Health care has become politicized, with one side believing in wildly different things than the other. Health secretary RFK Jr. is a vaccine skeptic, for example. He is reportedly testing President Trump’s patience with his antiestablishment agenda. On the far left of the voter distribution, many people passionately believe medical care should be free at the point of service, paid for with progressive taxation. Purportedly, when having to reach for one’s wallet after receiving medical care is bad for your health.
Category: Consumer-Driven Health Care
Monday Links
- In FY 2023, almost two-thirds of SNAP households were childless, and 60% were single-person households.
- The share of the population that is not employed (the nonemployment rate) has increased from roughly 35 percent to 40 percent since 2000.
- Heckman on Chetty: The neighborhood where a child grows up matters much less than what his parents do. (WSJ)
- Alex Tabarrok weighs in.
- Employers prepare for the highest health benefit cost increase in 15 years.
The U.S. Health Care System Dysfunction is Contagious
I have a theory that health care system dysfunction bleeds over and corrupts other areas of medicine even where insurance is far less common.
Saturday Links
- Evidence for and against the “just give people cash” version of the welfare state. (Item 1)
- Between 1970 and 2020, the number of U.S. physicians doubled, the number of non-clinical healthcare workers –bureaucrats or administrators of all types – increased by more than 4,400 percent! That’s 44 non-care givers for every one care giver.
- In 2005, the average cost of care for the MMI’s household was $12,214. Twenty years later, it had reached $35,119 —a 188 percent increase.
- Traditional Medicare is about to try out aggressive preauthorization.
- The case for drinking alcohol.
- High tariff countries are generally very poor.