Bacon's Rebellion

  • In Virginia, Medicaid HMOs Are Working

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    James A. Bacon

    A rare piece of good news on the budgetary front. It looks like payments to Medicaid HMOs will plateau next year — a welcome respite from the 4-percent to 7-percent annual increases that have been typical in recent years.

    As David Ress reports for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, an outside consultant is crunching numbers to set the rates the state will pay next year to its Medicaid HMOs, who administer the taxpayer-funded program for the poor and disabled. Said Patrick W. Finnerty, director of the Department of Medical Assistance Services: “It’s not looking like we’re going to see the kind of increases we had been seeing; it looks like that is flattening.” Indeed, HMO profits are hefty enough that the state actually could order a cut in Medicaid HMO rates.

    The HMOs have cut expenses while improving quality by introducing programs such as preventative care for newborns, diabetes and asthma.

    What the story doesn’t tell us is what percentage of the total Medicaid budget the HMOs account for. If it’s a large percentage, Virginia can look forward to a slowdown in the increase in total Medicaid spending, one of the state’s main budget busters. If it’s a small percentage, then the Kaine administration should seek to extend the HMO concept to a broader cross-section of the population.

  • The Greening of Fairfax County

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    James A. Bacon

    Gerald E. Connolly, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, wants to make Fairfax County more green. In the “Cool Counties” initiative he launched two weeks ago, Connolly aims to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that result from automobile emissions and coal-fired power plants that generate electricity. He has taken on a formidable task.

    Fairfax County has an embedded infrastructure of buildings, roads and utilities — an investment worth hundreds of billions of dollars — built to serve automobility. Much of the development in th ecounty is scattered, disconnected, low density and energy inefficient. In describing Connolly’s challenge, Amy Gardner with the Washington Post hones in on the Fairfax County government complex as a monument to dysfunctional land use.

    The 670,000-square-foot government center, built in the early 1990s when energy prices were low and environmental consciousness even lower, could have anchored a pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented community of homes, shops and jobs. “But,” Gardner writes, “the five-story mass of granite and glass, which rises squatly from an isolated, 86-acre sea of asphalt and lawn near Fair Oaks Mall, is suited to nothing of the sort. For years, critics have said the government center is an emblem of sprawl: far from Metrorail, sequestered by divided highways, intimidating to walkers and bicycle riders.”

    Of about 11,000 county employees, only 135 are known to use bus, rail or vanpools to get to work. The ratio is even smaller at the 2,900-parking-spot government center, where about 1,700 county workers are based. Gardner paints a word picture of an empty transit bus “creeping from shelter to shelter in a vain search for a rider. Not a single pedestrian was in view on the sidewalks and trails leading away from the building.”

    The “Cool Counties” initiative is designed to decrease government emissions of greenhouse gases by increasing the use of wind power, clean-burning vehicles and environmentally friendly building techniques. But Connolly concedes that it will take more than carbon fluorescent lightbulbs and hybrid cars to transform a government whose physical form, as Gardner puts it, “mirrors the expansive suburb it serves.”

    Connolly envisions a future in which the government center is surrounded by a more urban feel: affordable housing for county workers, more commerce and jobs — and even an extension of Metrorail along Interstate 66.

    Reading between the lines: The Greening of Fairfax County will require a built environment more hospitable to pedestrians and mass transit. And that will require the demolition and rebuilding of half the roads, buildings and utility infrastructure in the county. Even in the absence of political resistance and bureaucratic lethargy, that will take decades to complete. Connolly will not live long enough to see his vision fulfilled. But it’s accomplishment enough if he can get the process started.

  • Studying Illegal Immigration and Crime

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    James A. Bacon

    People have a lot of opinions about illegal immigration, but there’s precious little data to back up their views. That’s about to change in Virginia. The Virginia State Crime Commission, according to the Associated Press, is establishing a task force to study the effect of illegal immigration on the state’s criminal justice system.

    State lawmakers, frustrated with the federal government’s inaction on immigration reform, are taking on the issue. About 50 immigration-related bills were introduced during the 2007 General Assembly. “And each year, we still have almost no facts to base our decision upon,” said [Commission Chairman Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach].

    Virginia is home to an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 illegal immigrants. The crime commission will will examine crimes by and against those immigrants and tabulate the financial impact of those crimes.

