Do high levels of insurance regulations benefit consumers?  This ConsumerGram provides new empirical evidence showing that increased state insurance regulation is strongly correlated with higher consumer insurance premiums.  Our statistical analysis finds that the average household pays about $300 more for property and casualty insurance in heavily regulated states, compared to the least regulated states.  [...]

The debate over elements of the Net Neutrality (NN) policy platform promoted by a handful of advocacy groups is now focused on what techniques, if any, Internet service providers (ISPs) should be permitted to use for the purpose of managing congestion over their private networks.  This ConsumerGram provides a set of facts on which there [...]

This ConsumerGram looks at the costs and benefits of building a comprehensive nationwide electronic medical records system that would decrease deaths, reduce medical errors, improve health services, increase productivity and reduce healthcare costs.  The problem is that there is little incentive for the medical industry to invest in such a system.  This analysis investigates this [...]

Consumer Opinions on Insurance Price Regulation Stephen Pociask*   Executive Summary   Virtually every state regulates insurance service prices, at least to some degree, although the economic rationale for such regulation remains unclear.  For instance, home and automobile premiums are routinely set in ways that systematically overcharge some consumers groups so that others may benefit.  [...]

Consumers Believe Competition Would Lower Insurance Premiums   Washington DC, March 5, 2008 ––The majority of consumers would like to see competition between federally-regulated and state-regulated insurance companies and believe that having more competition would reduce consumer prices, according to consumer opinion research.  The findings, based on a survey of head of households who subscribe [...]

According to an American Consumer Institute study, over the next 10 years, broadband applications will decrease greenhouse gas emissions by one billion tons.  That study attributed this environmental savings to several broadband applications, including telecommuting, distance learning, teleconferencing and e-materialization.  This ConsumerGram takes a second look at one of the more promising and fast growing [...]

Kathleen E. Carey Soccer facility is key to $500 million riverfront plan Imagine walking down a lively street on a warm summer’s evening along the Delaware River. Conversations are engrossing from the customers sitting at outdoor cafe tables and music fills the background. Now, not only imagine but also expect that this will take place [...]

Healthcare prices continue to increase at a rapid pace and at great cost to consumers.  With price competition virtually unheard of in the healthcare industry, there is little incentive for healthcare providers to operate in a more cost-effective manner.  However, recent efforts to rate medical professionals and hospitals could provide some level of competition that [...]

Cable TV rates continue to rise in Tennessee.  However, overwhelming evidence shows that cable TV competition would give consumers lower prices, better service and increased choice.  While many states have enacted cable TV reform legislation in order to achieve these consumer benefits, Tennessee policymakers have yet step up for consumers.         Monopoly 101: [...]

Vicky Thomas Delco Times In an effort to restore stability to a faltering U.S. economy, the Federal Reserve slashed a key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point Tuesday while around Delaware County, some top economic minds expressed their views on the move. The reduction in the federal funds rate from 4.25 down to [...]