For over three decades, CEI has advocated health care reforms that put more power in the hands of consumers to choose their health providers, treatment protocols, and scope of insurance coverage. We have advocated reform of the Food and Drug Administration’s drug and device approval process to allow for greater flexibility and patient choice. And in 2013, CEI organized the court challenges to Obamacare’s exchange subsidies that concluded with the Supreme Court’s King v. Burwell decision.
Healthcare Issue Areas
Featured Posts
Blog
New FDA lab tests rule could bankrupt small labs
Yesterday the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that on May 6 it will promulgate a rule under its authority to regulate medical devices.
National Review
The Return of the Cadillac Tax?
Like the phoenix, a key piece of the Affordable Care Act has risen from the ashes, resurrected, believe it or not, by the Republican Study Committee…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Paying for organs with Pete Jaworski
In this week’s episode we cover the future of AI and employment, why we shouldn’t trust Chinese economic statistics, and how the…
Search Posts
Blog
Let in More Foreign Doctors to Fix Looming Shortage of Physicians Aggravated by Obamacare
“Bring on the foreign doctors,” writes Slate’s Brian Palmer: If President Obama’s health care reform plan is implemented in its current form, the United…
Blog
More Economic Suffering Due to Obamacare
The Washington Post reports on the ever-growing number of people losing wages and facing pay cuts due to the 2010 healthcare law: For Kevin…
Blog
Unions Plead for Changes to Obamacare, Citing Lost Wages and Benefits
The Wall Street Journal reports today that the leaders of three major labor unions are asking Congress to make fundamental changes to Obamacare, saying that without such changes, it will…
Forbes
Why LeBron James Should Be Rooting Against ObamaCare
The sudden announcement of a one-year delay of the Obamacare employer mandate confirms the fear expressed even by the law’s supporters that implementation will be…
Blog
Obama Administration Discards Reporting Requirements in Obamacare
The Obama administration has illegally discarded the reporting requirements mandated by the 2010 healthcare law, which were designed to prevent countless billions of…
The Washington Times
EDITORIAL: Obamacare’s fatal flaw
Michael Carvin, who argued the Supreme Court’s Obamacare cases last year, is working with the Competitive Enterprise Institute to reverse the agency’s decision. “The…
Forbes
The Great Obamacare Intergenerational Swindle
In the sci-fi thriller The Hunger Games, a group of young people are made to compete against each other in a fight for survival. Post-Constitutional America…
Blog
Another Federal Appeals Court Rules against Obama Administration’s Contraceptive Mandate
Contraceptives are easy to obtain, and forcing employers to include a broad array of contraceptives in employee health insurance makes as little sense as forcing…
Blog
Obamacare and Activist State Courts Drive Up Health Plan Costs
The so-called rate shock from Obamacare has hit Ohio. The state’s Department of Insurance announced last Thursday that the average individual-market health insurance premium…
Legal Brief
Affordable Care Act Lawsuit – Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment
Full Document Available in PDF Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 and this Court’s Local Rule 7, Plaintiffs…
The Hill
State-based drug tracking puts Americans at risk
When consumers take prescription and over-the-counter drugs — as more than half of all Americans do each month — they expect those medicines to improve…
The Hill
A Legacy Litigated
Here’s the thinking behind the lawsuit, funded in part by the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute. The problem, apparently, is a drafting…
Blog
Does Austerity Really “Kill”?
Does austerity kill? In a recent New York Times op-ed, David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu claim that fiscal austerity leads to a worsening of health…
Blog
Possible Unintended Consequences in New Obamacare Regulation
The PCIP program gives health care providers an incentive to refuse treatment to people who desperately need it.