  • Train a Grande Vitesse

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    James A. Bacon

    It’s not often that I give the French credit for anything other than their wine, but this is too good to ignore: A new train with a 250,000- horsepower engine and special wheels has broken the world speed record for conventional trains. Reaching 357.2 miles per hour on a 125-mile run between Paris and Strasbourg, the bullet train is exceeded in speed only by Japan’s magnetic levitating train. (Read the AP story.)

    Maybe the romance of the rails is suspending my capacity for critical thinking, but I think it would be surpassingly cool to link major East Coast cities in the United States with rail like this — even if it means importing the technology from one of the most anti-American countries on the planet. The speeds would be competitive with short airplane trips — and they could drop off passengers in city centers rather than airports on the metropolitan periphery. Think about it — from downtown Richmond to downtown Washington, downtown Norfolk or downtown Raleigh in less than an hour!

    Of course, I have absolutely no idea what it would cost to upgrade the rail lines to accommodate such a train — the number is probably frighteningly high. But it might make a good long-term investment if we consider the projected rates of increase in electricity vs. aviation fuel. Electricity has its drawbacks, as I’ve blogged here frequently, but I’ll take a home-grown coal- and nuclear-powered energy source over an imported fuel dependent upon the vagaries of international politics any day. The usual caveat applies: All such projects must offer a competitive Return on Investment compared to other potential transportation projects.

  • Kaine Backs Green Measures in Electric Rereg Bill

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    James A. Bacon

    On the subject of electric reregulation (see previous post), it’s going to happen whether we like it or not. Last week Gov. Timothy M. Kaine implicitly endorsed the framework of the electric reregulation bill passed by the General Assembly, although he did amend it to promote conservation and renewable fuels. According to the Governor’s website, his amendments would:

    • Give the State Corporation Commission more authority to consider keeping Virginia’s electricity costs competitive with other southeastern states when setting rates
    • Double the conservation and efficiency goal for Virginia’s electric utilities
    • Continue green-power tariffs for Virginia’s consumers and strengthen provisions for renewable energy use
    • Create more incentives for clean electricity generation
    • Provide faster refunds to utility customers
    • Provide additional flexibility for industrial and commercial consumers to use competitive electricity providers.

    Said Kaine: “My primary goals in amending this bill were to ensure that appropriate consumer protection measures were in place to keep Virginians’ electric rates among the lowest in the country, and to ensure that electric companies have incentives to conserve energy, produce cleaner energy, and take other steps to protect the environment.”

    I agree with Kaine’s big themes and priorities. But, frankly, I haven’t had a chance to delve into the details of how he proposes to achieve them. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping these amendments constitute a genuine improvement to the original bill.

  • Is Virginia Dumping Electric Deregulation When It Can Finally Do Some Good?

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    James A. Bacon

    I’m less than impressed with the quality of thinking brought to bear on the issue of electric deregulation and reregulation in Virginia. Deregulation of the electric power industry in Virginia, almost everyone has concluded, was a failure. The question that no one deems worthy of asking is this: Why was deregulation a failure?

    Could it be that “deregulation” is a misnomer? Consider the fact that when Dominion, the state’s largest power company, “deregulated” in 1999, it did so on the condition that its rates remain frozen for 10 years, with some exceptions for fuel costs. Is it possible that potential competitors were scared off by the knowledge that Virginia’s electric rates, already lower than the national average to begin with, would not increase for 10 years? Who would want to compete under those conditions?

    Here’s what else proponents of reregulation are not considering: “Deregulation” coincided with a period of time when Dominion did not need to build any new base-line power plants. The utility was able to import cheaper electricity over electric transmission lines from the Midwest. But that source of power can no longer be counted upon to accommodate future demand growth in Virginia. Dominion plans to embark upon a multi-billion dollar construction program to build its own power plants. “Reregulation” will ensure that Dominion has the field to itself: It doesn’t have to compete with outsiders to add that capacity.

    Another baneful effect of regulation, argues Jerry Ellig, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, is that it will inhibit innovative pricing policies that could promote conservation. Writes Ellig in the Times-Dispatch today:

    Competition could facilitate dynamic pricing options that would vary retail electricity prices as the cost of producing electricity changes over the course of the day. Like cell-phone plans that offer free night and weekend minutes, dynamic electricity pricing would let consumers save money by moving some of their electricity use to times when electricity is cheap to produce, such as late at night.

    With less electricity demanded at “peak” times, fewer new power plants would be needed, and prices would be lower.”

