Merrill Matthews
Merrill Matthews Jr., Ph.D., is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation. He is a public policy analyst specializing in health care, Social Security, welfare and Internet issues, and is the author of numerous studies in health policy, as well as other public policy issues. He is past president of the Health Economics Roundtable for the National Association for Business Economics, the largest trade association of business economists, and health policy advisor for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a bipartisan association of state legislators.
Dr. Matthews serves as the medical ethicist for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s Institutional Review Board for Human Experimentation, and has contributed chapters to two recently published books: Physician Assisted Suicide: Expanding the Debate (Routledge, 1998) and The 21st Century Health Care Leader (Josey-Bass, 1998).
He is a “Brain Trust” columnist for Investor’s Business Daily and has been published in numerous journals and newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, USA Today and The Washington Times. He is the political analyst for USA Radio Network and an occasional commentator for National Public Radio.
Dr. Matthews received his Ph.D. in Philosophy and Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008Health Insurance PoolsBy Merrill Matthews, Jr.Filed As: Health CareOne public-policy challenge is to find a way to provide coverage to the uninsurable without destroying the individual health insurance market. High-risk pools are one way, as I discussed in a recent op-ed published by the Washington ... more »»
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Thursday, June 19, 2008Last One in the Pool ... May Not Make Any DifferenceBy Merrill Matthews, Jr.Filed As: Health CareIn Tennessee, Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) has signed into law a bill (S.B. 4014) to allow small employers to form cooperatives to negotiate for group health insurance. Several state legislatures have considered plans in recent years to form similar business cooperatives in an effort to reduce the costs of small ... more »»
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008From a Private Good to a Public Good to a Public BadBy Merrill Matthews, Jr.Filed As: Health CareJust last week I was commenting to someone how long it had been since I had heard anything from Families USA, the pro-government run health care group that likes to call itself a "consumer" organization."Could it be," I asked, "that they had decided to find something useful ... more »»
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Friday, June 6, 2008Minnesota Tones Down Expansion PlansBy Merrill Matthews, Jr.Filed As: Health CareNo sooner had Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) vetoed HF 3391 -- a health reform bill pushed by the Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL) -- then the legislature passed a more moderate proposal expected to gain the governor's signature. SF 3780 included many similar provisions to the vetoed HF 3391, but did ... more »»
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Friday, June 6, 2008Iowa Creates "Medical Homes"By Merrill Matthews, Jr.Filed As: Health CareIowa Gov. Chet Culver (D) has signed HF 2539, the health reform package finally agreed upon by the legislature. Like many other states, Iowa created a commission to study health reform and agreed upon a fairly ambitious agenda, but in the end, more modest reforms passed, including:
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Thursday, June 5, 2008New Hampshire Law on InsuranceBy Merrill Matthews, Jr.Filed As: Health CareIn New Hampshire, all small group carriers with at least 1,000 covered lives will be required to offer a new guaranteed issue standardized wellness benefits plan with the enactment of health care reform legislation (SB 540) earlier this month. The new law grants the state insurance ... more »»
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Thursday, June 5, 2008Reform Panel Launched in West VirginiaBy Merrill Matthews, Jr.Filed As: Health CareKey legislators in West Virginia revealed on May 26 that they are undertaking collaborative efforts to fix the state's ailing health care system. The chairmen of the Senate and House health committees have retained Dr. Ken Thorpe, the chairman of the health policy management program at Emory ... more »»
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Wednesday, June 4, 2008Will Consumers Union Find a Place for ... Consumers?By Merrill Matthews, Jr.Filed As: Health CareSeveral years ago I was asked to speak about Medical Savings Accounts (now Health Savings Accounts, or HSAs) as a panelist at an Alliance for Health Reform event. The Alliance is a bi-partisan, congressionally created program charged with looking into health policy issues and reforms.I noticed ... more »»
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Tuesday, June 3, 2008California Inflates Loss RatioBy Merrill Matthews, Jr.Filed As: Health CareCalifornia Sen. Shelia Keuhl (D), a staunch single-payer proponent, has succeeded in passing SB 1440 through the state senate. The bill would require all health insurers to spend 85 percent of all premiums on patient care. Proponents believe that this will lead to more affordable policies, but high ... more »»
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Tuesday, June 3, 2008Hollywood and AARP Combine for Bad ActingBy Merrill Matthews, Jr.Filed As: Health CareUh-oh. That bastion of bad policy proposals, Hollywood, has decided to get into the health care reform debate. According to USA Today, a bunch of Hollywood-types, including Steven Spielberg-partner Jeffrey Katzenberg, are hooking up with AARP -- which has its own bad actors when it comes to health ... more »»
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