Investor's Business Daily
Environmental Fear-Mongering Isn’t Just Silly, It Kills People
Dr. Henry Miller, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Gregory Conko, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in a Forbes article "Rachel Carson's…
Orange County Register
Lost lives the real costs of regulator overreach
Every once in a while, one encounters the perfect example of the folly, naivete and hubris of an ivory-tower academic. A case in point was…
Blog
CEI Podcast For May 2, 2013: Small Business Owners Sue Over IRS Obamacare Power Grab
Small business owners and individuals in six states, with help from CEI, are suing the IRS over what General Counsel Sam Kazman calls a flagrantly…
Human Events
Business Owners Sue IRS Over Obamacare Mandate
“Agencies are bound by the laws enacted by Congress,” said Sam Kazman, general counsel of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). “Obamacare is already an incredibly massive…
The Hill
Lawsuit claims IRS illegally implementing key part of ObamaCare
“ObamaCare is already an incredibly massive program. For the IRS to expand it even more, without congressional authorization and in a manner aimed at undercutting…
Forbes
Gay Marriage, Polygamy, Bestiality, Abortion, Infanticide, Pot, Foie Gras, Plastic Bags, Big Gulps and Democracy
Consider the following list: 1) Marry someone of your same gender, 2) join a harem, 3) have sex with your donkey, 4) kill your baby the…
Blog
The Train Wreck That Is Obamacare
At least one union that supported passage of Obamacare, is now calling for its repeal. As The Wall Street Journal notes, the United…
Blog
Obamacare Strangles Job Creation, Stifles Medical Innovation
Earlier, I wrote about the dismal March jobs report and how high unemployment has been masked by rising numbers of discouraged workers and people…
Bloomberg
Ignore Hysteria Over New ‘Monsanto’ Bill
Greg Conko, who studies biotech issues for the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, points out that this fear is overblown, since organic standards require farmers to…
News Release
Greens Falsely Sow Seeds of Doubt on Farmer Assurance Provision
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 28, 2013 — During negotiations on the continuing budget resolution last weekend, farm state senators inserted a rider they call the “Farmer Assurance…
Forbes
FTC Drug Meddling Would Needlessly Push Pharmaceutical Costs Higher
Four of every five pharmaceutical prescriptions today are filled with a generic drug. That sounds like a big number, but the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)…
Blog
Obamacare Harms Colleges And Their Employees
The University of Virginia is expecting a roughly $7-million bill for Obamacare's new employer penalties, said Susan Carkeek, the University's vice president and…
Blog
Lobbying Can Be A Great Investment
Not only did health insurers convince the government to require everyone in the country to buy their products, now their premiums will go up sharply,…
Blog
Washington Examiner: “Congress: Obamacare To Boost Premiums To $7,186 — A Year”
Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner reports on massive premium increases due to Obamacare: Health insurance companies, facing new and costly rules and…
Letters
21 Limited-Government Organizations Agree: House Should Repeal Dangerous IPAB
Full Document Available in PDF We, the undersigned organizations, representing millions of Americans who seek limited government and economic freedom, urge you…
Forbes
Doctor Shortage? Let Idled Postal Workers Fill In! (Satire)
Rejoice, one of Obamacare’s great mysteries has been solved: Namely, the question of how we are going to provide free medical care to 30 million…
Blog
Obamacare: More Cost, Less Coverage
Seven million fewer people than predicted will have health care coverage a decade after Obamacare’s passage, admits the Congressional Budget Office. One reason “is that…
Heartlander
GMO Labeling to Appear on Washington Ballot
Gregory Conko, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, says consumers have a right to know if products they purchase have negative health consequences.
Blog
Economic Freedom Declines Again; Government Control Is Bad For Your Health
Economic freedom has declined under the Obama administration, and America's rank has repeatedly fallen on the Index of Economic Freedom and other rankings issued…
Blog
Obamacare Increases Unnecessary Medical Tests, Wastes Doctors’ Time, Drives Up Billings And Costs
President Obama claimed Obamacare would cut healthcare costs, but it actually increased them in many ways, some of which are chronicled here. Here are yet…
Blog
Obamacare Imposes New Fees, Cost Increases On The Public
Obamacare was sold to the public based on the fallacy that it would cut healthcare costs, but each month brings additional evidence that it…
Cato
The Ripple Effects of Flawed Agbiotech Regulation
The modern techniques of genetic engineering—also known as biotechnology, recombinant DNA technology, or genetic modification (GM)—offer plant breeders the tools to make old crop plants…
Blog
Appeals Court Overturns Dismissal Of Challenge To Obamacare Contraception Mandate By Religious Colleges
According to law professor Jonathan Adler, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit effectively overturned a district court’s dismissal of a challenge…
Blog
PolitiFact Is The Liar Of The Year
PolitiFact falsely depicted Michael Cannon, the director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, as suggesting that state law overrides federal law, erroneously…
Point of Law
Will lawmakers slip disparate impact, punitive damages into Title VI?
