Texas Association of Business

The Stimulus Evidence One Year On

Over five years, my research shows an extra $600 billion of public spending at the cost of $900 billion in private expenditure. That's a bad deal.

By ROBERT J. BARRO

The first anniversary of the Obama stimulus package generated a lot of discussion about whether and how much the package (originally estimated at $787 billion but now priced at $862 billion) moderated the recession. These are complex questions, and their answers require more than merely counting the quantity of goods and services that the government purchased or the number of people that the gov…

'Perverse incentive' in current health care system, says expert

By Jennifer Hyde and Drew Griffin, CNN Special

McAllen, Texas (CNN) -- Even as the health care debate turns to blood sport in Washington, some analysts say the debate is ignoring one of the leading causes of rising costs: the way health care providers are paid.

"They are rewarded for more services, not better services. They are rewarded for more care, not better care," said Dr. Elliott Fisher, a lead researcher for the Dartmouth University Atlas of Health. "Most of the U.S. health system is paid simply for each service, regardle…

Austin – The Texas Association of Business today called for immediate action to expand Medicaid Managed Care (MMC) to save Texas taxpayers tens of millions of dollars per year. Currently, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) is prohibited from providing three Texas counties with an MMC program, a prohibition that drives up the aggregate health care costs of all Texans.

What the state has today is a system of increasing inequities in the cost and in the quality of health care, all while wasting taxpayer money. The HHSC has calculated that extending MMC to the South Texas …

San Antonio – Leaders from the Texas Association of Business (TAB), National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today held a joint-press conference to denounce the current incarnation of health care reform being negotiated by Congress.  The leaders called upon Congressmen Ciro Rodriguez and Henry Cuellar to reject the legislation. 

The House legislation will require employers to provide health insurance for the employees or pay an eight percent payroll penalty. The Senate version, which could be worse, would require companies with more th…

Austin —The Environmental Protection Agency endangerment finding that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare sets a dangerous precedent that allows the executive branch to threaten the entire country and our economy, essentially saying to Congress: pass a cap-and-trade climate bill… or else. The uncertain status of the science of climate change and the public health effects of greenhouse gases demand that EPA establish far more justification for this action than it has shown so far. The threat this finding poses to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs…