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John C. Goodman      

President & CEO of the Goodman Institute for Public Policy Research; Former CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis

John C. Goodman is president and CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis. The Wall Street Journal and The National Journal, among other media, have called him the "Father of Health Savings Accounts." He is also the Kellye Wright Fellow in health care. The mission of the Wright Fellowship is to promote a more patient-centered, consumer-driven health care system.

Goodman's health policy blog is the premier right-of-center health care blog on the Internet. It is the only place where pro-free enterprise, private sector solutions to health care problems are routinely examined and debated by top health policy experts throughout the country-conservative, moderate and liberal.

Goodman regularly appears on television and radio news and talk programs and authors editorials on economic policy issues. He regularly appears on the FOX News Channel, CNN, FOX Business Network and CNBC. He's also appeared on PBS NewsHour and was a debater on many of William F. Buckley's Firing Line programs. Goodman also regularly contributes columns to The Wall Street Journal, Kaiser Health News and other national publications.

Goodman also was the pivotal lead expert in the NCPA's grassroots public policy campaign, "Free Our Health Care Now," an unsurpassed national education effort to communicate patient-centered alternatives to a government-run health care system. The initiative resulted in the largest online petition ever delivered on Capitol Hill.

He is frequently invited to testify before Congress on health care reform and retirement topics and is the author of more than 50 published studies on topics such as health policy, retirement reform and tax issues and ten books, including Lives at Risk: Single Payer National Health Insurance Around the World; Leaving Women Behind: Modern Families, Outdated Laws; and the trailblazing Patient Power: Solving America's Health Care Crisis, the condensed version of which sold more than 300,000 copies. His latest book is Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis (June 2012).

A native of Waco, Texas, Goodman became interested in economics and classical liberal ideas while an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin, where he became vice president of the student body. He is a crossword puzzle aficionado, and most days he is able to conquer the puzzles in The New York Times in ink.

Goodman received his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University, and has taught and done research at Columbia, Stanford University, Dartmouth University, Southern Methodist University and the University of Dallas.

Speech Topics

Are We Going Broke?

In 2012, the federal government will require one out of every 10 dollars of general income tax revenues to keep its promises to seniors under Social Security and Medicare. That means to balance the budget, the federal government will have to stop doing one in every 10 other things it has been doing.

By 2020, the federal government will have to stop doing one in every four things it has been doing, if seniors are to get all their promised benefits. By 2030, about the midpoint of the baby boomer retirement years, the federal government will have to stop doing almost one in every two things it does today. There is only one way out of this crisis: move to a funded retirement system in which each generation saves and invests and pays its own way.

Six Problems That Are Not Going Away

Here is what must be changed: (1) a mandate to buy something whose cost will grow at twice the rate of growth of our incomes, (2) a bizarre subsidy system that will force a complete restructuring of American industry, (3) a health insurance exchange in which insurers will have perverse incentives to over-provide to the healthy and under-provide to the sick, (4) an exchange in which individuals will have an incentive to wait until they are sick to purchase coverage, get their medical bills paid, and then drop coverage again, (5) a tattered social safety net, with greater demands for subsidized care and less money to meet those demands, and (6) impossible spending cuts for the elderly.

Here is what needed change will look like: A workable system of subsides for private insurance and a health insurance marketplace in which insurers are encourage to compete to take care of the sick, as well as the healthy.

Living With ObamaCare: What Lies Ahead for Doctors and Patients?

The expansion of health insurance for the uninsured and more generous insurance for the already insured will cause a huge increase in demand for care, especially primary care, and no increase in supply. The waiting lines will grow at the doctor’s office, at the emergency room and everywhere else. Those who can afford it will turn to concierge doctors, to avoid rationing by waiting. But this will make the problem worse for everyone else. Anyone in a plan that pays below market will be pushed to the rear of the waiting lines.

At the same time, the need to control costs will bring about another form of rationing. There will be enormous pressure to deny patients treatments until they have been proved to be effective. Since most of what doctors do today is not “evidence based,” patients may be denied access to therapies that they currently take for granted.

Why Everything We Are Doing in Health Policy is Wrong

Health care is a complex system. The key components of complex systems cannot be copied, duplicated or replicated. Most important of all, they cannot be managed from the top, down. Almost everything we are doing to control costs, boost quality and improve access treats health care as an engineering problemone that can be fixed following a book of rules.

In fact, complex systems rarely ever work unless people are liberated. That means eliminating perverse incentives and freeing the doctor, the patient, the employer, the employee and everyone else in the systemgiving them the maximum opportunity to solve each others problems.

How Employers Can Cut Health Care Costs In Half

There is only one reliable way to reduce costs, increase quality and improve access to care: rely on the power of competitive markets. That means giving patients control over health care dollars and allowing providers to compete on price, quality and the convenience of care. Where ever third-party payers are not dominant, we see the power of this approach: cosmetic surgery, Lazik surgery, walk-in clinics, mail order drug houses, telephone and email consulting services, concierge doctors, international medical tourism and in the emerging market for domestic medical tourism.

Where the greatest opportunity exists: chronic illness.

Are We Going Broke?

In 2012, the federal government will require one out of every 10 dollars of general income tax revenues to keep its promises to seniors under Social Security and Medicare. That means to balance the budget, the federal government will have to stop doing one in every 10 other things it has been doing. By 2020, the federal government will have to stop doing one in every four things it has been doing, if seniors are to get all their promised benefits. By 2030, about the midpoint of the baby boomer retirement years, the federal government will have to stop doing almost one in every two things it does today.

There is only one way out of this crisis: move to a funded retirement system in which each generation saves and invests and pays its own way.

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Can Obama Care Survive?

What cannot survive: (1) a mandate to buy something whose cost will grow at twice the rate of growth of our incomes, (2) a bizarre subsidy system that will force a complete restructuring of American industry, (3) a health insurance exchange in which insurers will have perverse incentives to over-provide to the healthy and under-provide to the sick, (4) an exchange in which individuals will have an incentive to wait until they are sick to purchase coverage, get their medical bills paid, and then drop coverage again, (5) a tattered social safety net, with greater demands for subsidized care and less money to meet those demands, and (6) impossible spending cuts for the elderly.

Reform that can survive: a workable system of subsides for private insurance and a health insurance marketplace in which insurers are encourage to compete to take care of the sick, as well as the healthy.

What Obama Care Means for Doctors and Patients

In 2014, this country will face a huge increase in demand for care, especially primary care, and no increase in supply. The waiting lines will grow at the doctors office, at the emergency room and everywhere else. Those who can afford it will turn to concierge doctors, to avoid rationing by waiting. But this will make the problem worse for everyone else. Anyone in a plan that pays below market will be pushed to the rear of the waiting lines.

At the same time, the need to control costs will bring about another form of rationing. There will be enormous pressure to deny patients treatments until they have been proved to be effective. Since most of what doctors do today is not evidence based, patients will be denied access to therapies that they currently take for granted.

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News

Why The White House Is Panicking About ObamaCare - Forbes
12 Stocks to Buy From 3 Investing Giants · Help. |. Connect. |. Sign up. |. Log in · John Goodman, Contributor. I offer market-based healthcare solutions.
John Goodman - Curing The Healthcare Crisis - Forbes
John Goodman's stories. Curing The Healthcare Crisis: I offer market-based healthcare solutions.

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