Moebius syndrome is a neurological disorder that causes facial paralysis, impaired speech, limb deformities such as club foot, difficulties eating, autism and an inability to smile. Moebius syndrome may have genetic roots but is also caused by misoprostol, a drug commonly used to induce abortions. In Brazil, where elective abortions are illegal, misoprostol is cheap and readily available. Moebius syndrome appears in 20% of children born after failed misoprostol abortions. Unfortunately, misoprostol abortions are also not very effective and 80% result in the pregnancy going to term. “Since the mid-1990s, dozens of cases of Moebius syndrome have been linked to misoprostol.” See the May 11, 2007 issue of Science [pdf].

If you know any limited-government types who are looking for a positive health care agenda (off-hand, I can think of ten), be sure to let them know about a forum Cato is hosting on Thursday titled, “Health Savings Accounts: Not Entirely Consumer-Directed (Yet).”

HSAs are the most important step Congress has taken toward liberalizing America’s health care sector. At this forum, I’ll be introducing a proposal that would let workers own every one of their health care dollars — not just the few thousand dollars that HSAs let them control. Tentatively titled “large HSAs,” this proposal would:

• Allow workers to control 100 percent of their health benefits dollars
• Allow HSA holders to choose any type of health plan
• Eliminate the tax code’s biases toward employer-sponsored insurance and excessive coverage
• Cap the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored insurance and
• Provide tax relief to those without employer-sponsored insurance, including the uninsurable. 

Joining me to comment on the proposal will be the CEA’s Katherine Baicker and Jason Furman of the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project. 

The forum will be held just two days from today, on Thursday, May 24, at 4pm EDT at the Cato Institute. Click here to register or watch the event online. Click here for directions and parking information. 

Jon Christiansen, a former Republican congressman from Nebraska, has founded an organization to create grassroots initiatives to help overcome resistance to providing organ donors with financial compensation.

Currently, under the National Organ Transplantation Act, it is illegal to provide “valuable consideration” for an organ. As a result, only altruistic donations are allowed and an average of seven people die every day waiting for an organ that never comes.

Christiansen’s new organization is called the American Organ Coalition. Christiansen, who is the group’s executive director, can be contacted by e‑mail at jonlc@​united.​net.

Ezra Klein writes about the Veterans’ Health Administration (VA):

The VA system, like many other critical government departments, isn’t being given near the resources to deal with the coming influx [of Iraq veterans], and the consequences will be disastrous. This isn’t a structural problem in the VA, but in our government.…

Good point. If only our government-run health care systems could be run by … well … someone else.

The Justice Department’s Medicare Fraud Strike Force (cue theme music) has announced the arrest of 38 people who allegedly defrauded Medicare by charging outrageous amounts for items that were never delivered … like an $869 air mattress … and … I’m sorry, I nodded off. 

This is nothing new. In Medicare Meets Mephistopheles, David Hyman quotes former Medicare administrator Bruce Vladeck:

“There are plenty of $400 toilet seats in the Medicare program…”

Nor is the amount of money involved impressive. In all, these people allegedly defrauded Medicare for $142 million, or 0.038 percent of annual Medicare outlays. HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt estimates that further anti-fraud efforts could save as much as $2.5 billion, or 0.67 percent of Medicare outlays … I’m sorry, I nodded off again. Here’s some more from David Hyman:

In fact, no one knows how common fraud and abuse are, but 72 percent of the American public believes that Medicare would have no financial problems if fraud and abuse were eliminated. This perception is utterly uninformed by any connection with reality…

Fraud is bad, mmm-kay? But while Medicare’s anti-fraud laws occasionally nab some real bad guys, according to Hyman they probably inflict as much damage as they prevent:

The vast sums of money spent by Medicare create the demand for [anti-fraud] laws to restrain the avarice of providers. Provider avarice triggers a search for ways around those laws, which, in turn, results in the broadening of those laws. As the laws are broadened, they discourage organizational innovation and market entry and catch more innocent providers. This, in turn, triggers a backlash against the law and widespread violation thereof. Plus, lawyers get rich off each step.

We’re barking up the wrong tree, here. If you’re looking for real and substantial fraud in Medicare, look no further than the politicians who have promised Medicare benefits well in excess of the program’s ability to pay, or who pooh-pooh the program’s future funding shortfalls. Again, Medicare Meets Mephistopheles:

The legal system imposes harsh penalties on pyramid scheme organizers, because defrauding hundreds or thousands of people is much worse than defrauding a handful of people. Indeed, if anyone other than the United States government were running the Medicare program, those responsible would already be serving long prison terms for fraud.

Now that’s an anti-fraud operation to get excited about.

Or maybe a small child, judging by CDF’s fairly shameless pro-SCHIP campaign.

Turns out there is a solid case to be made that expanding SCHIP and Medicaid would leave us with more dead kids. Of course, the ideological left won’t engage that debate. 

They’d rather just accuse their opponents of killing kittens.

Asked during last night’s Republican debate about whether his campaign was downplaying his health care plan, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney replied, “I love it.” While praising the plan as a model of bipartisanship — and citing support for it from both Ted Kennedy and the Heritage Foundation — Romney failed to tell viewers what was in the plan.

It’s worth reminding people, therefore, that the plan Romney loves:

• Imposes an unprecedented individual mandate, requiring everyone in Massachusetts to purchase a government-designated insurance product or face thousands of dollars in tax penalties.
• Significantly increased Medicaid eligibility and provided taxpayer-funded subsidies for a family of four earning as much as $62,000 year, effectively extending welfare well into the middle class.
• Creates a Hillary Clinton managed-competition-style regulatory authority called the Massachusetts Health Care Connector. This new regulatory body has already mandated that every health care policy sold in the state must cover prescription drugs and has outlawed policies with deductibles of more than $2,000.
• Imposes a penalty on businesses that do not provide health insurance to their employees (although in fairness, this provision was enacted over Governor Romney’s veto.)
• Greatly expands the state’s health care bureaucracy, creating at least 10 new boards, commissions, and other institutions to study and regulate health care.

Last night’s debate was held at the Ronald Reagan Library in California. The Gipper must surely be spinning in his grave.