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Diana Ernst

Joined On: July 24th, 2009

Diana Ernst is a public policy fellow in health care studies at the Pacific Research Institute. She contributes opinion editorials to print media, and routinely writes the monthly PRI Health Policy Prescriptions. Prior to joining PRI, Ms. Ernst was an intern at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C. in the American Studies and Judicial Studies departments. She was also a Publius Fellow with the Claremont Institute in Claremont, California. Ms. Ernst is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College with a B.A. in Government and Philosophy.

2008: A Good Year for Health Savings Accounts

HSAs are still young, but they are part of a burgeoning reform movement called consumer-driven health care (CDHC), which is proving to lower costs and encourage responsible behavior among Americans seeking to save more money for health care. Our previous briefing on consumer choice insurance anticipated that 2008 would be a special year for HSAs.

Indeed, reliable reports indicate that HSAs are becoming increasingly popular. HSAs are a fundamental part of the effort to give Americans greater ownership of health care. The taxfree accounts provide a new incentive to save money for health-care expenses, and they restore choice and control of our health services to us. Americans with low-premium, high-deductible policies can open HSAs, which are offered through financial institutions. Employers, employees, and individuals can deposit pretax dollars into their accounts, and all health expenses drawn from HSAs are absolutely tax free.

To read more, see the Pacific Research Institute (PDF).

Posted by Diana Ernst | Dec 28th, 2007

Grinchy California Health Care

After months of exhausting irresolution, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez crafted the Schwarzenegger/Nuñez health-care bill, ABX1 1, which sounds like it requires batteries and a remote control. As it turns out, ABX1 1 requires $14 billion that California doesn’t have.

A wonderful, awful idea.
In a display of insatiable government spending during the giving season, the California Assembly has passed this bill despite an equally large $14 billion deficit. Although well-intentioned, this proposal for the Golden State’s uninsured is not well-timed, and not well-planned. Many of our legislators need to learn that spending and giving are not necessarily equivalent. Instead, California should give citizens the gift of choice, savings, and health care freedom.

Then he slithered and slunk, with a smile most unpleasant, around the whole room, and he took every present!
Though supposedly insuring more Californians, ABX1 1 takes many things in return. It takes away the choice to become insured by mandating that almost all Californians obtain private medical insurance; it takes extra fees from employers to pay for medical insurance; and it takes away the practice of measuring health risk from insurers by mandating guaranteed issue. It takes an estimated $2.3 billion from hospitals, which is only “supported” by The California Hospital Association (CHA) because it stipulates that hospital taxes must first go to increase Medi-Cal (Medicaid) payments to hospitals before helping California’s uninsured.

What a great Grinchy trick!
Though Governor Schwarzenegger has given up his plan to lease the lottery to fund health care, he has agreed with Assembly Speaker Nuñez to hike tobacco taxes, estimated at $1.50 to $2 per cigarette pack.

For more, please go to the following link at Pacific Research:

http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/publications/id.3550/pub_detail.asp

Posted by Diana Ernst | Nov 16th, 2007

Medical Travel is a Reality

International travel for medical care is an increasingly important phenomenon. Medicine is perhaps the least expected of American industries to face global competition, but as businesses become globalized, national boundaries weaken against competitive forces and economic necessity.

Today, doctors can work remotely from patients, and patients can choose remote health care. Medical tourism is growing, and that makes it more important for American public policy to streamline health care and allow domestic providers to compete internationally. Patients worldwide are saving time and money traveling to high quality hospitals for non-cosmetic surgeries in developing countries like India and Thailand.

Medical malpractice costs, employer mandates, and underpaying federal programs threaten to stifle ourability to compete globally in health care.As long as U.S. laws hinder cost-effective and patient centered reforms that emphasize individual choice and ownership, American patients will increasingly choose health care outside our borders.

Please find "The Globalization of Health Care, Round Two" (PDF) at the Pacific Research Institute Website for more.