The core idea with HSAs was that high-deductible plans were supposed to be much cheaper than first-dollar health coverage. Consumers could select a high-deductible plan and use the savings to fund an HSA. That way, when patients skipped unnecessary medical services; when they looked for a better deal on a diagnostic test; when they asked about a generic drug rather than fill a brand-name drug, much of the money they saved would be theirs.
Category: Policy & Legislation
Thursday Links – 16 April 2026
- Where are Americans most likely to have babies? Red states.
- Noncitizens received $62 billion in federal housing and rent assistance over the last 30 years.
- States are using TANF as a slush fund. (WSJ)
- Nearly three-quarters of public school students are now eligible for taxpayer-funded meals.
- Cato overview of welfare waste.
Wednesday Links – 15 April 2026
- Nearly all abortion pills (mifepristone) have been dispensed by mail-order pharmacies in states where abortion is legal and can be prescribed via telehealth.
- Why Orban needed to lose:
The Heritage Foundation ranked Hungary’s economy as only the 79th freest in the world, 39th out of 44 countries in the Europe region. Inflation in Hungary since late 2019 has been twice the U.S. level, and last year its real economic growth rate of a paltry 0.3% lagged behind all of its neighbors.
Saturday Links – 11 April 2026
- The Democrat’s IRA bill is causing higher premiums for drug insurance and higher prices for drugs.
- New Yorkers can’t have robot cars because they threaten the jobs of taxi drivers.
- “The vast majority of academics ‘covering’ American health policy, and in charge of describing healthcare, are ideologues whose main goal is not to describe reality, but to fashion a story.”
- “Since the Gini coefficient of South Africa is about the same as the Gini coefficient of the world, South Africans are typically thinking about problems that are pretty close to the problems of the world as a whole.”