John C. Goodman: Healthcare Policy Analyst, Pundit

Goodman uses wit and sarcasm in his criticism of the healthcare landscape. It seems he hardly mentions the White House healthcare plans without mentioning the phrase "Obamacare."

"Before the bill was passed, they zeroed out all the money they set aside to train doctors, nurses, and paramedics personnel; so what's going to happen?" Goodman says of Congress' health reform legislation. "There will be huge increase in the demand for medical care, among the 32 million of the newly insured, and millions of those people who have no copayments, no deductibles for preventive care. The biggest problem we are going to have with Obamacare is that we have this huge increase, the demand for medical care, and they've done almost nothing to increase the supply."

The NCPA is self-described as a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization "dedicated to developing and promoting private alternatives to government regulation and control, solving problems by relying on the strength of a competitive, entrepreneurial private sector." Goodman says he is simply in favor of patient-centered, consumer driven healthcare.

When he began the NCPA in 1983, during the Ronald Reagan presidency, there was not enough debate about "social insurance areas, Social Security and healthcare and disability" Goodman says, noting those were among the reasons why he started his organization in the first place.

One of Goodman's favorite activities is engaging debate prompted by his blog, which he describes simply as the "most thoughtful conversation anywhere in health policy; you find we consistently have discussions on health issues from an economic point of view, which others do not. And with a sense of humor that you certainly don't find elsewhere."

In one blog, Goodman noted his view of pilot programs. "This is about the only idea for controlling costs in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and before I heap on all the scorn and opprobrium it so richly deserves, let me say that on rare occasions pilot programs can generate very useful insights," Goodman wrote.