Chris Pope
Manhattan Institute
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Past articles by Chris:
Beyond Bailout Federalism: The Case for Nationalizing Entitlements
The Covid-19 pandemic was immediately viewed as a major threat to the solvency of U.S. state governments. States anticipated plunging revenues, along with soaring claims for Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Medicaid, and pressed Congress to bail them out.On March 18, 2020, Congress provided a $50... → Read More
Aiding Insurance Without Inflating Premiums
The tax exclusion of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) has made it the primary source of health-insurance coverage in the United States.During World War II, as statutory wage and price controls were in effect, many employers competed to attract workers by offering health-care benefits. The... → Read More
MI Responds: Scholars From the Manhattan Institute React to Governor Kathy Hochul’s $216 Billion Budget Plan
Scholars from the Manhattan Institute react to Governor Kathy Hochul’s $216 billion budget plan Transit: It is notable that Governor Hochul appears to be proceeding on the assumption that she'll formally approve congestion pricing at the end of this year. In that light, the governor... → Read More
MI Responds: Scholars From the Manhattan Institute React to Governor Kathy Hochul’s $216 Billion Budget Plan
Scholars from the Manhattan Institute react to Governor Kathy Hochul’s $216 billion budget plan Transit: It is notable that Governor Hochul appears to be proceeding on the assumption that she'll formally approve congestion pricing at the end of this year. In that light, the governor... → Read More
Two cheers for Democrats' proposed drug payment reforms
The proposed reform is mostly well-designed, but its price caps on older drugs need stronger safeguards. → Read More
ObamaCare 2.0 is a big funding deal
High costs are the main challenge in America's health care system and throwing money at the problem won't help. → Read More
Interstate Competition Could Make Healthcare More Affordable
The Senate Judiciary Committee recently held a hearing to investigate consolidation in healthcare markets. Hospitals are increasingly buying up other medical providers to increase negotiation leverage with insurers. Over recent years, rising hospital expenditures have been the primary factor... → Read More
Reforming Health Insurance: Competition Across State Lines
Competition across state lines is necessary for any fundamental transformation in American health care. But the precarious financing of state individual-market risk pools, as structured by ACA, is inherently incompatible with vigorous interstate competition. → Read More
Protecting Seniors from High Drug Costs
A study of 49 best-selling branded drugs found that, between 2012 and 2017, list prices increased by an average of 76%.[1] But insurers typically receive substantial discounts and rebates from these sticker prices—and what individuals actually pay out-of-pocket depends on their insurance... → Read More
Renewability protections are key to avoiding 'junk insurance'
Congress should protect patients by extending requirements that insurers renew short-term coverage for enrollees who get sick. → Read More
A fresh future for Medicaid
The program's funds have been distributed in a manner that is neither accountable, focused nor fair. → Read More
The Promise and Perils of Public Options
A review of The Public Option, by Ganesh Sitaraman and Anne Alstott (Harvard University Press, 296 pp., $25.95). The Medicare for All debate has brought attention to proposals for a government-run health care plan, which have been branded as a “public option.” This is often seen as a ruse to disguise the imposition of single-payer health care by rendering private coverage no longer viable in… → Read More
Trump’s Plan Will Expand—Not Gut—Medicaid
The expansion of Medicaid to low-income, able-bodied adults was the largest element of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, both in terms of cost and enrollment. But the structure of this expansion – whereby the federal government, without limit, gives $9 to states for every $1 they spend on enrollees – provides little incentive to control costs. On January 30, 2020, the Trump administration unveiled… → Read More
How the Government’s Hospital-Protection Racket Drives up Costs
Democrats seeking their party’s 2020 nomination seem convinced that health care systems in Canada and Europe are better and cheaper than America’s because the government plays a larger role in them. But our country is distinguished less by its level of public spending on health, which is... → Read More
The Case Against the Cadillac Tax
While millions of Americans were vacationing this summer, the seemingly impossible happened in Washington: On July 17, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Steve King (R-IA) all voted in favor of the same healthcare legislation. The bill in question, H.R. 748, sought to repeal the so-called “Cadillac Tax” imposed by the Affordable Care Act on costly… → Read More
'Medicare for All': The Hype v. Maryland's Reality
“Medicare for All” advocates, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), argue that single-payer health care could help pay for a major expansion of coverage by greatly reducing the cost of purchasing medical services. They base their argument on two principal observations: that Medicare pays... → Read More
'Medicare for All': The hype v. Maryland's reality
No matter how it's measured, Maryland’s regulated health care costs are not significantly lower than those of its neighbors. → Read More
The Perils of Fixing Out-of-Network Health Care Prices
Away from the headlines and ideological food fight over Medicare for All, Congress has quietly been working to fix the problem of “surprise medical bills”—a situation whereby individuals with insurance coverage nonetheless find themselves facing exorbitant unexpected bills from out-of-network providers. The problem has become so bad that Republicans and Democrats have even started to agree on… → Read More
Medicare Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be
The privately managed Medicare Advantage does a better job, though it could use improvement. Democrats enamored by the idea of Medicare for All should keep in mind that the standard existing Medicare benefit package falls well short of what they are proposing. If Medicare were a private... → Read More
The Challenge of Selling Health Insurance Across State Lines
President Trump, like other Republicans, has endorsed proposals to allow Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines. → Read More