Monday Links

Posted on by John C. Goodman

Chinese military had deep ties to Wuhan lab suspected of COVID-19 outbreak.

The case for more competition in Medicare.

A deep dive into the statistically weak case for veganism.

2022 was a record year for the number of solar energy projects that were rejected by rural communities in the United States.

One good thing that came out of the Vietnam war (and about the only good thing I can think of): our best malaria drug.

Medicare sets price for 10,000 doctor services. What happens when the prices are wrong? Doctors and hospitals have perverse incentives to over provide services with high reimbursement rates and under provide services with low rates.

1 thought on “Monday Links”

  1. “Medicare Modernization—The Urgent Need for Fiscal Solvency”

    Psssst. Researchers! Even an optimally-modernized Medicare will not produce “Fiscal Solvency”. Because it will not stop the high and rising cost of medical care.

    Medicare is an insurance program not a public health or medical-care delivery system. Medicare cannot control the care patients demand, nor does it control the costs that hospitals, physicians, or other professionals must cover to provide that care. While Medicare does control its reimbursements (in theory, anyway) those reimbursements only subsidize – they do not reduce – the underlying cost. That’s not necessarily ja bad thing. But federal subsidies are not gonna result in Fiscal Solvency. They will only result in higher federal expenditures to finance the subsidies.

    Worse, ignoring these facts distracts researchers and policy wonks from looking at the real problem which is the cost of the care in the first place. Years go by. The problem gets worse.

    As long as the cost of medical care continues to rise, so will medical insurance premiums continue to rise. Look at the past 57 years since Medicare was enacted. Or look at just the last 13 years since Obamacare was enacted. Both are huge federal insurance programs. Both are ineffective in controlling the rising cost of medical care. Specifically Medicare continues to see higher and higher medical care expenditures each year. Which means the amounts it passes along to members must continue to grow. That would be higher premiums, and reduced benefits. (What? Reduced benefits? Yeah. Just look at Medicare premiums and deductibles over any period of time to see how much they’ve gone up.)

    I’m not saying that administrative inefficiency should be disregarded. I am saying administrative inefficiency is not the problem that threatens Medicares Fiscal Solvency. One might think after Lo! these past 6 decades, more of the smart guys in research and in Washington would have figured it out. One would be wrong.

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