- Active-selection (where seniors are forced to choose between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage) is better than default selection (where seniors are assigned to one or the other when they fail to make a choice).
- Benefits of forced saving over pay-as-you-go Social Security.
- KFF survey: “Six in ten adults (61%) who buy their health coverage on the ACA Marketplace say it is very or somewhat difficult to afford their deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for medical care and half (51%) say it is difficult to afford the cost of health insurance premiums each month.”
- One reason the UK is considering assisted dying: they are rationing hospice care. (Bloomberg)
- Melania: some day a robot like “Plato” will replace ordinary classroom teachers.
- The “Surprise Test Paradox.”
- While opioid overdose deaths are down, cocaine use is up.
Category: John C. Goodman
Thursday Links – 26 March 2026
- Study: A 10 percentage point increase in Medicare Advantage penetration is associated with a 1.5% decrease in total Medicare spending.
- CBO data: “Despite historically unprecedented economic gains for low-income Americans, more of them are dependent on government assistance than at any point in the country’s history.”
- Red states are gaining population. “Conspicuous among the losers are Illinois, California, and New York – a trifecta of big government, big government spending, and high taxes.”
- UnitedHealthcare now gets more than three-quarters of its revenues from Uncle Sam, even though it covers almost twice as many people in its private, commercial plans sunce the onset of Obamacare.
- What if AI could not only diagnose, but also write prescriptions? (Forbes)
- Delta: members of Congress no longer get to skip the TSA waiting lines. (Forbes)
Wednesday Links – 25 March 2026
- Coffee appears to be good for the brain.
- Congress: release the Epstein files, but don’t release any reports on our own misbehavior.
- Jerome Powell: “there’s zero net job creation in the private sector” over roughly the past six months.
- Is Elon going to pay TSA salaries?
- Yglesias: “the number one thing that I wish people understood about K-12 education in the United States is that while the [No-Child-Left-Behind] regime was in place, our schools got better.”
Monday Links – 23 March 2026
Lifetime Social Security and Medicare benefits will exceed $1.3 million (in 2026 dollars) for average-income couples who retired in 2020 at age 65. When adjusted for inflation, this amount is twice what a similar couple received in the late 1970s. That figure is expected to double again to about $2.6 million for a millennial couple now aged 30 to 35. Roughly extrapolating, the total would surpass $4 million by the time my youngest grandchildren turn 65. If they earn above-average incomes, they could receive $5 to $6 million.