
Merrill Matthews, Ph.D., is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation, a research-based, public policy “think tank.” He is a health policy expert and opinion contributor at The Hill. He also serves on the Texas Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Dr. Matthews is a past president of the Health Economics Roundtable for the National Association for Business Economics, the largest trade association of business economists. Dr. Matthews also served for 10 years as the medical ethicist for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s Institutional Review Board for Human Experimentation, co-author of On the Edge: America Faces the Entitlements Cliff, and has contributed chapters to several books, including Physician Assisted Suicide: Expanding the Debate and The 21st Century Health Care Leader and Stop Paying the Crooks (on Medicare fraud).
He has been published in numerous journals and newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, Barron’s, USA Today, Forbes magazine and the Washington Times. He was an award-winning political analyst for the USA Radio Network.
Dr. Matthews received his Ph.D. in Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas.
Texas' Drop in Uninsured May Not Last
"They did achieve a decline in the uninsured, but they did it in the worst possible way," said Merrill Matthews. Matthews said he also thinks merely reporting uninsured rates does not tell the whole story as many who gained insurance have been unable to use it because of high deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs they cannot afford.
Note to Fed: Low Inflation Is a Feature, Not a Bug
The Federal Reserve Bank is trying hard to push inflation up to 2 percent; let's hope it fails.
At MD Anderson You Can Have Cancer Care or Obamacare, But Not Both
People know Obamacare is driving up premiums, but it is also reducing access to care; just look at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Trump Learned From His Health Care Fight and Offered A Winning Tax Plan
Trump is right that tax reform is essential to U.S. economic growth, job creation and global competitiveness. Now it’s time for Congress to do its job.
Environmentalists Can Be Their Own Worst Enemies
Americans want a clean and healthy environment. But until some of the most outspoken environmentalists abandon the inconsistencies and hypocrisies, the public is likely to continue tuning them out.
President Trump Was Right About China and the Paris Agreement
Trump isn't bringing coal back, China is, thanks to the Paris climate agreement.
We Might End Up With Single-Payer Healthcare Whether We Like It Or Not
It’s not clear Democrats really want a short-term fix because they increasingly see the collapse of ObamaCare, and the uncertainty swirling around it, as an opportunity, not a failure.
The Deadly Descent of Obamacare
As the downward spiral quickens, the White House announces it will continue to pay the subsidies and keep Obamacare from crashing until later. Weighing the likely outcome, Merrill Matthews disagrees: “If you’re going to lose anyway, probably best to lose on the side of good policy — and the Constitution — and reject the [subsidy payments].”
Draining the Foreign Aid Swamp
President Trump and Secretary Tillerson are scaling back the money we hand out to other countries, and the countries and other hangers-on don't like it one bit.
To Bail or Not to Bail (Obamacare)?
President Trump faces yet another health care dilemma created by President Obama and the Democrats.