The United Network for Organ Sharing on its website provides a running total of the number of people waiting for an organ transplant. Today that number is at 98,059. Next Thursday, Cato is holding a policy forum “Human Organs for Sale?” where solutions for solving the U.S. organ shortage will be discussed by well known advocates both for and against the sale of organs. Also under discussion will be Iran’s organ vending system which some say is so successful that Iran has been without an organ waiting list for almost a decade. To join us, please register at events@cato.org.
Cato at Liberty
Cato at Liberty
Email Signup
Sign up to have blog posts delivered straight to your inbox!
Topics
Regulation
Thanks, Mayor Bloomberg
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s continuing crusade to manage every aspect of his constituents’ lives has generated another perverse consequence: Customers of Wendy’s in New York will now get less information on nutrition than they did before the newest regulations. Wendy’s has posted this notice “For NYC Customers” on its Nutrition website:
Special notice to inquiries originating from New York City:
We regret that Wendy’s cannot provide product calorie information to residents or customers in New York City. The New York City Department of Health passed a regulation requiring restaurants that already provide calorie information to post product calories on their menu boards — using the same type size as the product listing.
We fully support the intent of this regulation; however, since most of our food is made-to-order, there isn’t enough room on our existing menu boards to comply with the regulation. We have for years provided complete nutritional information on posters inside the restaurant and on our website. To continue to provide caloric information to residents and customers of our New York City restaurants on our website and on our nutritional posters would subject us to this regulation. As a result, we will no longer provide caloric information to residents and customers of our New York City restaurants.
We regret this inconvenience. If you have questions about this regulation, please contact the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and refer to Health Code Section 81.50.
Related Tags
Thank You For Smoking
A central claim of those eager for restrictions on tobacco use is that smokers cost society more.
A new study from the Netherlands may help lay that oft heard chestnut to rest. The study shows that there would be no cost savings for governments and taxpayers from preventing obesity or reducing illnesses caused by smoking.
The study found, quite to the contrary, that healthy people cost more.
The study, undertaken by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in Holland, found that ultimately healthy people, who live on average four years longer than obese people and seven years longer than smokers, cost the health system about $417,000 from the age of 20 compared to $371,000 for obese people and $326,000 for smokers.
One of the economists working on the study commented: “if you live longer, then you cost the health system more.”
Related Tags
Market Prices ≈ Slavery ≈ Child Labor?
That’s how Len Nichols of the New America Foundation described market prices for health insurance 41 minutes into this this webcast:
“We stopped child labor. We stopped slavery. We ought to stop extreme risk selection, too.”
I imagine more than a few actuaries and twentysomethings would be offended by the comparison.
Thanks to alert viewer Terry Holman for catching what I missed as I sat there listening to Nichols.
Related Tags
Is an Individual Mandate the Way to Reform Health Care?
That’s what Sherry Glied (Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health), Len Nichols (New America Foundation) and I discuss with Larry Levitt in this Kaiser Family Foundation webcast.
Related Tags
Common Sense, Free Enterprise Values in Virginia
The Richmond Times-Dispatch issues a stirring editorial call today for free-enterprise insurance reform. It’s worth quoting in full:
In a state that ostensibly is a bastion of capitalism, government intervention in the marketplace turns up surprisingly often. Two parties who are negotiating a contract for a good or service often find a third party — the commonwealth — sticking its nose in where it doesn’t belong.
For decades, Virginia law prevented insurance companies and policyholders from deciding who could receive health coverage. Not until three years ago did the General Assembly pass legislation allowing group accident and sickness policies to cover any class of persons mutually agreed upon by the insurance company and the policyholder.
Before then, health-insurance coverage was limited to spouses and dependent children. If a worker wanted to include someone else in his or her coverage, the law said he couldn’t — even if the worker’s employer and the insurance company both were happy to fulfill the request.
This year Del. Adam Ebbin is sponsoring legislation (HB 865) that would open up life-insurance coverage in much the same way: It would allow insurance companies to offer group coverage to anyone policyholders wished to cover — brother or sister, elderly parent, life partner, or third cousin twice removed — not just spouses and children.
Note well what this bill is not: a mandate. Insurance companies would not be required to cover anybody they did not wish to. They would remain free to reject coverage they did not care to offer. They simply would not be prohibited from covering persons they are willing to cover.
In a free market, that is precisely how insurance ought to work: The buyer and the seller of the policy work out the terms between themselves. The state’s job is merely to enforce the contract — not to write it. Ebbin’s bill deserves a resounding and unanimous aye.
The Times-Dispatch is well known as a conservative editorial page, so it’s gratifying to see them endorsing this pro-free enterprise, pro-business bill — even though some conservatives might object to it on the grounds that it will allow, though not compel, businesses to offer group life insurance to employees with same-sex partners. The Times-Dispatch commendably wants such issues worked out within companies, not by a state legislative ban.
Emerging Technologies: A New Era of Regulation
The world is gearing up to regulate new technologies such as genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, robotics, and nanotechnology. While extensive regulation of all these areas is under consideration, the most pressing in policymakers’ minds seems to be nanotechnology. And no wonder — the industry is booming. Lux Research estimates that nanotechnology was incorporated into more than $50 billion worth of manufactured goods last year, and that by 2014 the nanotechnology market will grow to a $2.6 trillion industry.
On February 28–29, 2008, the Food and Drug Law Institute is sponsoring the First Annual Conference on Nanotechnology Law, Regulation and Policy in Washington, D.C. No where in the world does any nano-specific regulation exist. But it is on its way. At this conference government officials such as Norris Alderson, FDA Associate Commissioner for Science; Michael Taylor, author of an FDA report on nanotechnology and Sen. Ron Wyden, co-chair of the Congressional Nanotechnology Caucus will describe their vision for future nanotechnology regulation.
On January 22, science and technology advisors to European presidents, the EU, and various multinational organizations attended a meeting in London sponsored by the Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies to discuss the risks, policies, and ethics associated with emerging technologies. The meeting was confidential, and attendees agreed not to quote any of the participants, but I am allowed to share my prepared comments: