Charles Silver
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Articles by Charles Silver
It’s Not Just Minnesota--Fraud Is Everywhere
If you tried to steal a billion dollars from a bank, you would probably fail. You might even get shot for your trouble. But if you tried to steal the same amount from Medicaid, Medicare, or other federal safety-net programs, your odds of success are much better. Just submit phony bills, and the government will pay you. That’s what Somali fraudsters did in Minnesota. They netted more than $9 billion, according to a top prosecutor. It’s an old trick that has worked thousands of times.
It’s Not Just Minnesota-Fraud Is Everywhere
If you tried to steal a billion dollars from a bank, you would probably fail. You might even get shot for your trouble. But if you tried to steal the same amount from Medicaid, Medicare, or other federal safety-net programs, your odds of success are much better. Just submit phony bills, and the government will pay you. That’s what Somali fraudsters did in Minnesota. They netted more than $9 billion, according to a top prosecutor. It’s an old trick that has worked thousands of times.
The Entire U.S. Health Care System Must Be Torn Down and Rebuilt
In “We’ve Got You Covered,” Liran Einav and Amy Finkelstein describe America’s existing patchwork of health care payment arrangements as a “teardown.” I agree. I support downsizing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), eliminating many programs, rolling back regulations, and creating a new system modeled on Social Security that will be simpler, less administratively burdensome, more affordable, and more effective at improving Americans’ health.
The Health Policy Cult's Misplaced Faith in Government
“To increase access to affordable coverage, Congress should create a Medicare-Plus public option available to all Americans, including those with employer-sponsored coverage. It would provide patients with full access to providers who participate in Medicare and would use a moderate markup of Medicare payment levels, such as 20 percent above current Medicare rates.
The Health Policy Cult’s Misplaced Faith in Government
Mainstream policy analysts are convinced that government, and only government, can save us from the monster the U.S. health care system has become. That’s why their recommended solutions to the system’s many problems all have government at their core.
The health policy cult’s misplaced faith in government
Mainstream policy analysts are convinced that government, and only government, can save us from the monster the U.S. health care system has become. That’s why their recommended solutions to the system’s many problems all have government at their core.
Optics & Photonics News - Nifty Math Notions
For readers passionate about mathematical puzzles, this book will be both a feast and a challenge. Joining the author on a tour de force of the history of mathematics, from the ancient to the modern and from the simple problems to the still-unsolved challenges, the reader is entertained with a fast-paced sequence of anecdotes as well as historical facts.
You Aren’t as Sick as Government Claims
Every con in the book has been tried in government health programs. One of the most common is “upcoding”—the process of fudging records to make patients seem sicker than they are. The trick is lucrative: The Journal recently reported that insurers took $50 billion from Medicare over three years by adding fake illnesses to patients’ diagnoses.
Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Can Mark Cuban Make Prescriptions Affordable Again?
Why are prescription drugs so expensive in the United States? "Drug prices in this country are so high because there is zero transparency in the system, and when there's zero transparency in a market, there is no way for it to be efficient," says Mark Cuban, the serial entrepreneur, investor on Shark Tank, and guest on the first episode of the second season of Why We Can't Have Nice Things.
Opinion | You Aren’t as Sick as Government Claims
WSJ Opinion: Hits and Misses of the Week Your browser does not support HTML5 video. 0:00 Paused 0:00 / 2:08 WSJ Opinion: Hits and Misses of the WeekPlay video: WSJ Opinion: Hits and Misses of the Week Every con in the book has been tried in government health programs. One of the most common is “upcoding”—the process of fudging records to make patients seem sicker than they are.
The Wall Street Journal
Human Rights Campaign used a ranking of companies to advance same-sex benefits. Now an activist is using the index to pressure CEOs.7 min read Live Updates Stock futures posted anemic moves, as worries about the health of the U.S. economy weigh in the buildup to the key jobs report.
It's Time for Over-the-Counter Ozempic Original
Prescription Drugs There's an easy way to lower the cost of next-generation weight-loss drugs. | (Illustration: Lex Villena; Aniloracru) The new insulin-stimulating weight-loss drugs semaglutide and tirzepatide appear impressive. Studies suggest they help people shed pounds, reduce the likelihood of heart attacks and strokes, and may even treat kidney problems, HIV-related liver disease, alcoholism, and other maladies.
If Trump Is Disqualified, Will Mayhem Ensue?
A civil war, which some of Trump’s backers have threatened, is almost absurdly unlikely. In the 1860s, southern states seceded because abolition posed a dire threat to their economies and their elites, whose wealth was concentrated in slaves. The only person Trump’s disqualification threatens with financial harm is Trump himself. It is ludicrous to think that states would go to war to save him from a self‐inflicted injury.
If Trump is disqualified, will mayhem ensue?
When talking with other law professors, I have almost uniformly been told that, to avoid chaos, the Supreme Court should overrule the decisions in Colorado and Maine that disqualify Donald Trump from being on the ballot.
SCOTUS Should Uphold the Constitution by Deciding the Colorado Appeal on the Law
The appeal of the Colorado decision is the Supreme Court’s opportunity to tell us whether the U.S. is a mature democracy where all candidates for elected office are equal before the law, or a banana republic where partisan judges exempt their favored candidates from inconvenient constitutional requirements January 13, 2024 • Commentary This article appeared in Orange County Register on January 13, 2024.
SCOTUS should uphold the Constitution by deciding the Colorado appeal on the law Original
The recent decisions in Colorado and Maine finding Donald Trump ineligible to run for the presidency have spawned a host of calls for the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. Rather than offer serious legal arguments, most opponents contend the decisions are anti-democratic and will have terrible consequences, such as by provoking red states to remove President Joe Biden from their ballots. These are bad arguments.
The War On Abortion Could Turn The US Into A Police State
Although the Dobbs opinion in which Supreme Court overturned Roe and Casey has pro-life activists and politicians celebrating, to win the larger victory they seek they will have to turn the country into a police state. Because most abortions can be performed medically, abortion opponents will likely have to use tactics similar to those employed in the War on Drugs to prevent women bent on ending pregnancies from getting the pills they require.
Make the unvaccinated pay their own way
By Charles Silver and David A. Hyman New York Daily News | Sep 29, 2021 at 5:00 AM Robby Walker is lucky to be alive. After the unvaccinated, 52-year-old father from Florida contracted COVID-19-related pneumonia, a ventilator wasn’t enough. He needed Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), a treatment in which blood is routed through a machine that purifies and oxygenates it, giving the patient’s lungs a chance to recover.
¿Se acerca el espacio de las criptomonedas a su "momento Netscape"?
Este año se cumple el 30º aniversario de la primera página web de la World Wide Web, lo que significa que una persona tiene que tener casi medio siglo de edad para recordar con claridad el progreso a base de parches, los arranques y paradas en falso, y la prueba y error que finalmente nos dio lo que ahora es la base definitoria de la vida del siglo XXI. En 2021 damos por sentado que Internet es una realidad, pero hemos tardado décadas en llegar a este punto.
Is crypto approaching its 'Netscape moment'?
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first web page on the World Wide Web, which means a person has to be nearly half a century old to clearly remember the patchwork progress, the false starts and stops, and the trial and error that eventually gave us what is now the defining foundation of 21st-century life. We take the internet for granted in 2021, but it took us decades to get to this point.
Medical Malpractice Litigation
“Drawing on an unusually rich trove of data, the authors have refuted more politically convenient myths in one book than most academics do in a lifetime.” —NICHOLAS BAGLEY, professor of law, University of Michigan Law School “Written by the team that has done the most extensive work testing the empirical claims behind medical malpractice reform legislation, Medical Malpractice Litigation is a must‐read for anyone willing to be persuaded by the evidence.” —TOM BAKER, William Maul Measey...
Winter 2020-2021
The United States in 2020 has been scarred by an extreme wildfire season and a viral pandemic. Fires have ravaged the Southwest, the Rockies, the Pacific Northwest, and California since April. Meantime, COVID-19 has been spreading across the country since March, infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, along with many others around the world.
Are We ‘Paying Twice’ for Pharmaceuticals?
Pharmaceutical companies charge high prices for branded products, but in most instances the research that results in these drugs is supported financially by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or other public sources. This leads many patient advocates to contend that Americans “pay twice” for drugs: once when tax dollars support research and development, and the second time when patients buy the drugs for personal use. The paying‐twice critique is a common lament.
Council Post: Let’s Say Farewell To Cookies
It would appear that Apple CEO Tim Cook is nearly alone among the Silicon Valley giants in wanting to respect personal data. He has even referred to the aggressive ad business as a “” where our own information “is being weaponized against us with military efficiency.” In line with this, Apple recently decided to make access to the iPhone’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) “opt-in” for every single application.
MoMA
Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life. 1925. USA. Directed by Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack These notes accompany The Documentary Expands, which screens on March 10, 11, and 12 in Theater 3. Calling Merian C. Cooper (1893–1973) and Ernest B. Schoedsack (1893–1979) auteurs may seem like fudging a little bit, but I don’t think it is. Yet the doubt creeps in on two levels. First, while film is undeniably a collaborative medium, the auteur theory argues that there is a singular dominant creator.
MoMA
On the Waterfront. 1954. USA. Directed by Elia Kazan These notes accompany screenings of Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront on August 29, 30, and 31 in Theater 3. In Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront, Marlon Brando gives one of the most superb tragicomic performances in the history of the cinema.
MoMA
Roman Holiday. 1953. USA. Directed by William Wyler These notes accompany the screenings of William Wyler’s Roman Holiday on June 27, 28, and 29. How one relates to William Wyler (1902–1981) goes a long way toward delineating how one relates to the auteur theory. To the Hollywood establishment, Wyler was one of the most honored and esteemed directors. He received three Oscars for films that in retrospect seem less than extraordinary: Mrs.
MoMA
I Confess. 1952. USA. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock These notes accompany the screenings of Alfred Hitchcock’s I Confess on May 30 and 31 and June 1 in Theater 3. Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) has thus far been represented in our series by Blackmail (1929) and Notorious (1946). Rather than showing I Confess, frankly, my preference for a film from this period would have been Strangers on a Train or Rear Window, both of which seem to me to fuller expressions of Hitchcock’s personality and genius.
MoMA
To Catch A Thief. 1955. USA. Alfred Hitchcock These notes accompany the screenings of Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief on August 1, 2, and 3 in Theater 3. By 1955, Alfred Hitchcock was enjoying a level of celebrity never attained before or since by a movie director, with the possible exception of Cecil B. De Mille when he was hosting Lux Radio Theatre. (Scott Eyman draws this comparison in his excellent Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B.
MoMA
These notes accompany the screenings of Ernst Lubitsch’s </i>Ninotchka</a> on June 29 and 30 and July 1 in Theater 3.</p> Oops! I almost left out Ninotchka. Somehow, this 1939 masterpiece slipped through the cracks. I apologize for whatever inconvenience this violation of my self-imposed chronology may cause, although I don’t think the Prime Directive has been threatened.
MoMA
I Vitelloni (The Young and the Passionate). 1953. Italy. Directed by Federico Fellini These notes accompany the screenings of Federico Fellini’s I Vitelloni (The Young and the Passionate) on May 23, 24, and 25 in Theater 3. For many Americans, Federico Fellini (1920–1993) is the very definition of foreign filmmaker.
MoMA
Ugetsu. 1953. Japan. Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi These notes accompany the screenings of Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsuon June 20, 21, and 22. My uncle, Albert Green, was an internationally acclaimed ceramicist whose work is primarily in the collection of the Morris Museum in New Jersey. Although he never visited Japan, he was heavily influenced by Japanese potters. He was a genuine artist, obsessed with his kiln and with achieving the proper glaze for a particular piece.
MoMA
The Life of Oharu. 1952. Japan. Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi These notes accompany the screenings of Kenji Mizoguchi’s The Life of Oharu on May 9, 10, and 11 in Theater 3. In the last five years of his life, Kenji Mizoguchi (1898–1956; born 114 years ago next week) made nine films, nearly all of which are considered transcendent masterpieces. Even if he had died earlier, Mizoguchi had earned a place as one of the cinema’s greatest masters of mise-en-scène.
Personal Data: Privacy Vs. Compensation
Chairman and CEO, Permission.io. getty What is the value of your personal data? There is no simple answer. Most likely, nobody pays you a dime to use your personal data, so its financial value may seem quite small to you. However, it surely has value to others. Consider the typical Facebook account. In 2019, Facebook harvested $29.95 billion in net U.S. ad revenue from about 231 million North American users. That works out to about $130 profit per U.S. user.
COVID-19: A Case Study of Government Failure
Congress should work with the president to reform the federal agencies that were responsible for the country’s fragmented and ineffective response to COVID-19; ensure that the Strategic National Stockpile is supplied at a level sufficient to meet the immediate needs for medical equipment and supplies that an epidemic such as COVID-19 can be expected to generate; fund financial incentives that encourage people to be tested for COVID-19, to seek available treatments, to self‐quarantine, and to...
Council Post: Shift Happens
Chairman and CEO, Permission.io. getty What do IBM, General Electric, General Motors and Sears Roebuck all have in common? Each of them was once one of the most valuable companies in the world per market cap. Today, they all struggle. If you are of the many who think Google, Facebook and Amazon are invincible, think again. Their reigns will no doubt be as fleeting as those of prior giants. Why are today’s internet behemoths vulnerable? Ad Blockers, Bots And Boycotts, Oh My ...
Surprise Medical Bills: How to Protect Patients and Make Care More Affordable
Volume 108 Issue 6 June '20 Written By: David A. Hyman, Benedic Ippolito & Charles Silver We note at the outset that surprise bills are not a problem in other markets. When you take your car to a body shop after an accident, the mechanic who paints your door panel doesn’t send you an inflated, separate bill from the body shop—and then balance bill you when your insurance refuses to pay it in full. That isn’t because we have an elaborate system of arbitration for car door repairs.
