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Top-down management can’t fix upcoding in Medicare Advantage
Among the most consistent criticisms of the Medicare Advantage program is that private plans game the system. Over the years, policymakers have devised…

DC Journal
What the Media Gets Wrong About Medicaid ‘Cuts’
Headlines assert that the reforms Republicans recently passed amount to a trillion-dollar cut to Medicaid. The New York Times calls this the most significant cut to federal…

Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Alcohol labels and warnings with David Clement
In this week’s episode we cover housing abundance in California, the meaning of a market economy, union privileges for government workers,…
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National Review
Atlas, Mugged
Stanford’s campaign against Dr. Scott Atlas for the sins of working for former president Donald Trump and advocating for balancing the costs and benefits of…
National Review
Don’t Tax Prescription Opioids
Co-authored by Sally Satel and Joel Zinberg In 1819, U.S. Supreme Court chief justice John Marshall aptly warned that “the power to tax involves the power…
Inside Sources
Bloomberg’s Philanthro-Colonialism: A Threat to Global Health and Science
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is in hot water overseas —and potentially at home—with members of the Philippines government accusing Bloomberg-funded charities of…
Inside Sources
Beating COVID-19: Five Simple Steps
Inside President Biden’s expansive and expensive plan to combat COVID-19 are a few hundred billion dollars to increase vaccination. Despite the scientific triumph of developing,…
New York Post
Our Leaders Failed Us on COVID, but Miracle Science Brings Hope for Relief
It seems like a lifetime, but it was only one year ago that the world learned about a cluster of pneumonia cases linked to a…
City Journal
Don’t Wait to Reopen Schools
President Biden has asked governors to reopen schools at the end of his first 100 days in office. Why wait? No Covid-19 mitigation…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Opposed to Most Favored Nation Drug Pricing Final Rule
View Full Document as PDF Introduction On behalf of the undersigned federal and state-based organizations, we write to express our opposition to the…
Blog
The Growing Groupthink Problem in Science and Policy
Government Dietary Guidelines issued jointly by the Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) every five years are meant to provide health…
National Review
Why Is Israel Doing Better Than Everyone Else in COVID Vaccinations?
Eleven years ago, Dan Senor and Saul Singer dubbed Israel the “Start Up Nation” for its disproportionately large number of technology start-ups and NASDAQ stock listings.
City Journal
AUDIO: Joel Zinberg Joins the 10 Blocks Podcast to Discuss COVID Vaccine Rollout
Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg joins Brian Anderson at City Journal to discuss the slow rollout of coronavirus vaccines, why states like…
City Journal
End Covid Now
More than 22 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been distributed in the United States so far, yet only 6.7…
National Review
Why Are We Vaccinating People Who Have Recovered from COVID-19?
Now that Pfizer and Moderna have received emergency-use authorizations for their COVID-19 vaccines, the tough work of deciding how to allocate the limited supply of doses…
The Dan Profit Show
AUDIO: Joel Zinberg Joins The Dan Profit Show
CEI’s Joel Zinberg joins The Dan Profit Show to discuss Biden’s COVID response.
Op-Eds
Cannabis Legalization Clears One Hurdle, but Political Parties Must Compromise to Succeed
Last week, the House passed an historic bill to decriminalize cannabis at the federal level. Despite growing public and political support for such a measure,…
City Journal
A Path to Better Days
It seems like a lifetime, but it was only one year ago that the world learned about a cluster of pneumonia cases linked to a…
Blog
Documentary Exposes Global Nicotine Misinformation Campaign
What if, instead of a deadly “addictive” chemical, nicotine was a revolutionary therapy able to treat several debilitating conditions and, potentially, save billions of lives?…
Wall Street Journal
Trump Isn’t the One Politicizing Science
Politics has infected many issues over the past four years and has now reached the supposedly objective halls of official medicine. In an editorial for…
News Release
New CEI Paper Calls on EPA to Revise Faulty Assessment of Key Medical Supply Sterilant
A new report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) finds faulty science by an EPA program led to an unfounded health scare around a…
Study
EPA Should Revise Its Assessment of Medical Supply Sterilant
The COVID-19 crisis is a stark reminder of the importance of maintaining critical medical supplies. Not only must policy makers ensure that the market is…
Blog
COVID-19 Vaccine Shows that the World Needs More Refrigeration and Less Anti-Refrigeration Climate Policy
Refrigeration has had a substantial positive impact on public health in the U.S. and other developed nations where it is in widespread use. Increased market…
News Release
House Vote to End Cannabis Prohibition Complicated by Big Government Provisions
The House today passed legislation that would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level. CEI led a coalition supporting that provision of the bill. But CEI…
The Hill
Time to Rein in Government’s Pandemic Overreach — Starting with CDC’s Eviction Ban
Co-authored by Steven D. Anderson When the history of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 is written, it will need a section on the most counterproductive…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter Supporting MORE Act Provision to De-Schedule Cannabis
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader Hoyer, Leader McCarthy, and Whip Scalise: On behalf of the many of Americans whose views and values our organizations represent, we…
Hawaii Public Radio
05:49 Hawaii Public Radio
Hawaii Public Radio cites CEI senior fellow Joel Zinberg on COVID-19 vaccine. Most of the direct actions are going to have to take place at the…
Inside Sources
Drugs (Except Nicotine) Win on Election Day
Americans sent a clear message on Election Day that it is time to end the war on drugs. Every ballot measure to decriminalize or legalize…
City Journal
Andrew Cuomo, Vaccine-Resistant
New York governor Andrew Cuomo has done it again. Following his earlier pledge to delay distribution of a prospective, FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccine in…
The Wall Street Journal
We Don’t Need Government Mandates for Covid Vaccination
Covid-19 vaccines are almost here. Pfizer announced Monday that its vaccine has proved more than 90% effective in clinical trials. But vaccines are useless unless people…
USA Today
Invalidate Entire Affordable Care Act
The fate of former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act is, once again, before the Supreme Court. On Tuesday, the justices will hear arguments in…
Legal Brief
Brief of Amicus Curiae – Supreme Court of Oklahoma: District Court Case No. CJ-2017-816
INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE The Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”) is a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to advancing the principles of limited government, free enterprise,…
Study
Science May Be the Easy Part
The COVID-19 pandemic has already infected more than 7 million Americans, claiming over 200,000 lives in the U.S. Since the disease is caused by a…
Blog
How Could We Have Known: Prohibiting E-cigarettes Leads to Smuggling and Smoking
Anyone with a passing knowledge of American history is aware of the failures of prohibition. Both the now-repealed ban on alcohol and the ongoing “war…
News Release
Report : Making Sure a COVID-19 Vaccine Is Used
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report examines what employers, businesses, and political leaders can and should do to help people get vaccinated against the coronavirus, once…
Blog
New CEI Report: Making Sure a COVID-19 Vaccine Is Used
One or more COVID-19 vaccines will likely be approved in the next few months. But this scientific achievement may prove to be the easy part.
Blog
Amazon Claims Worker COVID-19 Infection Rates below Norm
Amazon’s critics have made a point of saying the company is endangering its employees by keeping its fulfillment centers active during the COVID-19…
Inside Sources
The Double Standard for Nicotine and Cannabis
The U.S. House of Representatives may soon vote on a historic measure to end federal prohibition on cannabis. Ironically, just as the public and political…
Study
The Double Standards of Cannabis and Nicotine
View Full Document as PDF Executive Summary The principal benefit of recreational cannabis, as the name implies, is recreation. Many who enjoy using…
News Release
Report: Politics, Not Science, Drives Double Standard on Cannabis, Nicotine Policies
As the House votes on a bill this month to end the federal prohibition on cannabis – once unthinkable – a new Competitive Enterprise…
Blog
Trump’s Drug Price Controls are a Lousy Deal for Patients
Prescription drug prices are popular targets for lawmakers—especially in an election year. Still, it came as quite a surprise when President Trump issued an…
The Washington Examiner
Government Alcohol Advice Should be Based on Evidence, Not Agendas
Should adults cut their alcohol consumption in half for health reasons? That’s what a federal government advisory committee is recommending. It matters because that recommendation…
Blog
FDA Rules on E-cigarette Makers Go into Effect Today, to the Detriment of Public Health
The world was simpler in 2009 when Congress enacted a law that gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the power to regulate tobacco. Back…
Letters
CEI Joins Premarket Tobacco Authorization Coalition Letter
View Full Document as PDF Commissioner Hahn: On behalf of taxpayers and consumers across the country, the undersigned 15 organizations strongly urge you…
National Review
How Trump Can Help Reopen America’s Schools
It’s almost the middle of August, and many parents still have little idea if their kids will be able to go to school in a few…
The Wall Street Journal
The White House Prepared for a Pandemic
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched the Democrats’ broadside against the Trump administration’s Covid-19 response. “Our current federal government is dysfunctional and incompetent,” he told…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Opposing Most Favored Nation Drug Pricing Proposal
On behalf of the undersigned federal and state-based organizations, we write to express our grave concerns with the “most favored nation” (MFN) executive order to impose foreign…
City Journal
Following The Science — Where?
