Spending per Medicare beneficiary has nearly leveled off over more than a decade.
If Medicare spending had grown the way it had for much of its history, federal spending would have been $3.9 trillion higher since 2011, and deficits would have been more than a quarter larger, according to an Upshot analysis. The difference is more than could be saved by raising the eligibility age for Social Security or converting Medicaid into a block grant, controversial proposals raised by legislators concerned about the federal debt.
Category: John C. Goodman
Tuesday Links
- Labor Day good news: the number of hours worked per year, per worker has fallen by more than one-third over the last century.
- As your hourly wage rises, so does the opportunity cost of leisure.
- NYT on the reason A.I. is an existential threat: it will usher in an new era of neoliberalism.
- Almost 20 scholars offer remedies for revitalizing conservatism. A bird’s eye view suggests they all want us to stand athwart history and yell, “STOP.”
- Enslaved Africans were responsible for introducing the practice of smallpox inoculation throughout the Americas by the 1700s. Interesting, but speculative.
- Even the proponents of colonoscopies and breast cancer screening think they only lower cancer death by 20%. HT: Arnold Kling
Sunday Links
- Approximately 99% of new medical devices utilize the 510(k) pathway for speedy FDA approval, but bureaucratic obstacles my slow AI and other innovations.
- The left in Israel demonizes and destroys a right-of-center think tank. Lessons for the US.
- How states scam the feds for Medicaid dollars: in 2023, New Hampshire received $2,123 in DSH grants per poor resident; Wyoming, only $4.
- 40 studies from around the world: learning loss form the pandemic equals about a half a year of schooling. That is equivalent to about 5.5% less life time income.
- The Chinese started lying about Covid almost as soon as Wuhan hospitals started seeing Covid patients.
Saturday Links
- UK hospital: Asking a patient “What is your name?” is “rude, intrusive and insensitive.”
- CDC: No plans for a return of mask mandates.
- AEI study: More home care will not save nursing home costs under Medicaid. IMO, that’s because they aren’t doing it the right way.
- Inconsistent policies toward new drugs affects the development of all drugs.
- Haley: The Senate is a “privileged nursing home.”