Category: Health

Reducing Tobacco Risks With Smokeless Tobacco, by James P. Gelfand

National Policy Analysis #479 /
Despite the Surgeon General's warning, anti-smoking campaigns, anti-smoking regulations and over 440,000 smoking-related American deaths annually,1 approximately a quarter of American adults still smoke cigarettes. For approximately 40 percent of them, an addiction to nicotine keeps them puffing.2 Their addictions ...
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House to Vote on Prescription Drug Reimportation – Measure One of the More Divisive in Recent Memory

Press Release /
The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Thursday on a controversial provision that would lift restrictions on the reimportation of prescription drugs. Debate over the proposal has been extremely divisive and the vote is expected to be close. Edmund ...
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Mr. President: Your Desire for Bill-Signing Ceremony on Medicare’s 35th Anniversary Isn’t Worth Turning the New Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit into a Political and Policy Disaster

Press Release /
If a Medicare prescription drug benefit is important enough to spend $400 billion taxpayer dollars on, its important enough to do properly, says The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative Capitol Hill think-tank that is calling on the ...
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Really Strange Bedfellows: The Odd Alliance Promoting Drug Re-Importation, by Edmund F. Haislmaier

National Policy Analysis #472 /
"Politics makes for strange bedfellows," goes the old adage. But sometimes the bedfellows aren't just a little strange. Sometimes they're... um... ah... well... really strange. Consider the case of Congressman Gil Gutknecht. He's a solid conservative Republican - pro-free-market, against ...
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Dying for a Discount: The Dangers in Importing Drugs, by Edmund F. Haislmaier

National Policy Analysis #476 /
Sometimes bad ideas don't die. Like creatures in a scary movie, they keep coming back. In 2001, legislation to ease importation of cheaper drugs from abroad was the hot idea in health policy circles. Then came September 11, followed by ...
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Doctors, Not Lawyers, Should Treat Mental Illness

National Policy Analysis #464 /
When the nation's top psychiatrists gather May 17-22 in San Francisco for the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, they will be struggling with a vexing dilemma. They will also be closely watched by personal injury lawyers. At issue: ...
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Transplant Details Raise Cruel Questions, by Kimberley Wilson

New Visions Commentary /
You'd have to be made of granite to not be moved by Jessica Santillan's plight. The sweet-faced 17-year-old weighed 85 pounds and suffered from a birth defect that left her heart and lungs unable to function properly. Her one chance ...
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The Medical Liability Crisis Affects Us All, by Edmund F. Haislmaier

National Policy Analysis #454 /
January saw an outbreak of an unfamiliar phenomenon in the U.S. - strikes by doctors. While such strikes are commonplace in countries with nationalized health systems, in the U.S. they have been relatively rare. But unlike their foreign counterparts, U.S ...
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Hollywood Goes Political Yet Again: “Issues Placement” Strategy Promotes Government-Run Health Care

National Policy Analysis #456 /
In the 1997 movie "As Good As It Gets," the single-mom waitress played by Helen Hunt delighted audiences when she cursed her HMO. The response was spontaneous and genuine, but Hunt's lines were far from spontaneous - they actually were ...
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Lawyers in Your Medicine Cabinet May Keep Needed Drugs Out, by Edmund F. Haislmaier

National Policy Analysis #450 /
A disturbing aspect of the growing litigation crisis is its potential for harming the health of Americans. This threat comes in part from class action lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies over prescription drug side effects. At first glance, this may seem ...
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The National Center for Public Policy Research is a communications and research foundation supportive of a strong national defense and dedicated to providing free market solutions to today’s public policy problems. We believe that the principles of a free market, individual liberty and personal responsibility provide the greatest hope for meeting the challenges facing America in the 21st century.