When doctors meet a patient for a new complaint, we make a list of different possible explanations for the problem—a differential diagnosis—and try to determine…
Inside Sources
Government Contact Tracing Won’t Help Get Americans Back to Work, but Innovation Will
Contact tracing identifies people who have an infectious disease (cases) and people they came in contact with (contacts) who may have become infected.
News Release
Price Controls for Medicines Risk Harming Innovation When Breakthrough Drugs or Vaccines May Mean Life or Death
President Trump is expected to issue an executive order today directing his administration to take a series of actions related to pharmaceuticals and the price…
Study
#NeverNeeded Price Gouging Laws Would Harm COVID-19 Response
Price gouging becomes a hot topic during every crisis. It has become especially topical during the COVID-19 crisis. Almost overnight, the need exploded for goods…
National Review
Stop the Youth Vaping ‘Epidemic’ by Ending Youth Anti-Vaping Campaigns
Anyone who has raised teenagers knows that forbidding an activity is a sure way to pique their curiosity. Yet this is the approach American policymakers and…
City Journal
Death By Policy
Many years ago, one of my duties as a young surgical intern was to fill out death certificates for recently deceased patients. Under “cause of death,” Part…
Blog
Air Conditioning Can Help Fight COVID-19—If Federal Policy Allows It To
COVID-19 persists into the time of year when most Americans rely on air conditioning, so many are asking whether cranking up the cold air helps…
Letters
CEI Joins ATR Letter In Opposition to Buy American Mandates in FY21
View Full Document as PDF Dear Member of the House Armed Services Committee: I urge you to reject any amendment to FY 2021…
Resource
What Does The Future Hold For Reusables Post-COVID?
Resource cites CEI’s Angelo Logomasini’s report on single use plastics: In the US, there have been calls that reusable bags are hindering the fight…
Inside Sources
Media Gives Pass To Protests After Months Of Lockdown Mania
Inside Sources quotes CEI senior fellow Joel Zinberg: Public health,” America has learned, is more ideology than science. Many of the officials…
News Release
#NeverNeeded Regulation Report: Trump Administration Should Stop Funding WHO Agency Pushing Faulty Findings About Cancer Risks
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is calling for the Trump Administration to defund the International Agency for Research on Cancer. A division of the World Health…
Study
End All National Institutes of Health Grants to the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer
As the Trump administration considers defunding the World Health Organization (WHO) because of its handling of the COVID-19 crisis, it should also make sure that…
Blog
Perverse Psychology: How Anti-Vaping Campaigns Backfired
We have spent years and countless billions trying to deal with the supposed epidemic of youth vaping. It has only gotten worse. A new CEI…
News Release
Dr. Nancy Beck Will Bring Thoughtful Consideration of Science to Consumer Product Safety Commission
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will today hold a hearing to consider the nomination of Dr. Nancy Beck to be chair…
Inside Sources
Are Protests Safe From COVID-19? Politics Guide Answers.
For months, a constant refrain in discussions of the COVID-19 pandemic has been: follow the science, listen to the experts.