    “Transparent price signals that better reflect the actual cost of power give consumers incentives to seek out novel products and services that better enable them to manage their own energy choices,” notes Lynne Kiesling, a lecturer in economics at Northwestern University who has studied dynamic pricing experiments around the nation.

    Don’t expect that kind of innovative proposal from monopoly utilities. Forced to charge the same price all day, regardless of cost, they can increase their profits only by selling more electricity and building more power plants.

    Electricity markets have changed in unanticipated ways since Virginia passed its restructuring legislation, so some regulatory changes may be necessary. But with higher prices all but certain, it makes little sense to abort consumers’ right to choose.

  • Party Poopers

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    James A. Bacon

    So my first BR column is up. And of course, there’s a lot more I’d like to add to it.

    Like a different photo of me. One where I don’t look like Garrison Keillor’s bastard son.

    But more to the point, after doing some additional reading on conservatives and their discontents, I stumbled across this passage in Ryan Sager’s “The Elephant in the Room.” It adds some additional, and not entirely complimentary, light on the various and several pouts of Richard Vigeurie:

    In the years before the organization of the Evangelicals, a related group of conservatives, known as the New Right, had been seeking political fortune. Led in part by direct-mail pioneer Richard Vigeurie, this band became extremely dissatisfied with the Republican Party after Nixon’s resignation and Ford’s choice of Nelson Rockefeller as his vice president. They were so mad, in fact, that they agitated openly for a social-conservative alliance with the Democratic Party, or for conservative Democrats to join conservative Republicans in starting a third party.

    Their agitation fell apart when Ronald Reagan said “no.”

    So the latest Vigeurie, et al, stirring is in many ways just a 30 year old retread. But there are some critical differences this time, the most glaring of which is someone of Reagan’s stature to talk people off the ledge. For all their other attributes, Rudy, John, Mitt and the rest just don’t have the same hold on the conservative imagination. And folks like Sam Brownback, Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo and, yes, our own Jim Gilmore may have “it” to a very small degree. But the chances of any of them becoming the GOP nominee — let alone one that galvanizes conservatives nationwide — are on the wrong side of none.

    Who could be that shining, Reaganite knight? George Allen was supposed to be the one, but instead of the Gipper, we got Bill Buckner. Fred Thompson? Well, he’s pretty smooth with a teleprompter. But he’s not in (yet). And what of (libertarian) internet darling Ron Paul?

    Not going to happen.

    Until that magic someone appears who can calm the angry conservative beast, unite its warring factions under a single banner and sound an optimistic message for the future, conservatives will either become more disconnected from the GOP and thus eager to form a long-threatened “third force” or…they may simply back away from politics entirely.

    They should pack along a copy of “Waiting for Godot,” just in case.

  • Brain Games

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    James A. Bacon

    In past posts, I’ve highlighted the systemic problems in Virginia’s educational system — an industrial-era model laboring to keep pace with a knowledge-era economy. The problems run deeper than the bureaucratic, top-down funding and administration of our public schools, which answer to masters at three levels of government: local, state and federal. The problems run deeper than anything that giving poor kids vouchers to attend to private schools can solve. At its root, our educational system, public and private, pushes children through standardized curricula in age cohorts, regardless of the pace that individuals are capable of progressing.

    There’s another problem facing American education today: the corrosive influence of our popular culture. I’m not talking about the usual suspects such as entertainment media drenched in sex, violence and vulgarity — as bad as that is. I’m talking about terrible nutrition, inadequate sleep and the debilitating effects of electronic media upon brain development. I explore these cultural epidemics in today’s column, “Brain Games,” based on an interview with Dr. Susan Hardwicke, founder of kSero Corporation, which operates a cognitive development center in western Henrico County.

    The context of the article is Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s push for universal pre-K education. The logic behind the program, estimated to cost $300 million a year, is that ensuring children a year of quality pre-K education will improve their academic performance in later years, reduce the number of high school drop-outs, and yield financial rewards in the out years through a lower incidence of welfare, crime, drug abuse and other costly social pathologies.

    I don’t have a problem with applying life cycle analysis to public policy, although I have yet to see numbers demonstrating a financial pay-off of pre-K to taxpayers, much less an analysis that takes into account the time value of money and the 10- to 20-year delay in generating a financial return.

