• Permanent Fund and Dividend
• Tax Limitations
• Spending Limit

CWN Presents
Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care

Thursday, March 21st
Noon-1:00pm
The Petroleum Club of Anchorage
3301 C St.

Video is available online.

Click here for PowerPoint presentation.

CWN is pleased to host the authors of, Overcharged : Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care.

They argue that in order to make health care better and cheaper for all Americans, we need to change the way we pay for medical services. Our system costs too much and delivers too little because we pay for health care the wrong way. Instead of routing dollars through insurers, employers, public payers like Medicare and Medicaid, and politicians, consumers must control the money. Health care will get better and cheaper as consumers exert pressure from below—and consumers can do so only if they control the money.

Overcharged maintains that:

• Drug companies manipulate payment systems and the drug approval process, while politicians are surprised that drug companies act like monopolists.
• The rise of third-party payment—including Medicare, Medicaid, and government-regulated private insurance—has disabled the restraints consumers would normally impose on health care spending. Indeed, third-party payment inflates prices so much that the patient’s cost- sharing can exceed the cash price for some pharmaceuticals.
• Our politicized third-party payment system creates bad incentives.
• The health care sector will become more efficient and pro-consumer only when it is subjected to the competitive forces that apply to the rest of the economy.

About the authors:
Charles Silver, MA, JD, is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and holds the Roy W. and Eugenia C. McDonald Endowed Chair in Civil Procedure at the University of Texas School of Law, where he teaches about civil litigation, health care policy, legal ethics, and insurance.

His writings on class actions and other aggregate proceedings, litigation finance, medical malpractice, and legal and medical ethics have appeared in leading peer-reviewed journals and law reviews. In 2009, the Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association awarded him the Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award for outstanding scholarship on tort and insurance law.

David A. Hyman, MD, JD, is a Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. He focuses his research and writing on the regulation and financing of health care, and on empirical law and economics. He teaches or has taught health care regulation, civil procedure, insurance, medical malpractice, law & economics, professional responsibility, consumer protection, and tax policy.

While serving as Special Counsel to the Federal Trade Commission, Professor Hyman was principal author and project leader for the first joint report ever issued by the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, Improving Health Care: A Dose of Competition (2004).

Date:

February 20th

Time:

Noon-1:30pm

Location:

Petroleum Club of Anchorage 3301 C St.

Register Now!

CWN Presents: A Shareholder’s Report for Alaskans

Our 13^th Annual Report on Alaska’s Assets

Wednesday, February 20^th

The Petroleum Club of Anchorage

Noon-1:30pm

This program has sold out

Video of the program can be viewed here.

Click here to download the PowerPoint presentation.

On February 20^th, Commonwealth North will host a panel of experts to report on the value, income, and prospects of the State of Alaska’s key natural resources, financial assets, and state-owned corporations. As shareholders of “Alaska Inc.”, the citizens of Alaska should be informed about how the assets of their company are performing.

Former Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell will lead the program. Guest speakers will include Bryan Butcher, CEO & Executive Director of the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation; Jim Johnsen, President of the University of Alaska; Craig Richards, Chair of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation Board of Trustees; and Bruce Tangeman, Commissioner of Revenue.

This signature Commonwealth North program tracks the performance of Alaska’s assets – and asset managers – and is an opportunity for you to review and evaluate the annual progress of our common wealth.

Thank you to our program sponsor!

Fiscal Policy Study Group

Friday, January 18th

8am-9am

Morris Communications

301 Arctic Slope Avenue

Study Group member, Brian Hove, will present his analysis of the State’s past revenue projections compared to actual revenues.

His PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded here.

The teleconference number will be (907) 276-4900.