on his own behalf despite no formal legal training. In “A Seismic Shift: How Canada’s Supreme Court Sparked a Patients’ Rights Revolution,” Chaoulli discusses the Canadian health care system, the history of state-run health insurance schemes, the court’s ruling in Chaoulli v. Quebec, and the implications of that ruling for patients’ rights around the globe.
Chaoulli argues that Chaoulli v. Quebec should encourage the U.S. to overturn government regulations that restrict patient freedom and access to care, such as the U.S. Medicare program’s restrictions on private payments, the ban on payments to providers of transplantable organs, and rules that restrict terminally ill patients’ access to drugs that have not yet been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Specifically, Chaoulli praises the pending case Abigail Alliance v. Eschenbach, in which a group of terminally ill patients is suing the FDA for violating their Fifth Amendment rights to life and liberty.
Medicare Trustees: Program’s Outlook Even More Dire
On May 1, the Medicare program’s trustees released their annual report on the financial outlook for Medicare. Highlights of the report include the following:
- The gap between what Medicare promises and what it can deliver has grown since last year. The amount of money that Congress would have to put in an interest-bearing account today to cover that gap in perpetuity grew to over $70 trillion.
- As of this year, the 2.9 percent per-worker Hospital Insurance payroll tax is no longer sufficient to finance hospital expenditures under Medicare.
- The trustees took the first step in a process that could lead to Medicare reform legislation next year. It is likely that next year’s trustees report will trigger a legal requirement that the president submit to Congress legislation that will keep general revenue funding below 45 percent of outlays.
- The trustees report perpetuated the myth that there is a Medicare trust fund.
Cato Releases Crisis of Abundance: Rethinking How We Pay for Health Care
In the new Cato Institute book Crisis of Abundance: Rethinking How We Pay for Health Care, Cato adjunct scholar Arnold Kling argues that the way we finance health care matches neither the needs of patients nor the way medicine is practiced. The availability of “premium medicine,” together with patients who are insulated from costs, means that Americans are not getting maximum value per dollar spent. Using basic economic concepts, Kling demonstrates that a greater reliance on private saving and market innovation would eliminate waste, contain health care costs, and improve the quality of care.
Today Show Gives a Boost to Health Care Consumerism
On May 2, the Today show ran a pro-consumerism segment on how patients can shop, obtain price information, and negotiate discounts for medical care. A story based on that segment can be found here. The segment discussed services such as HealthGrades that provide price information on thousands of providers and procedures around the country.
New England Journal of Medicine Reviews Healthy Competition
The April 27 issue of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine reviewed Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It, a book by Cato scholars Michael F. Cannon and Michael D. Tanner. Smith College economics professor Deborah Haas-Wilson writes, “Healthy Competition is a timely and important contribution to this debate. The authors argue passionately that markets are the best available vehicle for reforming the health care system. In general, their philosophy is that reform should increase the number of decisions made by patients and decrease the number of decisions made by government officials.” Read the full review.
Cato Launches New Blog: Cato@Liberty
The Cato Institute has unveiled its daily weblog, Cato@Liberty. The blog allows Cato scholars to provide more timely commentary on policy issues and events of the day. Cato@Liberty includes commentary from Cato’s health policy scholars. Recent posts have discussed Medicare Part D, universal coverage, Medicare’s financial outlook, and the recent D.C. Circuit court decision on access to experimental drugs for terminally ill patients.
Upcoming Cato Institute Events
Is the Massachusetts Health Plan a Model for the Nation?
Capitol Hill Briefing
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
12:00 PM (Lunch included)
2226 Rayburn House Office Building
Featuring Ron Pollack, executive director, Families USA; Arnold Kling, adjunct scholar, Cato Institute; and Michael Tanner, director, health and welfare studies, Cato Institute.
Click here to register.
Health Care University
12:00–1:30 PM daily (Lunch included)
Tuesday, May 30 – Friday, June 3
Health care fundamentals for Capitol Hill staff by Cato scholars Mike Tanner, Peter Van Doren, and Michael F. Cannon.
B338 Rayburn House Office Building
Recent Cato Institute Media Appearances
“GOP Health Proposals Sickening,” by Michael F. Cannon, Boston Herald, May 3, 2006.
Michael Cannon discussed Hurricane Katrina victims and Medicaid on American Public Media’s Marketplace (April 18, 2006). Listen to the segment here.
“The Massachusetts Delusion,” by Arnold Kling, TCSDaily.com, April 12, 2006.
Healthy Competition is a periodic newsletter produced by the Cato Institute. It features news and commentary on current health policy issues from a free-market perspective. If you wish to subscribe to this free newsletter, update your address, or be removed from our list, please click here and follow the instructions. Send feedback to healthycompetition@cato.org.
"Health Savings Accounts Work," by Michael F. Cannon, Philadelphia Inquirer, February 5, 2006.
Healthy Competition is a periodic newsletter produced by the Cato Institute. It features news and commentary on current health policy issues from a free-market perspective. If you wish to subscribe to this free newsletter, update your address, or be removed from our list, please click here and follow the instructions. Send feedback to healthycompetition@cato.org.