    What I suggest is that Virginia’s school children — and I’m not just talking about “at risk” kids — are facing more immediate problems. Nutrition is a disgrace. Childhood obesity, with an accompanying risk of diabetes, is becoming routine. The same nutritional regime that causes obesity also impairs brain development, and it increases behavioral problems — sugar rushes followed by sugar crashes — that make it difficult for children to concentrate and apply themselves in class.

    Likewise, many children aren’t getting enough sleep. The temptations are omnipresent: for pre-teens, logging long hours on the computer, interacting with friends through instant messaging; for teens, partying into the night. Parents are increasingly unable or unwilling to enforce sleep discipline among their children. Yet sleep is necessary for the brain to consolidate learning. Lack of sleep also makes kids tired and less alert at school.

    Finally, kids are overdosing on television, computer games and other electronic media, which are especially harmful to brain development in young children.

    Here’s my question: If our concern is cognitive development, could $300 million be more effectively spent on educating children and parents about nutrition, sleep and electronic stimuli? Wouldn’t changing the self-destructive aspects of popular culture have a greater, and more immediate impact than teaching pre-schoolers to recite their A,B,Cs, which they’ll be learning in Kindergarten anyway?

    (Disclaimer: I serve on the board of directors of kSero Corporation.)

  • Rebellion Lite

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    James A. Bacon

    The April 2, 2007, edition of Bacon’s Rebellion has been published. You can view it online here. Never miss an issue — sign up for a free subscription here.

    The Rebellion has fallen into temporary torpor, as several regular columnists were unable for a variety of personal and professional reasons, to deliver a column this edition. All the more reason, though, to focus on those who could contribute this week!

    Brain Games
    Want Virginia children to excel in school? Spending $300 million a year on universal pre-K may not be the best solution. Try teaching kids to eat right, get enough sleep and stay away from the television.
    by James A. Bacon

    Twilight Zone Politics
    The Reading First program has boosted children’s reading performance in schools across Virginia, but it may fall victim to the surreal politics of No Child Left Behind.
    by Chris Braunlich

    The Party’s Over?
    Some conservatives are looking for a way out of the Grand Old Party.
    by Norman Leahy

    Green is Good
    Virginia needs a comprehensive plan to encourage conservation and renewable energy. Here’s what it should look like.
    by Margi Vanderhye

    Nice & Curious Questions
    Connecting with the Earth: Organic Farms in Virginia
    by Edwin S. Clay III and Patricia Bangs

  • The Emerging Debate over Impact Fees

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    James A. Bacon

    The Washington Post is the first Virginia newspaper to explore the significance of the impact-fee amendments that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine inserted into the transportation bill likely to be approved tomorrow by the General Assembly.

    The measures would allow local governments to raise money not only from developers requesting rezoning for their projects but by-right development where no rezoning is needed. At $20,000 per lot, the measure could provide up to $520 million for a county like Prince William, which has about 26,000 lots available for development.

    The predictable issue is the fairness of financing road improvements on the backs of newcomers. The advantage for local politicians is that people who will buy houses some time in the future, by definition, haven’t bought them yet and, in many cases, may not even live in the locality in question. Non-residents don’t vote. Residents do.

    But the home builders lobby argues, rightly, I think, that impact fees will drive up the cost of new housing. And, because new housing prices set the benchmark for old houses, impact fees will drive up the cost of housing stock generally. Of course, that, too, is likely to be a crowd pleaser among existing voters, most of whom are home owners. Not only will existing residents not pay for the transportation improvements, impact fees on new houses will make their houses more valuable in the bargain.

    What we don’t know yet is the extent to which higher housing prices in fast-growth counties will encourage developers to leap-frog to farther-out jurisdictions that haven’t imposed impact fees. What will the consequences be as citizens wind up driving even further to work and clogging more miles of Interstate and arterials? At this point, that’s anybody’s guess.

    The impact fees strike me as a blunt instrument. They treat all forms of development on the same basis. But some forms of development are more transportation-efficient than others. Mixed use development is preferable to traditional segregated land uses. Grid streets provide more connectivity than cul de sacs. Compact, pedestrian-friendly development along bus and rail lines provide a mass transit option that low-density development does not.

    By varying the impact fees based on the anticipated transportation impact of the new development — charging less for transportation-efficient development and more for scattered, disconnected, low-density development — local governments could stimulate the building of more sustainable human settlement patterns. Combine variable impact fees with Urban Development Areas and the devolution of responsibility for secondary roads to local governments, and we could see major changes in the built landscape. In theory, at least. In actual practice, we have to brace ourselves for the law of unintended consequences as people act in all sorts of perverse and unpredictable ways.