National Review
A Doctor’s Assessment of the COVID-19 Outbreak
Last week, my daughter, a freshman at a Midwestern university, was informed that the spring quarter would be replaced by a remotely conducted quarter. Hundreds of…
News Release
Report: Youth Vaping Rate Increased with Anti-Vaping Campaigns
Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute released a report on the connection between underage e-cigarette use and anti-vaping advocacy.
Freedom Caucus Podcast
AUDIO: Dr. Joel Zinberg Joins the Freedom Caucus Podcast
Senior Fellow Dr. Joel Zinberg joins the Freedom Caucus Podcast to discuss the COVID vaccine & reopening our economy. A doctor and lawyer, he shares about his…
Blog
#NeverNeed Regulations and the Coronavirus
What is the appropriate public policy response to COVID-19 crisis? In a new short video, Kent Lassman makes the case for lifting government barriers that…
Blog
Green Activists Make Highly Dubious Claims about CPSC Nominee Nancy Beck
Left-of-center activists are opposing toxicologist Nancy Beck's nomination to head up the Consumer Product Safety Commission. They suggest that since she once worked for the…
Blog
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: Anti-Drug Warriors’ Crocodile Tears
There is a lot to say about the heinous killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and no shortage of opinions being offered. Many have…
USA Today
Coronavirus Vaccine Not the End-All-Be-All. We Must Have a Plan for Reopening Without One
Dr. Anthony Fauci and other experts have touted vaccines as the ultimate solution to dealing with the threat of COVID-19. There are strong reasons to…
Inside Sources
Pandemic Should Spur Large Scale Deregulation to Aid Recovery
Regulations are a big obstacle in fighting the coronavirus. They are also a major obstacle to economic recovery.
Reason
Mission Creep and Wasteful Spending Left the CDC Unprepared for an Actual Public Health Crisis
Reason cites Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on the CDC and the nation’s response to COVID-19: “The CDC devolved into an agency incapable of…
National Review
Public Choice and the Pandemic
Shocked by the large numbers of people congregating on California beaches, Governor Gavin Newsom recently decided to shut some of them down altogether. Large numbers of people then…
National Review
How Loosening Regulations Can Fight Coronavirus and Help the Economy
If a regulation isn’t needed during a crisis, it was probably never needed at all. To his credit, President Trump signed an executive order on May…
News Release
#NeverNeeded Regulation Report: Deploy Rational Science-Based Policies for Medical Plant Sterilization
After an EPA program produced a highly flawed assessment in 2016 that vastly overstated the risk of Ethylene Oxide (EtO), a critical gas used for…
Study
Deploy Rational Science-Based Policies for Medical Plant Sterilization
Several medical supply sterilization plants have shut down during the past year because of unwarranted fearmongering about ethylene oxide (EtO), a gas used to sterilize…
National Review
Let the Doctors Work
Buried in the recent announcement by the Bureau of Economic Analysis that real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 4.8 percent in the first…
Blog
A New Approach to COVID-19 Response
The new coronavirus—SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease COVID-19—is here to stay until either a vaccine or herd immunity limits the number of people susceptible to…
News Release
#Neverneeded Regulation Report: CDC, FDA Response to COVID-19 Hindered by Mission Creep
The nation’s top federal agencies tasked with protecting public health have been increasingly distracted over recent years by dubious priorities having nothing to do with…
Study
Narrow the Focus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may well have taken their eye off the ball by…
Youtube
VIDEO: Iain Murray Discusses #NeverNeeded Regulations and COVID-19
Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow Iain Murray joins Dana Loesch to discuss #neverneeded regulations and COVID-19…
The Epoch Times
Federal, State, and Local Governments Shed Over 170 Regulations to Fight Pandemic
The Epoch Times cites CEI on #neverneeded regulations: Even more regulations can be scrapped to empower American industry to help with the crisis,…
Bloomberg Law
Covid-19 Revives Debate over Economic Benefits of Deregulation
Bloomber Law cites Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow Iain Murray on #neverneeded regulations: Direct government aid won’t be enough to get…
CATO
Regulation after COVID-19
The CATO Institute cites CEI on #neverneeded regulations: Many of these regulations have no sound public justification whether in or outside of an…
