At the time of the Affordable Care Act’s passage, many suspicious conspiracy theory proponents suggested the goal of Obamacare was to fail in order to usher in a single-payer program of Medicare-for-All. The theory goes something like this: with nowhere to turn except the government, Americans would finally throw up their hands and acquiesce to government intervention. Seniors purportedly all love their Medicare, so why not expand the program to cover everyone?
Author: Devon Herrick
PreCrime Interdiction: Can Future Criminals be Identified in Kindergarten?
A new economic analysis claims to identify future societal costs of kids with behavior problems in kindergarten (summary here). The analysis estimated costs to society in terms of crime, excess health needs and lost productivity.
CMS to Boost Nursing Home Staffing Requirements to Impossible Levels
Kaiser Health News reported that the Biden Administration is proposing new staffing standards for nursing homes. The new standards were prompted by assumptions that inadequate staffing led to the death of nearly 200,000 nursing home residents from Covid. I’m not convinced these data points are related but that never stopped government officials from using a natural disaster to boost regulations.
Is Public Disorder a Social Pathology that Causes People to Become Criminals?
Is crime a social pathology that can be mitigated with behavioral modification or changing one’s surroundings? Many social scientists and criminologists believe it is and most people would agree. The area of contention is the degree that crime is perpetuated because of community values versus numerous other variables.