    In any case, Virginia politics is entering a new phase. After four or five years intense debate on the state level over transportation, the discussion will shift to local governments as they begin implement Urban Development Areas and decide whether or not to impose impact fees.

  • Save Money, Conserve Energy, Protect the Environment — Buy a CFL Today

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    James A. Bacon

    I’m so proud of myself. I finally did it: I installed my first two energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs. Talk about a great Return on Investment! The CFLs I purchased at Wal-Mart (note to Ed Risse: This was a neighborhood Wal-Mart, I didn’t have to drive across town to get there!) cost about twice as much as a regular light bulb — about a buck or two more. But the bulb lasts 10 times longer, and it is touted to save $30 over the life-time of the bulb.

    Installing CFLs comes as close to a no-brainer as it’s possible to get. When viewed as a consumer expenditure, anyone who doesn’t buy CFLs is a fool. When you also consider the social benefits — less electricity consumed, reduced need for power plants and intrusive transmission lines, less pollution from coal-fired power plants — then it becomes a moral imperative as well.
    People: Get out there right now and stock up on CFLs!

  • Republican GA Integrity Test

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    James A. Bacon

    Have your Republican member of the General Assembly take this test.

    1. Fill out this form for Hampton Roads.

    Year $millions of taxes and fees Total Miles of Congestion Reduced (from 2007)
    2008
    2009
    2010
    2011
    2012
    2013
    2014
    2015
    2016
    2017
    2018
    2019
    2020
    2021
    2022
    2023
    2024
    2025
    2026
    2027
    2028

    What is the url for this source of information?

    2.The difference between a tax and a user fee to the taxpaying citizen is?
    a. Taxes come from the left pocket and fees come from the right pocket.
    b. Taxes soak the rich and fees just punish folks on fixed incomes.
    c. Taxes are what politicians pledge not to raise and fees are what politicians increase.
    d. Democrats raise Taxes. Some Republicans will raise taxes more than Democrats. Some Republicans will raise taxes, but not as much as Democrats. But, only Cong. Tom Davis calls a user fee – a tax.

    3. The Republican Creed of Virginia principle of limiting government means?
    a. Creating a new level of government at the Regional level without amending the Constitution (because the Voters will reject it again).
    b. Creating an extra level of government where appointed officials are elected to other offices – and saying that is an ‘elected’ government with a straight face. Also, saying ‘no taxation without representation’ without being struck by lightening.
    c. Creating a new level of government so as to not put bonds before the voters – as the Virginia Constitution requires – and hide the legal debt of the Commonwealt, cities or counties legally in a shell game.
    d. Creating a new level of government without checks and balances, no separation of powers, no oversight – except a book balancing audit – as a jobs and cash program for friends of elected politicians.

  • The Abusive Driver Fee — an Abusive Law

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    James A. Bacon

    One key financing provision of the Transportation Abomination will increase fees for “abusive drivers.” Gov. Timothy M. Kaine amended the law to eliminate the worst aspect of the original bill: language that would have applied the hefty new fees ex post facto, penalizing drivers for offenses incurred before the law goes into effect.

    I once supported the abusive driver bill — not for the money it would raise but for the deterrent effect it would have on drivers who, on the best of days, interrupts the smooth flow of traffic with their reckless speeds and lane weaving, and, on bad days, cause wrecks and traffic back-ups for miles. I have no sympathy for these jerks whatsoever.

    Then reality set in. I don’t know the history of how traffic fines were set in the past, but I suspect that they were born of experience, striking a balance between a variety of factors. In their lust for road-building funds, legislators have forgotten what those factors might be. There will be two predictable results from this law:

    First, drivers will have a much greater incentive to contest traffic tickets. Those who can afford lawyers will be more likely to hire them. Traffic courts will get more crowded, and police will spend more time testifying. Next thing you know, there will be an outcry for more judges, more courtrooms and more police. Has anyone calculated what this will cost? The answer is no.

    Second, drivers who can’t afford lawyers will get ground down by the system. I chatted recently with an attorney who has handled a number of traffic-court cases, and he described how, under the current, relatively lenient regime, many poor people can’t afford to pay the fines. Then they get fined for failing to pay the earlier fines. Then they get thrown in jail. The attorney spoke passionately about one client, a poor man who worked hard to provide for his wife and children. The client is now serving time in jail, not contributing to society in any way.