Surprise medical bills: How to protect patients and make care more affordable
Journal Publication June 21, 2020 Abstract We note at the outset that surprise bills are not a problem in other markets. When you take your car to a body shop after an accident, the mechanic who paints your door panel doesn’t send you an inflated, separate bill from the body shop—and then balance bill you when your insurance refuses to pay it in full. That isn’t because we have an elaborate system of arbitration for car door repairs.
Your Digital ID And Its Virtues
Photo: Getty When you move house in Sweden, you notify the Swedish Tax Agency, which changes your address on the Swedish population register. It is done online, takes a few minutes and costs nothing. The Swedish Tax Agency then passes the details to various government agencies, municipalities and county councils, and also to major banks and insurance companies. This simple arrangement saves you and all the organizations involved time and money.
Easing Regulatory Burden on Health Care
Much of the initially flat‐footed response of public health officials to the coronavirus pandemic was due to cumbersome, inflexible, and outdated regulations controlling the development and distribution of drugs and tests. It is important that policymakers recognize the regulatory obstacles that have accumulated over the years that make our system less nimble in responding to unexpected events, and work to reform those laws.
The Government's COVID-19 Failures Are an Argument Against Medicare for All
Some have said the failure of America’s medical system to handle the surge in demand caused by COVID-19 is proof that the country needs Medicare for All. They couldn’t be more wrong. Many countries with nationalized, single‐payer schemes, including England, France, Italy, and Spain, have seen their health‐care systems stretched past the breaking point by the pandemic. More importantly, the responsibility for America’s lack of preparedness lies squarely with our dysfunctional government.
The Government’s COVID-19 Failures Are an Argument against Medicare for All
Some have said the failure of America’s medical system to handle the surge in demand caused by COVID-19 is proof that the country needs Medicare for All. They couldn’t be more wrong. Many countries with nationalized, single-payer schemes, including England, France, Italy, and Spain, have seen their health-care systems stretched past the breaking point by the pandemic. More importantly, the responsibility for America’s lack of preparedness lies squarely with our dysfunctional government.
The Government’s COVID-19 Failures Are an Argument against Medicare for All | National Review
Ambulances lined up at the emergency entrance outside Mount Sinai Hospital during the coronavirus outbreak in New York City, April 13, 2020. (Mike Segar/Reuters) No one should want to nationalize the health-care system after this pandemic. Some have said the failure of America’s medical system to handle the surge in demand caused by COVID-19 is proof that the country needs Medicare for All. They couldn’t be more wrong.
End Bigotry Against Atheists at Harvard
When Harvard Law Professor Adrian C. Vermeule ’90 made a lame attempt at humor by tweeting that principled conservatives would be “[t]he very first group [headed] for the camps” under a post-Trump liberal regime, critics condemned him for trivializing the Holocaust.
Council Post: How The Transparency Of Blockchain Drives Value
The increasing regulatory burden on public companies is causing deleterious effects. Corporate finance has become more of an art than a reporting of objective facts, and the cost of navigating the SEC's and FASB's rulings has become prohibitive, except for multibillion-revenue companies. Instead of putting capital and manpower to use in product development and competitive hiring, companies are forced into navigating a draconian regulatory system that does more harm than good.
Overcharged
About the Authors Praise for the Book
Council Post: What Is Web 3.0?
The internet is arguably the most important technology revolution in the history of humankind. Although the industry has evolved considerably since its inception, its current stage is akin to the auto industry in 1920 — that is, it's world-changing technology that has been around for 20 years but is still relatively immature and in need of major improvements.
No, Medicare for All Won’t Save Money
© Illustration by Peter Horvath Cato OpEd Editor’s note: The opinions in this article are the author’s, as published by our content partner, and do not necessarily represent the views of MSN or Microsoft. When the massive new health program known as Medicare was created in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson got health care providers on board by buying their support: He promised that the government would let them decide how much to charge and which services to deliver.
No, Medicare for All Won’t Save Money
November 25, 2019 • Commentary By Charles Silver and David A. Hyman This article appeared on the Politico on November 25, 2019. Share When the massive new health program known as Medicare was created in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson got health care providers on board by buying their support: He promised that the government would let them decide how much to charge and which services to deliver.
Opinion | No, Medicare for All Won’t Save Money
Although cuts of that magnitude would severely affect patient care, there’s no need to worry. If past is prologue, they will never occur. Time after time, providers have blunted initiatives designed to economize at their expense. There’s no reason to think this Congress will succeed when virtually every past Congress has failed to reduce the flow of Medicare dollars.
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