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination by recipients of federal education spending and other programs, does not currently allow…
Blog
More Lawsuits Against Doctors, Hospitals Due To Senate Amendment 3215 To NDAA
Earlier, I wrote about a proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2013, which would dramatically increase lawsuits against schools and…
News Release
Institute Welcomes Court Ruling on Commercial Free Speech
WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 4, 2012 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute applauded the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision yesterday, concluding that the…
Op-Eds
Senator Durbin is wrong on energy drinks ban
Several lawmakers have called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to “do something” to protect the public from the alleged threat of energy…
Hoover Institution
Free Speech for Big Pharma
One of the most important elements of medicine is also among the least well known: the ability of physicians to prescribe approved medicines for purposes…
Blog
Obamacare Will Increase Health Insurance Costs In California, Washington, D.C., And Elsewhere
California officials concede that their state’s Obamacare exchange will hike premiums for policyholders by up to 25 percent. In the District of Columbia, small…
Hoover Institution
A Lack of Government Transparency: The Devil In The Detailing
Cowritten by Jeff Stier. A House Appropriations subcommittee has voted to move forward legislation that would cut $1.3 billion from the Department of Health and…
Orange County Register
A Losing Proposition on Food Labeling
California's initiative process – which allows "propositions" to be placed on the ballot quite easily – can lead to laws that are muddled, intentionally misleading…
Forbes
“Genetically Engineered” In California: A Food Label We Don’t Need
From “food miles” to farmers’ markets, it seems that consumers have never been more interested in the ways their food is grown. That’s one motivation…
Forbes
A Conservative Case for Obamacare?
From Thomas P. Miller’s column in National Review: The response of roughly half of the Senate Republicans was to co-sponsor an alternative bill…
Forbes
Labeling Of Genetically Engineered Foods Is A Losing Proposition
As Joe Six-pack munches Fritos and popcorn during the opening games of the NFL season, does he care what variety of corn was used to…
Boston Herald
Mass. biotech reaps Monsanto deal
From Ira Kantor's article in The Boston Herald: Gregory Conko, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and co-author of…
USA Today
FDA rules won’t do much good
Food-borne illnesses kill as many as 3,000 Americans each year, but consumers should not expect new Food and Drug Administration regulations to help. These rules,…
Real Clear Policy
More FDA Control Does Not Mean More Safety
News outlets are reporting that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cited an alarmingly high number of alleged safety and regulatory violations by…
Blog
FDA Delay Likely Killed Thousands, Imposed Billions In Costs
The FDA didn’t approve a home test for HIV until 24 years after it first received an application. According to an FDA advisory committee,…
Blog
Dietitian Licensing Board Attempts To Limit Free Speech, Silence Bloggers
Have you ever given someone advice on how to lose weight through dietary changes? Have you ever recommended that certain foods could be consumed or…
Real Clear Policy
The American Revolution Comes to a Pitiful Close
June 2012 – and especially its last week – was ripe with ominous metaphor, all revolving around the Supreme Court’s decision on June 28th to…
Blog
Court’s Obamacare Decision — What Would John Locke Say?
Richard Epstein of the Hoover Institution and the University of Chicago Law School gives the Chief Justice some tough love in “What Was Roberts…
Blog
The Good, the Bad, and the Broccoli
Most people thought that the health care decision would hinge on the Court’s interpretation of the Commerce Clause. That’s why I wrote the first three…
Blog
Obamacare Lives. So, Now What?