    I don’t know how many people there are like that — maybe dozens. But they certainly will number in the hundreds, if not thousands, when traffic fines treble or quadruple. How much will it cost to put those people in jail? How much will the state lose in wages unearned and taxes not paid? Has anyone calculated what this will cost the state? No. No one will bother to do so until the law goes into effect and the unintended consequences become all too apparent to ignore.

  • Kaine’s Transportation Amendments OK with Howell

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    James A. Bacon

    House Speaker William J. Howell predicted yesterday that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s amendments to the General Assembly’s transportation/land use package would encounter little opposition when the Senate and House reconvene Monday. Republican lawmakers approve of the Governor’s changes for the most part, he told the Fredericksburg Rotary Club yesterday. Chelyen Davis has the story for the Free Lance-Star.

    Also, because Kaine packaged his amendments as a substitute bill, rather than as line-item changes, lawmakers won’t have an opportunity to tinker with it, Howell said. “You can’t go in and really look at each of the different amendments, it’s up or down, basically.”

    So, the likelihood that the Transportation Abomination will become law is now approaching 99 percent. Virginians will pay a hodge-podge of higher taxes, fees and penalties with only the most tangential relationship to how far they drive, when they drive, or the strain they put on Virginia’s transportation system. There is absolutely no incentive for anyone to modify their driving habits in any way — no reason to carpool, ride the bus, telecommute, move closer to work, what have you. The bill does provide additional sums for mass transit, but there’s no methodology for determining if dollars would be spent to greater effect that way than by making other types of improvements.

    On the positive side, the creation of Urban Development Areas and related transportation districts will encourage local governments to think very differently about the relationship between land use and planning. Fast-growth jurisdictions across Virginia may be forced to re-write their comprehensive plans. Meanwhile, the new local option to impose impact fees could shift the transportation debate from the state to the local level. It will take months, maybe years, for the implications of this legislation to work its way through the system.

  • Newt Rocks!

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    James A. Bacon

    There is a scene in the movie “Wayne’s World,” in which Wayne and Garth saunter into a back-stage party held by rocker Alice Cooper and his band. In the presence of their idol, they fall prostrate on the floor, bleating, “We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!”
    That’s how I felt last night attending a fund-raising party hosted by Dottie and John Cox for the benefit of the Virginia Political Action PAC with Newt Gingrich as the star attraction. Gingrich is the monarch of wonks, the overlord of oracles, the paladin of pundits. He propounds a vision of fiscal conservatism, government transformation and creative market solutions to social problems — very much the same philosophy espoused by Bacon’s Rebellion. But he’s been at it longer, and he’s seized a national stage and reached the highest pinnacles of power.

    VPAC gave me three or four minutes with the Great One before he addressed the small crowd. (Tyler Whitley writes a solid account of the event in the Times-Dispatch.) My question: What can Virginians do to reform health care?
    A lot. Gingrich raised three main points.

    First, Virginians can help citizens take responsibility for their own health. Often that’s as simple as making sure they exercise and eat nutritious food. Twelve-year-old children are at risk of diabetes because their diets are so poor and they are so inactive. How do we re-shape the food stamp program, Gringrich asks rhetorically. How do we re-shape urban grocery stores? How do we get five-day-a-week physical education back into the schools?

    Second, Virginians should have the right to know the price and quality of doctors, hospitals, drugs and medical devices. “This stuff should be out in the open. We should create a real market in which you have the information and you get to make the decision.” Consumer-driven health care, Gingrich asserts, could drive 20 percent to 40 percent of the costs out of the health care system.

    Third, create a simple, online health care system that competes with the current system. “I can insure a family of four in Iowa for $3,300. The same family costs $14,300 in New Jersey,” he says. “It takes three times as much to insure a family of four in Maine as it does in New Hampshire.”

    What’s the difference? Politics, and what Gingrich calls “health pork” enacted into legislation at the behest of special interest groups. In Virginia that means mandated health benefits… licensure for medical professionals… and Certificate of Public Need that restricts competition between hospitals and medical facilities — “all sorts of devices designed to protect the entrenched status quo at the expense of the individual citizen.”

    You can see the Gingrich interview here on the VCAP website. And you can find out more about health transformation at the Center for Health Transformation.

    What’s especially encouraging is that there is considerable common ground between Gingrich and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who wants citizens to take more responsibility for their own health care, and to make health care markets more transparent. The political conditions are right to make a big difference in Virginia.

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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