The Federalist
South Africa’s Coronavirus Repression Signals Worse To Come
The Federalist cites CEI on #neverneeded regulations: Think tanks and researchers are working hard to shine a light on just how destructive artificial…
The Washington Examiner
Contact Tracing: Let the Private Sector Lead
As state and local restrictions begin to relax, the essential questions for many people are remarkably similar to what we asked in March. What will…
The Washington Examiner
How to Reopen the Economy with a Reality-Based Approach
Sweeping public health measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, such as banning large gatherings, travel restrictions, closing all but essential businesses, closing schools, and “social distancing”…
News Release
CEI Welcomes Senior Fellow with Health Care and Legal Expertise
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is pleased to welcome medical and legal expert Joel M. Zinberg, M.D., J.D. as a senior fellow working on health care…
CNS News
COVID-19 May Be Bad News for Environmentalist Bullies
The economic destruction wrought by the coronavirus pandemic has been severe and global. More than 10 million Americans lost their jobs and applied for unemployment benefits in…
Blog
VIDEO: Road Map to Reopening
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosted a fascinating video conference this week entitled “Big Picture: Road Map to Reopening,” with the Chamber’s Suzanne Clark and…
Blog
Apple and Google Demonstrate Big Tech Done Right Can Make Big Government Obsolete
Many see the purpose of government as solving problems that otherwise wouldn’t be efficiently addressed in its absence. Yet, despite the steady growth of government,…
Blog
Medical Supply Sterilization Plant Employee Corrects Chicago Tribune’s Misleading Coverage
An April 13 letter to the editor in the Chicago Tribune addresses the paper’s misleading and alarmist narrative about the use of ethylene oxide (EtO).
Blog
How to Spot a #NeverNeeded Regulation
Not every regulation on the books is directly harming the COVID-19 response. There are a lot of other regulations that need reform, but the #NeverNeeded…
Inside Sources
Post-Virus Economics – Working Toward a Small Business Recovery
When the stay-at-home orders are lifted, we’ll be in a race to get millions of Americans back to work. Large companies will be in a…
Real Clear Markets
An Effective Pandemic Response Would Be Deregulation
During a pandemic, regulations should not get between sick people and health care, or between hungry people and food. This also applies in normal times.
Blog
How SEC Accounting Regulations Hindered National Stockpile—and Still May Be Doing So
In a new report, CEI experts outline #NeverNeeded regulations that are frustrating responses to the pandemic and its aftermath. Among those is an obscure Securities…
National Review
The Test’s the Thing
The White House is now balancing the risk to public health and the risk to economic welfare posed by the coronavirus crisis. Yet a solution could…
The Washington Examiner
List: 30 Regulations that Stymied Trump’s Virus Response
The Washington Examiner cites CEI’s latest report on #NeverNeeded regulations: “Many regulations have proven to hinder or delay appropriate policy responses. Other regulations…
News Release
Report: Repeal #NeverNeeded Regulations to Help COVID-19 Response
COVID-19 relief bills have so far focused on keeping businesses and households afloat during the pandemic closures and quarantines, but the federal government should continue…
Study
How Repeal of #NeverNeeded Regulations Can Help Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis
A number of factors are combining to stress the American economy in the spring of 2020—the global and domestic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, an…
News Release
701k Jobs Lost in March 2020: Statement by Iain Murray
In response to today's abysmal jobs report tallied by the federal government – 701,000 jobs lost in March as a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Inside Sources
CDC Priorities Left Government Unprepared for COVID-19
It was always a matter of when — not if — a new viral pandemic would make it to America.
Blog
The Guardian Props Up Lame Greenpeace Tirade, Ignores Potential COVID-19 Risks from Reusable Grocery Bags
The Guardian recently published a story on a Greenpeace attack on CEI for pointing out that reusable grocery bags might contain dangerous pathogens, including COVID-19.
Blog
Post-Corona Politics: Opportunities and Threats
There is a lot of attention being paid to the latest emergency legislation being proposed to address the coronavirus pandemic, from $1,000 checks for every…