Health Care

Cascade has been a leader in promoting consumer-driven health care since before the term gained currency. Our 1995 conference on Medical Savings Accounts was the first held by any think tank in the country and featured the creator of MSAs, Dr. John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

While Cascade applauds state experimentation in public policy, we published two reports critical of Oregon’s Medicaid experiment, The Oregon Health Plan, which was the nation’s first explicit attempt to ration health care for the poor.

When Medical Savings Accounts were expanded into Health Savings Accounts and made a permanent part of federal policy, Cascade began writing and talking about how HSAs could help both the private and public sectors offer more consumer choice while restraining health care costs.

In 2002 Cascade published a comprehensive report, First Do No Harm, which outlined the history of American health care policy and described in detail eight myths that most people believe about health care economics.

One of the myths in First Do No Harm is that we would be better-off with a single-payer health system. Oregon voters soundly rejected such a proposal shortly after Cascade’s report was released. Apparently, Oregonians agreed that if you think paying for your own health care is too expensive, why would you believe that paying for each other’s health care is more affordable?

Cascade also has published papers debunking the belief that countries such as Great Britain and Canada have figured out how to provide cost-effective universal health care through their respective governments. In 2005 Canada’s Supreme Court rejected a key feature of the Canadian system when it said that “access to a waiting list is not access to health care.” Canada’s failure to deliver on its socialized health care promises should serve as fair warning for Americans who believe that we must adopt a similar system.

Cascade will continue to publish and speak about market-oriented ideas that can both expand health care access and control health care costs, leaving individuals free to make most of their own decisions in this very important area.

Featured Cascade Publications

• Health Care Overhaul: Congress Can Learn From the Costly Mistakes of the States
  by Eric Fruits, Ph.D., September 2009
• Making Health Insurance More Affordable
  by Steve Buckstein, February 2009
• How to Keep Your Health Insurance, Even If You Lose Your Job
  by Anthony Stinton, August 2008
• Lack of Transparency at the Oregon Health Plan: Simple Questions, Difficult Answers
  by Shirley Iverson, June 2008
• The “Perfect Logic” of Taxing Smokers
  by Steve Buckstein, September 2007
• Bridging the Ideological Divide in Health Care Reform: An Actionable Plan for Oregon
  by Stephen A. Gregg, October 2006
• Achieving Universal Health Insurance While Improving the Economy: A Reform Proposal for Oregon
  by Randall J. Pozdena, Ph.D., October 2006
• “Right” to health care violates individual rights
  by Michael Barton, Ph.D., May 2006
• Just say No to universal government health care
  by Steve Buckstein, March 2006
• First, Do No Harm: Why American Health Care Policy is Failing, and How to Fix It
  by Randall J. Pozdena, Ph.D., October 2002
• Let’s start over on our national health-care debate: Is it time to make people more responsible for their health and real costs of medicine?
  by Stephen A. Gregg, December 1999
• Socialized Medicine in Great Britain: Lessons for the Oregon Health Plan
  by Professor John Spiers, March 1999
• Power to the People: Positive Alternatives to the Oregon Health Plan
  by Peter J. Ferrara, October 1994

MORE CASCADE PUBLICATIONS:

Click HERE for more Cascade Publications

Health Care Policy Insights
in BrainstormNW magazine
“The magazine for Northwest decision makers”

• Which health reform process do you prefer? — February 2008
• What to ask about any health care reform plan — January 2008
• Why is Oregon’s health care system still so dysfunctional? — December 2007
• “Right” to health care violates individual rights — November 2007
• Socialized Medicine in Great Britain: Lessons for Oregon — October 2007
• Be Careful of the Health Care Baloney — September 2007
• Does Michael Moore make you “sicko?” — August 2007
• Health Care Reform: We need a proof of concept — July 2007
• The Delusion of Collective Affordability — June 2007
• Politics Skews Cost-Effectiveness — May 2007
• Who is Responsible for Your Health Care? — April 2007
• Don’t Centralize Oregon’s Health Care System — March 2007
• Two Health Care Proposals for Oregon — February 2007
• Why is Oregon’s current health care system so dysfunctional? — January 2007

More Sites of Interest

• Consumer Driven Health Care — NCPA
• Cato Institute health care site
• Galen Institute health care site
• Heritage Foundation health care site
• Health Care NewsRetail Clinics Expanding Nationwide — quotes from Steve Buckstein

For more information, please contact Steve Buckstein.