Health Care

Unplugging the Third Rail: Choices for Affordable Medicare

Medicare expenditures as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) are now six times larger than they were in 1967. Without intervention, Medicare’s share of GDP will force some combination of substantial cuts in other government spending, significantly higher taxes, and unhealthy levels of public debt. A new paper by John F. Early identifies the minimum changes required to prevent further expansion of Medicare’s share of GDP, while retaining the existing structure of the program.

The ACA’s Pre-existing Condition Regulations Lose Support When the Public Learns the Cost

Days before the 2018 midterms, 68% of voters say that health care is very or extremely important to how they plan to vote in this year’s elections, according to a new Cato 2018 Health Care Survey of 2,498 Americans. The survey also finds that public support for pre-existing condition regulation drops from 65% in favor to less than half once trade-offs and costs are considered, which goes against the widespread perception among the political punditry that pre-existing condition regulations are necessarily and universally supported by voters across the political spectrum.

Is Obamacare Now Truly Optional?

At long last, the Trump administration has created a “freedom option” for people suffering under Obamacare. A final rulemaking issued last week reverses an Obama-era regulation that exposed the sick to medical underwriting. The new rule will expand consumer protections for the sick, cover up to two million uninsured people, reduce premiums for millions more, protect conscience rights, and make Obamacare’s costs more transparent.

Cato Studies

Rational Self-Medication

By Michael E. Darden and Nicholas W. Papageorge. Research Briefs in Economic Policy No. 160. April 24, 2019.

More Cato Studies

Of Special Note

The Inclusive Economy: How to Bring Wealth to America’s Poor

The Inclusive Economy: How to Bring Wealth to America's Poor

The Inclusive Economy: How to Bring Wealth to America’s Poor energetically challenges the conventional wisdom of both the right and the left that underlies much of the contemporary debate over poverty and welfare policy. Author and national public policy expert Michael Tanner takes to task conservative critiques of a “culture of poverty” for their failure to account for the structural circumstances in which the poor live. In addition, he criticizes liberal calls for fighting poverty primarily through greater redistribution of wealth and new government programs.

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Cato Pocket Constitution

To encourage people everywhere to better understand and appreciate the principles of government that are set forth in America’s founding documents, the Cato Institute published this pocket-size edition.

Now Available

Home Study Resources

The Cato Institute offers a wealth of online educational audio and video resources, from self-paced guides on the ideas of liberty and the principles of economics, to exclusive, archived lectures by thinkers such as Milton Friedman and F. A. Hayek. Browse through some highlights of our collections, for personal study or for use in the classroom.

Sphere Summit: Teaching Civic Culture Together

For more than four decades, the Cato Institute has introduced people, including millions of young people, to the ideas of freedom. Many Cato books are already taught in high school curricula across the country. To advance the ideas of liberal democracy and the rule of law, Cato has developed the Sphere Summit for educators. The opening Summit seminar, “Teaching Civic Culture Together,” will be held at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC, on July 14–18, 2019.