Former CEI scholar Tom Miller (now with AEI) has some thoughts on the Obamacare decision in today's…
Blog
CEI Podcast: June 28, 2012: The Obamacare Decision
General Counsel Sam Kazman shares his thoughts on the Supreme Court's health care decision, the Commerce Clause, Congress' taxation power, and more.
Blog
Supreme Court Concocts New “Rational (Tax) Basis” Test in Upholding Health Law
In a move that seems to have surprised many observers, the Supreme Court today upheld nearly all of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act…
Blog
Obamacare Upheld, 5-to-4: A Perverse Decision That Undermines Political Accountability
Today, in a really perverse ruling, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare's individual mandate as a tax in a 5-to-4 decision, even though Obamacare's supporters…
Blog
Quick Thoughts on the Health Care Ruling
The Supreme Court upheld the health care bill, as you've no doubt heard by now. Over at the Daily Caller, I offer a few quick…
Daily Caller
Three Quick Thoughts on the Health Care Ruling
The Supreme Court has upheld the health care law’s insurance mandate, to the surprise of many. This surprise sparked a few quick thoughts about the…
News Release
Supreme Court Concocts “Rational Tax Test” in Health Ruling
Washington, D.C., June 28, 2012 – Statement by CEI Senior Fellow Gregory Conko: In enacting the health care individual purchase mandate, Congress…
Real Clear Markets
Global Governments’ Growing Embrace of Big Pharma
As the pharmaceutical industry wrestles with multiple existential threats-from price controls to patent cliffs to dwindling pipelines-calls are growing for deeper government-industry cooperation. As private…
Bio-IT World
Does Thimerosal Prevent Autism? Epidemiology Gone Wild
Human beings are born pattern recognizers, part of the repertoire of survival skills that separates us from the beasts. We are programmed to spot relationships…
Blog
Supreme Court Issues 5-to-4 Rulings, But Not On Obamacare
The Supreme Court announced four decisions today, three of them decided by slender 5-to-4 margins, but not the long-awaited ruling about the constitutionality of…
Bio-IT World
Should We Label Genetically-Modified Food?
Green State TV is back for 2011 with an interview on biotechnology and agriculture with Greg Conko…
Washington Times
High Price of Cheap Drug Imports
With the Senate set to vote on one of the few “must-pass” bills of the year, pharmaceutical industry critics are plotting ways to add poison…
Blog
More First Amendment Violations from Obamacare, Thanks to HHS
Obamacare will drive up costs for most patients and insurance policyholders. Yet "health-insurance companies must tell customers who get a premium rebate…
Washington Times
ObamaCare’s Killer Device Tax
Much of the political conversation in Washington these days concerns innovation, job creation and competitiveness. But talk is cheap, and elected officials must enact policies…
Washington Times
The Off-Label Drug War of Words
If knowledge is power and ignorance is bliss, what is power used to prevent knowledge from eliminating ignorance? I don’t know; ask the FDA (U.S.
Heartlander
Critical Drug Shortages Reaching Crisis
From Ashley Bateman's article on Heartland.org: But according to Greg Conko, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, more mandates on companies…
Medical Progress Today
Mayo v. Prometheus and Diagnostic Patents: What Does the Supreme Court Decision Really Mean?
I finally had a chance to read the Supreme Court's recent decision in the Mayo v. Prometheus Labs case, which invalided two patents claiming methods…
Medical Progress Today
The Orphan Drug Conundrum
It’s not a crisis. Yet. Bigger health care issues loom. Right now. There are still fortunes to be made. While it lasts. But one could…
Blog
Economic “Recovery” Is Slow and Weak Due to Obama Administration Policies
Typically, after the economy suffers an unusually severe recession, it bounces back in an unusually rapid recovery -- what some economists and others refer to…
Blog
Obamacare: Constitutionality Argument Misses the Point Entirely
Conservatives are ebullient over the unexpected hostility and skepticism the government's lawyers faced from the Supreme Court Justices over the three days of hearings on…
Blog
No to Broccoli Mandate, Yes to Health Insurance Mandate?
