Vacation Until September 6

Hiking the glaciers of Montana until September 6.  I look forward to blogging again when I return.

Independent Payment Advisory Board Op-Ed in San Francisco Chronicle

My column critiquing IPAB came out today in SF Chronicle. It is gated until tomorrow, but I will be travelling so I thought I'd post it now.  See http://tinyurl.com/3v9jczy.

Out of Pocket (Again)

Travelling on business until next Thursday: Likelihood of blogging close to nil!

How Obamacare Threatens Health Plans' Solvency

My column in Investors Business Daily is here.

Massachusetts: Consequences of Political Control of Health Premiums

My column in the Worcester Telegram is here.

The Utah Health Exchange: A Retort to the Rebuttal

Professor Norman Thurston of the Utah Department of Health has decided to rebut my criticism of the Utah Health Exchange.  His article is posted at Forbes.com: The Apothecary.

Prof. Thurston repeatedly charges that I mischaracterize the Utah Health Exchange (UHE) and present false information.

Offline Until August 5

I'll be travelling on business until August 5 and not blogging until I return.

Big Pharma’s Falling R&D Investment Helps Small Biotechs - 07/29/2011 - The Burrill Report

BDO has a new report that examines Big Pharma's cuts to its R&D budget, and investigates the trade off between cutting internal R&D and filling the pipeline by doing deals with smaller firms.
(This is the subject of a research project that I hope to execute within the next year.)

Obamacare Threatens Solvency of Colorado's Health Insurers

Obamacare encourages states to impose too much political power over health plans.  My column in the Pueblo Chieftain is here.

Why Don't Health Exchanges Work?

A previous entry reported and discussed the lackluster — basically non-existent — results of the Utah Health Exchange, and promised to explain why unsubsidized exchanges are unlikely to attract significant numbers of beneficiaries from the small-group market. The answer, I believe, is pretty straightforward: The administrative costs of operating an exchange plus the administrative costs to a small business of migrating to the exchange are almost certainly greater than the administrative costs of participating in the traditional small-group market (or taking account of other “work arounds” promoted by some insurance producers). Therefore, unless an exchange is subsidized from non-exchange sources (as per Obamacare), it will not attract many participants.

While straightforward, this conclusion is not necessarily intuitive.

Read the entire column (and comments) at John Goodman's Health Policy Blog.