Sally Pipes, President of the Pacific Research Institute, has written an important article in Forbes analyzing new survey results demonstrating that 87% of medical physicians in the United States no longer view the American Medical Association as representing their views and interests.

Ms. Pipes states: “Much of that dissatisfaction stems from the organization’s support for President Obama’s contentious health care reform package.” The survey, conducted by physician recruitment firm Jackson & Coker, discovered that more than three times as many doctors believed that the quality of American health care would “deteriorate” rather than “improve” under ObamaCare; and nine of ten physicians think ObamaCare will have a negative impact on their profession. Most member driven organizations would collapse with such negative trends; but the AMA survives by collecting up to $70 million from its exclusive relationship with the federal government to provide CPT Codes in direct conflict with medical doctors.

The Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code are maintained by the Chicago-based American Medical Association to describe medical, surgical, and diagnostic services and is designed to communicate a uniform set of information about medical services and procedures to physicians, patients, accreditation organizations, and payers for administrative, financial, and Medicare and Medicaid billing coders. These codes have been designated by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to be published for treatment guidelines and billings.

Federal and state spending on health care is $1.1 trillion; about 42% of all healthcare spending in the U.S. last year. CPT codes set average physician and hospital reimbursement rates. For example the average physician rates for treating Medicare beneficiaries is 81% of the rate private insurers pay and for Medicaid patients the reimbursements are just 56% of the private rate.

American Medical Association 2009 revenue according to “Hoover’s Company Profiles” was $248 million; with $70 million of income coming from “publishing”. This is an especially large percentage of revenue, considering that the AMA membership dues were only $42 million.

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The Minnesota shutdown draws to a close after a very long month for many Minnesotans. Once all the details were hammered out in the five days of closed-door negotiations between Republican leadership, Committee chairs, and the Dayton administration a special session was called Tuesday 7-19-11 at 3p.m. The session went throughout the night, ending with Gov Dayton signing the legislation 9a.m. Wednesday morning.

The budget deal came after Dayton agreed to the GOP budget as proposed before the shutdown with some changes. The Governor agreed to not raise taxes and instead adopt the Republican proposal to delay school aid payments and sell bonds based on future proceeds from the state’s settlement with tobacco companies totaling $1.4 billion in one-time money. The Republicans agreed to Dayton’s terms and dropped the social issues, let go of their proposed 15 percent reduction in the state’s workforce, and agreed to assemble a $500 million bonding bill.

Some of the social issues that will be dropped include the Baby Pain Bill, which would have stopped abortion after babies can start to feel pain, banning funding for stem cell research,  public employees’ bargaining rights, and the Voter ID Bill.

In a press release from Majority Leader Senator Amy Koch, Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers (R-Maple Grove) said, “This budget accomplishes what we set out to do: it does not raise taxes, cuts projected spending by $2.5 billion and bends the cost curve of unsustainable state spending. Our economy will be stronger as a result of not increasing taxes on businesses and job creators.”

In the same press release House Majority Leader Matt Dean (R-Dellwood) said, “We looked at every area of the budget for reform to reduce costs and improve service delivery. We didn’t cut for the sake of cutting but for the preservation of sustainable services that meet the evolving needs of Minnesotans. Our nation-leading reforms, particularly in the area of health care, will serve as a model for other states.”

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When you think about a highly aggressive cartel teaming up with politicians to pass protectionist laws that kick entrepreneurs out of work, you probably don’t think about interior designers.

But you should.

The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) represents less than 3 percent of all designers, but its members have designated themselves as spokespeople for the entire industry. ASID has spent over 30 years and millions of dollars lobbying from coast to coast for interior design licensing schemes.  Not surprisingly, the schemes they propose would force all interior designers to have the exact same credentials as required for membership in ASID.

The group has worked relentlessly to enlist state legislatures in its campaign for total industry cartelization. The Institute for Justice has documented these efforts in a study titled “Designing Cartels.”

Florida is ground zero right now in this epic battle.

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The fount of business knowledge that is Forbes.com ran a bit dry this weekend when it published a blog by one Rick Ungar in which he made the case that taxpayers don’t actually fund public employee pensions in Wisconsin. Just let that marinate for a moment.

Ungar was attempting to disprove Gov. Scott Walker’s assertion that the state’s pension and health insurance systems for public sector workers are budget-busters that can only be fixed with the budget repair bill and the curtailing of collective bargaining privileges.

(The leading health insurance plan, WEA Trust, for example, is controlled by the state’s largest teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council.  But I digress…)

As his ace in the hole, he cites a blog written by “Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter” David Cay Johnston. A Pulitzer – wow – why even waste my time scrutinizing that one?

Writes Ungar:

“The pension plan is the direct result of deferred compensation – money that employees would have been paid as cash salary but choose, instead, to have placed in the state operated pension fund where the money can be professionally invested (at a lower cost of management) for the future.”

If this is true – that pensions are simply “deferred compensation” – then why do taxpayers only ever hear about “low” teacher salaries, and not the teachers’ total compensation package? Because that wouldn’t fit the unions’ narrative that school employees are eating dog food and living one step above poverty.

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Is there a political answer to every problem? Most of my colleagues feel this is the case. I disagree.

In the past day, there was a spate of news articles about California’s trans-fat ban due to go into effect on New Year’s Day. I voted against this new law.

California has the 4th-highest unemployment rate, a $21 billion budget deficit, and a severe water shortage, so, what do lawmakers do?  Pass a law that will fine restaurants $1,000 for using margarine in their foods.

One of the articles said:

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, criticized the new law as an example of nanny government with little beneficial impact.
“Not every human problem deserves a political solution,” he said. “That’s the fallacy my colleagues engage in.”

I’ve been criticized for voting against all sorts of nanny state bills that expand the police power of government in the name of making us safe from ourselves. I’ve often argued that we might as well pass a blanket bill outlawing stupidity and rudeness in California.

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