Over at the Daily Caller, I go over some possible explanations for the different results and conclude:…
Blog
Obamacare Harms State Finances, Imposes Unfunded Mandates, Drives Up State Budget Deficits; Even Democrats Criticize Provisions
While public attention has focused on Obamacare's unconstitutional "individual mandate," challenged yesterday in oral arguments at the Supreme Court, other parts of the health…
Medical Progress Today
Stearns’ Healthcare Record Questioned
From Bill Thompson’s article in The Gainesville Sun: Such remarks echo a common refrain among conservative critics of President Barack…
Daily Caller
No to Broccoli Mandate, Yes to Health Insurance Mandate?
The results of a Reason-Rupe poll that was released on Monday are more interesting than the pollsters may have intended. Two of the questions they…
Blog
Supreme Court Begins Hearing Challenges to Unconstitutional Obamacare Provisions
At CNN, George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin explains why Obamacare's requirement that individuals buy health insurance is beyond Congress's power…
Daily Caller
HHS Deems Rate Hikes Excessive in Nine States
From Michael P. Tremoglie’s article on Legal Newsline: But the issue of the government telling insurers how much premiums should be is a…
Blog
Obamacare Costs More Than Twice As Much As Obama Claimed; Stimulus Creates Debt, Not Jobs
As Daniel Foster notes, “When it was being debated, Democrats told you ACA [Obamacare] would cost $940 billion over ten years . . .
Blog
Obamacare: Anyone Have a Plan B?
In just a few week the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments regarding the legal challenges to the administration's controversial health-care overhaul, especially the constitutionality of the so-called "individual mandate" that requires every American to purchase government-approved insurance. The…
Daily Caller
The Anti-GM Food Circus Rolls Through Connecticut
From the American Council on Science and Health’s “Health Facts and Fears”: But as Gregory Conko, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise…
Blog
Taxmageddon Comes Just After the Election
On December 31, shortly after the November election, tax rates will rise across the board in what congressional aides call "Taxmageddon," notes The Washington Post. Not…
Daily Caller
Shoppers already have a choice regarding biotech foods
Consumers increasingly base food purchasing decisions on individual preferences about product content. For many, this means a focus on nutrition or fat. Others care more…
Blog
CEI Podcast for February 16, 2012: Washington’s Prescription Drug Shortage
Patients are suffering from a nationwide shortage of more than 260 different prescription drugs, many of them for different types of cancer. Senior Fellow Greg…
Blog
Congress Seems Intent on Making Drug Shortages Worse
Now that the problem of prescription drug shortages has begun to affect children, members of Congress want to be seen as…
Daily Caller
How is the FDA Really Doing?
I read with interest—and mounting skepticism—Patricia Dimond’s Insight & Intelligence™ piece about FDA, “FDA New Drug Approvals in 2011 Outpace…
Blog
Misconceptions about the Obama Administration’s Contraception Mandate for Religious Employers
There are a number of misconceptions about the Obama administration’s recent rule requiring employers’ health insurance policies (including those of religious schools and hospitals) to…
Blog
Government Thwarts Cancer Cures and Production of Life-Saving Drugs
The federal government thwarted a promising cancer treatment. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) put Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski on trial twice, saying “it did…
Daily Caller
Vincent Vernuccio explains the union’s latest method of recruitment.
Vincent Vernuccio explains the union's the latest method of forcing home healthcare and daycare workers into their unions…
Daily Caller
Seeking Solution to “Incredibly Complex” Issue of Drug Shortages
Blog
CEI Podcast for February 2, 2012: The FDA’s Latest Power Grab
Fellow in Consumer Policy Studies Michelle Minton breaks down the FDA's behind-the-scenes push to regulate dietary supplements nearly as strictly as prescription drugs.
Blog
Justice Kagan Should Recuse Herself from Obamacare Case
Only in Bizarro World can you claim someone is your attorney -- and thus shielded by attorney work-product privilege -- and then insist in the…
Blog
Michigan SEIU Scam the Product of Government Collective Bargaining
Proponents of government collective bargaining view it as a fundamental human right. The shameful actions of SEIU in Michigan, however, undermine this claim. In…
Daily Caller
Can Brand Makers Be Sued for Generic Drug Injuries?
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