Independence Institute: Health Care Policy Center

Established in 2002, the Health Care Policy Center's focus on public policy that safeguards consumers'’ ability to determine their own choices about their own health care and the care of their families. HCPC fights the expansion of government directed health care that infringes upon individual choice. Director Linda Gorman has earned a reputation as one of the nation's leading experts in free market health care issues. » About Linda » Contact Linda » Sign Up for Health Care Newsletter » Read the most recent HCPC Journal » Read Linda's blog entry on the SPN Blog: "High deductible health plan cuts emergency department use" » Read the Institute's Patient Power Blog

Art Laffer on Obama Care

Current plans to expand government intervention in the health care system will further inflate prices for Colorado families without improving medical services, says world renowned economist Art Laffer in a new study for the Independence Institute. The study is titled, "The Prognosis for National Health Insurance: a Colorado Perspective."

The study concludes that President Obama's health care reform agenda will cost $4,156 per Colorado resident in additional federal and state expenditures over the next 10 years. In addition, the proposed government health care expansion will reduce economic growth in Colorado by 4.3% through 2019.

Healthcare Policy Center Director Linda Gorman, along with R. Allan Jensen, (both 208 Commission members) have written a Minority Report response to the Commission's findings (see the press release here). If 40 page documents aren't your thing, check out the op-ed written by Linda Gorman and Ari Armstrong that does a good job of outlining some of the key points in the full report.

What if...Amendment 42 passes? Why not raise the minimum wage in order to help the working poor? Because, while raising the minimum wage hurts a number of people--consumers, business owners, employees, and taxpayers--it's those on the lowest rung of the socioeconomic ladder who will suffer the most. Instead of improving their quality of life, Amendment 42 likely would reduce opportunities for the working poor to raise themselves out of poverty. Read all about it in Linda Gorman's latest Issue Backgrounder titled What if...Amendment 42 passes?

Referendum C: Rewarding the Colorado Assembly for Behaving Irresponsibly: What does Referendum C do?

Amendment 35: Taxing Tobacco Users to Fund Special Interests: Proponents of the Tobacco Tax initiative claim that increasing taxes on tobacco products will improve health care for children, help smokers by making them quit, and help taxpayers by making smokers pay for the extra health care that their habit makes them consume. These claims are grossly misleading.

Linda held a legislative briefing on March 7th 2006 for state legislators covering medicaid issues from across the nation. View the PDF here.